Houston - Debriefed

I thought I would recap a few highlights of the weekend.  On Friday, Matt got us tickets to see the Rockets play.  I am not a huge sports fan and I don't follow the NBA.  The only player I recognized was Yao Ming and that was because I watched the Olympics. 

The Toyota Center was a really nice venue, our seats were great and the game was quite good.  On the downside, dinner that night consisted only of two pretzels and beer (Well Miller Lite...can you call that beer?).  We didn't plan that out very well.

Saturday we slummed around the city.  The highlight there was our trip to Spec's, the liquor store.  I have been to some large liquor stores in my time, but this was by far the largest.  Besides some food items, they had aisles and aisles of beer, wine, glassware, beer, wine...you get the picture.

I picked up a brown ale from the Real Ale Brewing Company and some Chang, which is brewed in Thailand.  Seeing Zoë brought me back a Chang T-shirt from Thailand, I felt it only appropriate to familiarize myself with their brew!

Saturday night, after a slight taxi mix-up (I am certain Matthew is well on his way to being blacklisted), we made our way to Ruth's Chris for dinner.  Dinner was an early Christmas gift from Dad, so thanks Dad!  At first I thought I would hit the cowboy ribeye, but I ended up with the bison ribeye.  I am glad I did, because I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Matthew of course was a little put out by my picture taking.  I even toned it down by using my iPhone and he was still embarrassed.  He kept saying he was glad we had a booth and that he hoped people thought we were brothers and not a couple.  You should note that in the picture below, he's not getting ready to eat with that fork, he is getting ready to stick it in my shutter clicking hand.

After dinner, we stumbled walked to the Richmond Arms Pub which was only a short distance away.  At first I thought their wall of 80 beer taps was a joke...until the barmaid started actually pouring beer out of them.  Impressive.  I had Fuller's Porter, which I don't remember having before.  I really liked it.  Although my memory is a little hazy, I am certain I remember a pronounced vanilla taste.  Either that, or I have Vanilla Porter on the brain from here and Jen's most excellent homebrew write-up.

Sunday, we visited Howard Hughes' grave site, which is right next door to Matthew's apartment complex.  Matthew keeps quiet neighbors it seems. 

For lunch, we hit up on Dustin's suggestion, and ate at Goode Company.  Fabulous.  They have several places around Houston.  Our location was what appeared to be an old barn.  The inside was tiny, and looked as if though it had not changed in 40 years.  You order your food cafeteria style and watch the staff slice your meat, right on the spot.  I had brisket, pork, baked beans (with apple), potato salad and their jalapeno cheese bread.  Heaven.  Once you get your food, you head outside and sit at picnic tables.  It was a great meal.  I sat us far away from everyone else, because I tried to save Matthew some photo taking embarrassment.  I think it worked...or maybe not.

We parted ways in the evening after wasting several hours playing the new Call of Duty game.  I suck, as Matthew continued to point out.   It was a quick, fun weekend and Matthew was a great host.  It just seems like yesterday he was 12 and I was making fun of him for wearing Anne's pink snow boots.  Boy, has time sped by.

Matthew's doing great.  I am proud of him.  I look forward to heading back there again soon.