Cajun Country

On Thursday we left Houston and drove to New Iberia/Louisiana, where our friends Dave & Chris are living. It took us about 5,5 hours for 240 mi/380 km on I-10: horrible traffic, mostly heavy trucks on the road, and, in addition, a truck accident had happened at the TX-LA border. Arrived at 5 pm and got re-introduced to the Cajun Country's hospitality with a home-made gumbo at D&C's house.

Friday morning we drove around town to check out what's new. Though Main Street looks good with the newly designed Church Alley and a couple of historic buildings, it seems like in total economy isn't doing too well anymore, lots of businesses are gone, buildings standing empty. The oil industry (mostly off-shore) is/was important, but not doing as well anymore as before and the region is suffering.

The little Bayou Teche Museum on Main Street (pic) is always worth a stop: It's an instructive exhibition about the history of the town, about sugar cane farming, about the first immigrants from Malaga/Spain, about the Acadians/Cajuns (the French who went to Nova Scotia/Canada and were forced to move south later for religious reasons), the local food and traditions, music, about local celebrities like the famous artist George Rodrigue with his Blue Dogs‎, which became famous through Absolut Wodka ads, and famous mystery writer James L. Burke (if you haven't read his books yet, you should!).

Then we got our rice provision for the next months: Pecan Wild Rice at The Conrad Rice Mill. This is the oldest rice mill in America, founded in 1912. "Konriko", how it is called today, still is family owned and gives tours through the mill with its old machinery. Though, sugarcane is the #1 crop, rice and some cotton are coming next.

On to TABASCO, the pepper sauce plant on Avery by Island, owned by the McIlhenny Company, founded by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868. Here he developed the recipe for the Original Red Pepper Sauce and, to this day, the company is still family-owned and -operated on that very same island, though nowadays most peppers are grown in other places/countries and not on the island anymore. Besides the museum they have a huge company store where visitors can try the currently eight varieties of sauces, but also a variety of other products that they are offering.

The Jungle Gardens are a huge semitropical garden on McIlhenny's private land and stretch along Bayou Petite Anse on Avery Island. First azaleas (pic) were in bloom, camelias about to start blooming, and, there are impressive old live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down deep. Also, people come to see the alligators, which are, as well as turtles, living in the marshy, swampy region in abundance (though we only saw a couple of small ones today, like on the pic), and, there are thousands of snowy egrets that nest (in the background). The sun was out, it was pleasantly warm, and the day couldn't have been any better.

In the evening we had a great seafood dinner in nearby St. Martinville, together with Chris & Dave's friends Donald and Catherine. Donald is a sugarcane farmer and started with crawfish farming recently, Catherine is a retired school teacher and principal. We had crab and shrimp and catfish in different combinations, going well with a local beer, and enjoyed good conversation about crawfish and Mardi Gras (Donald is member of a Krewe and rides on one of the big floats), sugarcane and Cajun French (the dialect in the region, sort of an old French mixed with American English), food and travels. Always fun!

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

Everything is humongous at the Houston Rodeo, which started on the weekend with the 2-hour-parade and the BBQ Cook-off. We returned from the Bay Area on Tuesday in the late morning, which was the first day (of 20! in total) of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Spent all afternoon on the fairgrounds (overview on the pic) and it took us time to get oriented, long distances inbetween arenas and stages and other places, and, packed with people. In the evening we had tickets for the rodeo and the Garth Brooks concert in the NCR Stadium (pics further below) and had great seats behind the rodeo chutes.

I have talked about the huge carnival with rides and other entertainment on the fairgrounds before, now it was even bigger (pic), and, there were additional kid's events and competitions like mutton bustin' (riding on a sheep) - lots of fun for the adventurous boys and girls age 5-6!

Besides the huge football/concert stadium there are two other big venues: the NRG Horseshow Arena, mainly for horse events like cutting, and the NRG Center for livestock, mainly cattle, and in both arenas and in between vendors/exhibitors and foodstands and educational exhibitions. Huge!!!

Different from what we had expected, it was much more about livestock and entertainment and education than about horses and rodeo. There are concerts of famous bands - like Garth Brooks, Brett Paisley, Blake Shelton or One Republic - every evening on a fancy new movable, spaceship-like stage, used for the first time this year.



Before each concert starts in the huge NRG Stadium, with a capacity of about 75,000 seats - usually used for NFL Football (Houston Texans) -, there is first a "Great Entry" (pic on top, left) of celebrities, selected groups, committee members on horseback and in carriages, followed by 1,5 hours of rodeo competitions in all disciplines in different rounds: tie-down roping, bareback and saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, bullriding, barrel racing, team roping.


