John & Crystal's visit

My brother, John, and his girlfriend, Crystal, came to visit Houston - from Gainesville, FL - on last Tuesday. Overall, it was a fun week and maybe the busiest week we have had in Houston since we arrived 4 months ago. It was so activity-filled that Brooke and I didn't even get a chance to chronicle it while it was going on. Starting from Tuesday of last week, I'll try to give you the highlights.

Tuesday, they made it to our apartment at 6:45CST, just in time, to watch game 4 of the Magic-Cavs series. I ordered pizza and the Magic Won, who can beat that!

Wednesday, John, Crystal, and I got cheap Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch and managed to survive 60 mph wind gusts to play a round of Frisbee golf at Macgregor Park - near the University of Houston campus. Speaking of these Vietnamese sandwiches, called (see picture), allow me to go on a little tangent here because these morsels are everywhere in Houston. For perspective, Brooke and I technically live in Houston's old China town, but the reality is that most of Houston's Chinese residents, and new immigrants from Asia, have abandoned Old China Town and moved to Northwest Houston. Although there still are a couple of Chinese restaurants and shops around our neighborhood, you probably are just as likely to encounter a small Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall diner. Before coming to Houston, I only had eaten at one Vietnamese restaurant, in Orlando, and I still have no recollection of what I ate. In Houston, however, we have been inundated by the Vietnamese sandwich containing meat (generally grilled pork), fresh veggies, spicy butter, all on a French baguette. These ubiquitous sandwiches are called "Bánh mì" (pronounced "bun me") in Vietnamese and the best thing is that they are cheap...usually $2.50 -$3.50. Vietnamese food was apparently influenced greatly by the French colonization of the country for about 100 years until 1955, hence the fusion of cuisine. The Vietnamese sandwich, yet, another reason that I love living in a large, multi-cultural city.

Anyway back to the week. Thursday, the three of us, again, went Frisbee golfing, this time at Sabine Park which has great panoramic vistas of the Houston Skyline (see picture). Both Crystal and I lost Frisbees in the Buffalo Bayou which runs along the entire length of Sabine Park. That is what you get for being overly aggressive on a water hole when you should just lay it up instead. Oh well, my disc was kind of warped anyway, so no real loss there. Later that night, after picking up ingredients at the Indian market, John put together a great Indian meal for Brooke, Crystal, and I, which we ate as we watched Game 5 of Magic-Cavs. Apparently, John has been experimenting a lot with cooking Indian dishes lately. When we went to the Indian Market to get the ingredients, he was buying spices I had never even heard of. Having lived out of the country for over three years, I consider myself someone with an international palette, but I suppose I am clueless when it comes to Indian cuisine. All I know is that its spicy...and I like it.

Onward...Friday, John, Crystal, and I (poor Brooke) played Frisbee golf ONCE again....imagine that. This time we drove out to Northwest Houston to play at Agnes Moffit Park and, despite being 2 over on the last hole...I finally won a match. Later, John and Crystal wanted to go somewhere different for lunch, so we ate po-boys at my favorite restaurant, the Ragin Cajun. Later that night, we made it a big family dinner, so Gray, Erin, and Hayden joined Brooke, Crystal, John , and I for sushi.

In contrast to the physical exercise and international cuisine of the previous days- Saturday was a drink fest. Brooke and I already had long-standing plans to hang out with my friend Ken, and his fiance, Margery. I originally met Ken on a 2006 Mission trip to the Dominican Republic (see picture), a mere month after Brooke and I got Married in...well, yes, the Dominican Republic. At the time, Ken and I were hosted by the same family in the rural Dominican town of Cucarita and thus basically spent the entire week together as bunk mates. Ken has lived in Houston for a number of years now, working for the energy industry in IT. We have been trying to meet up for about three months now to no avail. Strangely, even though Brooke and I have been in Houston for 4 months - and haven't seen Ken and his fiance at all in that time - the Saturday Beer tour was the second time we saw them this week. After John Crystal, and I played Frisbee golf Wednesday, I failed to mention that Brooke and I caught up with Ken and Margery at a great Sushi restaurant (See, I told you it was a busy week).

