Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Kemah Board Walk




My friend Carrie and I went down to the Kemah Board Walk this past Friday for some oysters. Kemah has come along way from the way it was 3 years ago to how it is now. In a way it is an Astroworld plus some. Visitors have all the great restraunts, everything from seafood, mexican, steak, to the cup of coffee to let the food settle. Of course there are the great happy hour specials.

By a recommendation by my parents, we went to the Flying Dutchman. My parents said they had great oysters at low prices. I dont do oysters very often but they do. We got there around 6p and the crowd was still very light. Traffic getting there was another story, ha!

We ended up getting:
- 2 dozen oysters
- bucket of onion rings and crab balls
- 2 loafs of bread (complementry)
- Tea and Dr Pepper
Grand total was $26 + tip

The oysters were huge though, not sure if you can tell from the photos, but they covered the entire cracker.

So after we stuffed ourselves we walked around. Carrie had to be patient while I took photos of almost everything. I think I uploaded 47 photos.

There is an area in front of the Aquarium and in front of the shops. There is a circular fountain in the brick floor. The kids love playing in this! I dared Carrie to walk across the middle and see if she could avoid being sprayed by one of the fountains when they started going off. She made it through un-wettened :( haha! I did it as well, and all was good.

So we walked around to the different shops and browsed away. Saw some neato gizmos and gadgets. One place that we spent a bit more time was, the Thomas Kinkaid gallery. Really like his art. Carrie had never seen this place so introduced her. There are a few photos in my gallery of his paintings. For those of you who dont know, T. Kinkaid painted art that glows in low light. Gives an effect of realism, such as the sun going down, or lights turning on. Some very cool stuff.

We also went into the Aquarium and looked at the fishies. Plenty of pics from in here. There are sharks, eels, and plenty of other swimmers whom I have no clue what they are, lol! Those eels are freaky little suckers!

We also took a lot at the games and rides area. You will see some photos of the new roller coaster they put in recently. The Board Walk Bullet! Its supposed to be really good from what I hear.

Another cool feature of Kemah is the little canal. When you eat at the restruants you can see the boats that go through the canal from the docks to the bay. All different types of floaters, sea doos, sail boats, and party boats. I have a photo of a party boat that passed through. I think they were having their prom.

I think they only do this on Friday nights, the live band. Its a lot of fun! You can go and just sit and listen. or get you booty on the dance floor and shake your rump :-p They played a lot of really good music, most of which I knew and was singing and dancing to :)

Well that is the quick run down of my experience in Kemah. Was a lot of fun to be there! The drive is a pain, but I live near the Galleria, so its a distance.

You can see all photos at my gallery web site.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Jaycees Meeting 5/7/2008















Tonight was a great meeting, held at American First National Bank Tower (9999 Bellaire Blvd. 12th floor Houston, TX 77032).

Tonights guest speaker was Rafael Diaz who was a previous President of the Venezuela Jaycees and a member of JCI (also Jaycees). He did a great job of describing the purpose of JCI (http://www.jci.cc/) and what it can do for you. JCI has also come out with their own networking web site JCI eWorld (http://www.jcieworld.cc/) which is great for members to connect on both a business and friendship level with other Jaycees from around the world.

A lot of people dont realize that the Jaycees are an internationally based organization in several countries. Our specific chapter is all the Houston Asian Jaycees (http://www.hajcc.org/).
Every meeting we like to have some kind of game, something which teaches a skill. Tonight we did an impromptu where we had to make others guess the month we were borm with clues. The catch was we could not say a month name, only give hints. For example, I was born in Feb, so I said Valentines. The basis of the game is to think on your feet and become better at impromptu. Was fun! :)

We have some great events and projects coming up in the coming months. Just to name a few: Our bowling mixer at Jillians in the Marque Center off I-10, Convention Corpus Christi in 2 weeks, Senior Appreciation Day, Leadership Seminar with Dr Nguyen, Food for Seniors, Iron Chef Competition, FOYT (4 Young Outstanding Texans) Convention, and more.

We are continuing to collect the aluminum coke tabs which we donate to the Ronald McDonald House (View Details)

We are also collecting parishable items for our troops. Sandy Green, prior Jaycee, soon to re-unite with our chapter, has a cousin over seas. He wrote her a letter which she read at the last meeting mentioning how difficult it is to get the basic items we can easily go down to the corner store and get anytime we want. So we, the Houston Asian Jaycees, on a monthly basis, will collect items for her cousin and he will distribute them to his pack. This is a great way to show how much we appreciate everything our troops are doing for us :)

We have meetings every 1st Wed of every month. Next meeting will be June 4th. For meeting details or any information about any of our events, please go to http://www.hajcc.org/. Or you can give me a buzz, I am the Director of Membership.

In summary, tonight was a great night. We had some new members join, had a great guest speaker, a fun ice breaking game, tasty snacks, and some great plans for the future.

Will post another blog for Jaycees while at Convention in Corpus Christi in 2 weeks. I myself will be competing in both impromptu and Jaycee Idol (same thing as american idol). Should be great fun! Almost all board members for our chapter will be attending, so should be a great turnout.
Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Herman Park, Asian Heritage Festival

went to APAHA's 'asain heritage festival'. Yesterday, saturday.

was a lot of fun and some good entertainment. The 'grass skirts' were performing island music, had a good beat.

Also saw ladies in their traditional attire, looked really cool.

I bought a cool necklace that means 'dragon' in chinese.

There was a mix of all types of asian food, good variety. We had some tapioca.. Was tasty.

Unfortunately couldn't stay for the shows performed at the miller outdoor theater.

Event was fun, intimate, pretty packed crowd.. Looking forward to next year.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Concert in the Plaza, Sugarland Town Square







Went out to Sugarland this evening, Town Square (The Plaza) to listen to some live music and enjoy the weather. Was a bit humid, but felt good.

The Plaza has a ton of events throughout the Summer. This evening is...

Concert in the Plaza
"Join us for a mix of jazz, Caribbean, R&B, Rock and Latin music as the Gary-Michael Dahl Band performs for us in the Plaza."

The band playing was really good! There is a photo of them on the left performing on the steps. They played a really great mix of everything listed above.

You can see from the photos, there is typically a good crowd that shows up. Lots of people bring snacks, drinks, and chairs. Families bring balls for the kids to play with. Saw a few footballs being thrown. Just a really relaxing place to be to unwind after a long work week.

The Plaza has a really nice looking fountain of horses, tried to get a photo of it, was getting dark though.

Here are the details for the event tonight:

Latin Music Festival
May 3 2008 6:00PM - May 3 2008 10:00PM
"Celebrate Cinco de Mayo a couple days early in Sugar Land Town Square. There will be live music by the bands Latin Fire, Eido & his Cuban Sound, Mariachi Tapatio and Grupo Kache. Bring the entire family out for some Latin fun!"

Here is their web site if you want to look at their other events for the year.
Sugarland Town Square