We watched quite a bit of the cutting events in the smaller horse show arena (pics below), mostly amateur and non-pro, but with rather high prize money on both days,and, we checked out hatmakers, leatherwork and other merchandise around the arena.





The "cattle hall" was huge, cows lined up corresponding to their breeds (Brahmans and a Texas Longhorn on the photos below), and visitors were able to walk around to check them out. On a rink in the center of the arena the animals were shown by their owners, the breeders, or rather by their kids usually, and judged and prizes were awarded. That's going on for days in different categories and for different breeds of cattle, and, lateron, sheep and pigs, too. Animals are really pampered and are going to the "beauty shop" before they are presented. The sheep on the pic gets a hair-dry before being presented to the judges.


There are educational speeches, presentations and exhibitions about wildlife, nature preservation, food production, etc. in the same hall, and besides knick-knack, home accessoires, clothing, horse tack, artwork, saddles, boots, jewelry, etc., there are tractors and cars - like the F 150 (Ford pickup truck) in all its variations (Peter's future car,,,) - and mattresses (how well fitting for hard-working cowboys!)

Wednesday was military appreciation day, and therefore soldiers got a day off and were especially honored on the outdoors stage, where the U.S. Marine Corps Band New Orleans was performing (pic). Also, the official oath of the new recruits (a couple of hundred young people!) took place and veterans from all over Texas were present. Also, committee members were honored and made speeches. Amazing fact in Houston is, that in total 33,000 volunteers are involved in the organisation of the event. They take days off from their regular jobs (unpaid!) and work there for free.

Beaches, historic buildings and New Orleans flair: Galveston

Below just a few impressions of Galveston, a harbor town at the Gulf of Mexico, completely different from the other towns we have visited in the Bay Area.


Since the 18th century - under Spanish government - Galveston was an important port and trading hub. In 1900, as well as in 2008, the city was badly hurt by hurricanes, but always rebuilt. Today it's a favorite spring break destination with long beaches, (souvenir) shops and restaurants along "The Strand" (the main street with its historic buildings, pic above), the Seawall Boulevard (along the oceanfront) with shrimpers rowed up and a huge cruiseship harbor on one end. It sure has some sort of "New Orleans flair" and, also, Galveston's Mardi Gras Parade is famous.


Besides historic home like the Moody Mansion (pic above) and the great Western Art Bryan Museum (above), the Moody Gardens - consisting of three pyramids containing a rainforest, an aquarium and special exhibitions - is the city's main attraction.



And, tomorrow, Rodeo time will start,,,

Houston's Bay Area

On Sunday - after having picked up our rental car at AVIS Downtown, a Nissan Altima - we left Houston, unfortunately in the rain, towards the Houston Bay Area, which is situated half way from Houston to Galveston, at the Galveston Bay.It only took us about an hour to get to Kemah, where we were hosted for two nights in the beautiful Kemah Boardwalk Inn (pics below). We had a balcony at our suite and a great view toward the bay and the entertainment park with rides, ferris wheel and aquarium.

In the afternoon we explored the Houston Bay with Shawna, an excellent tourism ambassador, and got to know all about Kemah, League City, Nassau Bay and Seabrook, the main towns around the bay. Though, oil refineries and the Port of Houston are dominant, there is a lot to see, much more than expected. The above mentioned cities are almost grown together, but there is lots of marshlands, especially around Clear Lake, parks, trails, nature preserves and fancy homes along the waterfront. Also, there are a couple of really good craft breweries, which we got a chance to experience, too, e.g. Texas Beer Refinery (pic) and Galveston Bay Brewing Company. Also, there is excellent seafood in abundance and seafood markets with shrimps and catfish like shown on pics let your mouth water!

League City is the oldest settlement thanks to ranching and Texas Longhorns, and it was the starting point of many cattle drives. It is famous for its old live oaks, reminding of plantations in Louisiana. Seabrook is famous for its pelican art project (pic) called "Pelican Love", and, in Nassau Bay the main attraction is NASA Space Center (which we skipped, because we have visited it a couple of years ago). Kemah Boardwalk can be considered the "Coney Island" of Houston and is mostly about entertainment, dining, little shops and bars.

The Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Airport (pics below) was formerly in Galveston and re-opened newly recently, much more attractive now. It primarily shows a gigantic collection of historic military planes in a huge building. There are some civilian planes, too, as the revolutionary DC 3, one of the first passenger planes.

More coming up on Galveston, stay tuned, right now long days at the Houston Rodeo ,,,