Black gold, Texas tea, and the space race
Houston is the largest city in Texas, fourth in the USA and the centre of the American oil industry, and arguably that of the world. Named after Sam Houston who won independence for the Republic of Texas from Mexico, Houston is perhaps most famous for being the seat of Nasa’s mission control, but is also known for Texas-sized steaks, freeways, hospitality and waistlines.
My first time in Houston was when we were moved there to live for a short period during the Gulf crisis in late 1990, having been evacuated from Dubai. I attended third grade at Holy Spirit Episcopal School. Houston to me at the time was not my home, mostly because I found the school system very different and difficult, and l missed my friends in the Middle East. More recently however I have been back several times as an adult, owing to the nature of my employment, and have always enjoyed it.
Downtown Houston, which like all American skylines is full of large glass buildings. Until the 2000s, downtown Houston wasn’t the place to go to party, it was pretty dead. There’s been a lot of development lately though and it is catching up to other districts of the city – as we experienced first hand.
Houston is a shopper’s paradise, especially for me in 2006 when the exchange rate was so favourable for British tourists! This is the Galleria, complete with over 300 shops and ice rink, there’s also Memorial City and Katy Mills malls to explore and haemorrhage cash.
On the approach to NASA’s Lyndon B Johnson Space Center, a flavour of what’s to come is provided by a couple of T-38 trainer jets.
Our 1990 visit to Johnson Space Centre, where various rocket modules were built and of course where Mission Control is based. This is one of only three Saturn V rockets left in the world, just like the one which sent Neil Armstrong and his team to the moon. When I came back to see the rockets in 2006 I was sent away in disappointment: not only do you have to pay 20 bucks to see them now, they have built a huge shed over the Saturn V to stop folk like me seeing it from the road for free!
My sister and I pose by one of the five F1 engines which launched the Saturn 5. As you can see it’s quite a size. The next time I’d see one of these was ten years later in Florida.
This is more like Texas; refineries and freeways. There is so much petrochemical activity going on in the Houston area that in the early 2000s its air quality was found to be worse than the city of smog, Los Angeles.
The San Jacinto monument marks the spot where Sam Houston’s army defeated the Mexicans and won the independence of Texas in 1836. The monument was built around a hundred years later, and deliberately to be taller than the Washington monument.
Closer view of the San Jacinto monument, not very easy to photograph owing to its shape. There’s an elevator to the top, and the crowing star weighs 220 tons. At around 173 metres in height, it is the world’s tallest column, with North Korea’s Juche Monument in second place.
The USS Texas battleship, built before the first world war and used in both. The ship is now a monument and sits near to the San Jacinto monument.
On deck on the USS Texas, this was another nostalgic trip for me in 2006 having visited for the first time in 1990. As far as I could see, nothing had changed.
The USS Texas would not receive high honours for acting on this sighting.
Another shot of the San Jacinto monument, and a statue of who I presumed is Sam Houston on the right, but is apparently a generic soldier of the Republic of Texas.
My home for three months on South Ripple Creek Drive in West Houston, 1990. I never really got settled and was very pleased when we got moved back to Dubai. The enormous Second Baptist Church is across the road.
Holy Spirit Episcopal School I’m expect would have turned into a fine enough elementary school experience for me, perhaps I just wasn’t there for long enough. However the phrase “child enrichment center” does give me the shivers.
More familiar old territory, the Hyatt Regency Houston West hotel was where we stayed for our first week in 1990, and where I also stayed for a few weeks in 2006 and 2014. I always liked the mirrored glass exterior, and the koi ponds throughout the lobby area.
The Black Gold Bar is where you’ll find the great and the good of the global oil industry – I was even in here at the age of eight on my first visit, and was astounded that you could eat peanuts and just throw the shells on the floor.
A very Texas view inside the Black Gold Bar, shuffle board, beer and the Lone Star banner.
View from my room in 2006, at which point it was called the Omni Hotel. Interstate 10, locally known as Katy Freeway was being upgraded from many lanes to many more lanes: there are now at least 14 lanes of traffic in which to wait, in this famously choked conduit through the Energy Corridor.
Downtown Houston at night, with offices strategically lit to get a nice crescent moon effect from a distance…good night!
Created 2001 | Updated 2006, 2023
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