Texas! Days 1 and 2

Mac and I flew into Houston very late on Friday night, February 24th. Officially, it was very early on the 25th. With a delay in Newark, we didn't get back to his parents' place until about 3am! But we had things to do on Saturday!

The first event was the Rodeo Parade. Now, it's hard to explain just how much the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo takes over the city during the three weeks that it's happening. It's (by far) the biggest show in town, and the parade is no exception. There are the usual local floats, like the Girl Scouts, and there are marching bands and riding clubs.

But then there are the trail riding clubs that come from across the state. And do they put their horses in trailers to get them to Houston? No. They RIDE them to Houston, some from more than 200 miles away! And most of them have a chuck wagon that rides with them and rides in the parade. There were so many horses in this parade!

And what would a parade be in the land of Tex-Mex without a Goya float?

Another wagon in the parade. I liked this one because it's from the McBeth Riding Club.

And of course, at the end of a parade full of horses, you have to have an army of street sweepers!

Once we got home from the parade, we got to relax a little bit and figure out our plan for the rest of the day. Here's Mac and I at his parent's house, in our rodeo hats, with Mac's Grandma:

Before the trip, I had made a list of things I wanted to see and do while we were in Houston. Mac had already done most of it, so much of it was revisiting things for him, but it was all new to me! Our first stop was a the Beer Can House on our way to the World Championship BBQ Cook-Off.

Now, the Beer Can House is just what you might think: Some crazy guy who drank a lot of beer with his neighbors on his front porch decided that, with the help of some tin snips and a lot of time on his hands, he could cover the entire house in beer cans.

It has now become a Houston landmark. And it's not just beer cans. The guy had millions of marbles, too and he embedded them in the concrete. And apparently he enjoyed the occasional bottled beer, because those are used, too. It's really quite impressive to see.

And his wife let him do it!

Here's the front of the house now:

After taking in the glory of all those beer cans, Mac and I headed to the World Championship BBQ Contest to enjoy some beer (and food) of our own. Here's our shadows with our rodeo hats on the side of one of the tents:

The BBQ Contest is HUGE. I don't know how many teams competed, but it took up the space of what used to be parking for the Astrodome. That's a lot of BBQ.

You can also get your boots shined:

Here's one of the temporary "tents". Probably one of the biggest ones there.

And here's a team showing off their BBQ talents by smoking an entire pig. I swear they were moving it onto a gurney:

And the air is completely filled with BBQ smoke. We weren't 100% sure which stop we got off at on the train, but when the doors opened and we spelled BBQ we knew we were in the right place. My clothes, hair, everything smelled like BBQ by the time we got home.

So how it works is that each BBQ team erects a temporary structure that includes a BBQ pit, a bar, a buffet, a dance floor, a stage for the live music and a few tables and chairs if you're lucky. Each team gets sponsors, and in return those sponsors get invites to their tent. Thankfully, one of Mac's friend's boyfriend's company was sponsoring a tent, so we got invites to get into the Tejas Barbacoa tent. Here is their pitmaster showing off their enormous brisket:

They also had smoked oysters and BBQ quail. While we were getting the backstage tour of the pit area, someone said that we were looking at over $4,000 worth of meat!

It was quite impressive. And even though I didn't eat any of the BBQ (thankfully they had beans, wonderful potato salad and even a green salad to go along with it), I have to say I was impressed with the whole craft of BBQ. These guys were seriously dedicated to making this the best damn BBQ ever.

With full bellies, we headed out of the BBQ area and wandered around the carnival a little bit, even waiting in line to get some beignets (I can't believe we ate more food!). It was a great evening.

The next morning we met up with Mac's brother Sam and his girlfriend and Mac's sister Valerie for brunch at an old pharmacy/soda shop that's now a junk store/restaurant still called Yale Pharmacy. It was a fun meal and sadly, I didn't get any photos of Mac's brother. But after brunch Mac, Val and I stayed in the neighborhood and did some shopping on the old main drag, 19th Street. There were tons of vintage clothing stores, antique shops, junk shops, etc... Sadly, I didn't find any second-hand cowboy boots in my size, but Mac found an aviator's cap! It was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Here's a fun shot of Mac and Val at a local coffeeshop:

And a nice shot of Mac's big blue eyes!

After a fun afternoon, we drove around a little and Mac showed me his high school and some other locales from his time growing up here. Then we picked up take-out Chinese for everyone and headed back to his parent's place to watch the Oscars and eat dinner.