Anyway, the Beer Tour was awesome. Although we couldn't entice Gray and Erin into coming, John and Crystal were all about it (as we knew they would). As a background, St. Arnold Brewery, a small micro-brewery out of Houston, does this "tour" once a month. Even though it is technically called a "tour", we discovered that it is really more like a rowdy Beer fest (a June-toberfest, perhaps?). In all fairness to the term "tour", the "tour" portion really only consists of one St. Arnold's employee standing up on a platform for 15 minutes talking about the brewery and beer. So, what happens during the next two hours? Yep, you guessed it... heavy drinking.

Anyway, the "tour" costs $5, but you don't have to make reservations beforehand. There are picnic tables in the Brewery for those experienced enough to get there early to stake a claim. You are allowed to bring food, snacks, and coolers(!) into the brewery as well. Ken's friends were able to grab a table and bought all sorts of chips, sandwiches, water, and goodies.

At the door, the St. Arnold's staff gives you four tokens, one for each beer. They also hand you a skinny 'tasting" glass, but you have the option of buying a larger "pint" or "stein" glass which you can use "to get more beer." Originally, I took this to mean that they would pour you "a little more beer". Wow, how wrong I was. Instead, what this phrase really meant is that that whatever size (St. Arnold's) glass you had in your possession, brewery employees would basically fill the glass to the top. Needless to say, John bought a huge St. Arnold's beer-stein. Brooke, Crystal, and I each settled for the more modest "pint" glasses for $5 each, which was more than plenty. As an aside, once you buy a glass, you can keep using it, if you decide to do the Beer tour again.

The beer selection was great. St. Arnold makes a wide selection of micro-brews such as IPAs, Bocks, wheat beers, Kolches (very light), and ambers. I am a definitely a big fan... and from what I saw at the brewery, it seemed like everyone else was as well. At the beginning, the 300 or so people at the Beer tour were all strangers. But by the end, I felt like I knew everyone there. We were all the best of friends...ha, ha. I made friends in line for beer, I made friends sitting at the tables, I made friends in the line for the Men's room. It was like a party. John, Crystal, and I even managed to score extra tokens.

Naturally, being out of drinking shape, I had a hangover by 5pm - just in time for the Magic game. Later, John and Crystal graciously came over to the apartment with some Buffalo wings and we watched the Magic finish off the Cavaliers. Brooke and I felt bad that John and Crystal didn't have a chance to go out much during their time in Houston, so - despite the hangover - we briefly went to a downtown bar after the game.

Needless to say, I wasn't feeling very good the next day (Sunday), but we eventually met up with everyone for sliders at "Lil Bigs", and got one more Frisbee golf game in at MacGregor Park before dark. Alas, the next morning (Monday), John and Crystal were heading out, so we all got food at The Breakfast Klub to say goodbye. The Breakfast Klub -despite its apparent reference to the John Hughes's movie - is rather a famous "soul food" type breakfast establishment in downtown Houston. The menu includes uniquely southern African-American specialties such as "Catfish & Grits" and the "Wings & Waffles" (see picture). For my part, I went "Wings & Waffles", thereby channeling my inner Snoop-Dogg (for those of you who have seen his reality show, "Father Hood") My brother, John, went the other direction and got the "Catfish & Grits" (which I coveted after tasting his grits which were out-of-this-world). Crystal went with the sublime Biscuits and Gravy, Gray (the Texan) an apt selection of eggs and Texas toast, while Brooke ordered the more conventional Eggs & Blueberry Pancakes. The portions were so huge that I don't think that anyone finished their meals.

So, as you can see, it was a incredible week and I think you will understand if I have developed a bit of "post-John & Crystal" depression, as a result.