Thursday, August 19, 2010

First impressions of Houston

After 45 hours in Houston, here are some initial impressions of the city:
  1. It's massive. Yet another victim of urban sprawl, similar to Phoenix...
  2. Traffic is pretty bad. Traffic during peak periods in the Galleria area is awful, especially on the arterial roads adjacent to I-610. At 5:15pm on a weekday, it took me 30 minutes to drive .8 miles. Frustrating!
  3. There isn't much to see, in terms of tourist attractions. I asked a few people, including two Houston natives, and they couldn't really think of any major tourist attractions.
  4. As you may have heard, summers in Houston are hot and HUMID. The weather reminds me of the tropical climate found in Southeast Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.).
  5. Houston seems like a solid food city. In terms of Chinese/Asian food, it's paradise. Driving along Bellaire Blvd, I would put the city right up there with LA, New York, and San Francisco.
#4 and #5 might explain the huge population of Asians in the area.

On to Austin!

2 comments:

Yankee1969 said...

When I visited Houston, I hit NASA, the Battleship Texas, and San Jacinto memorial. This less than a month after 9/11, so Mission Control was still closed, but the rest of the tour was pretty cool. I loved the battleship. It was a reunion day for former crew and a lot of normally restricted areas were open for tours.

Andy said...

Ah! I would have enjoyed all three of those...too bad I had a relatively packed schedule. I'll definitely visit those next time I'm in the city.