Segway Fun

At the beginning of March, Jeff's parents invited the two of us, along with Ben and Caitlin to join them for a Segway tour in Downtown Houston. They had gotten a Groupon for it and were kind enough to think to include us. Jeff and I kind of joked about how goofy segways are. We thought we would probably have fun riding around on them, but we never thought we would have any desire to do it again after this one time. And we knew we would look like total dorks doing it!

Well, we were right about the looking-like-dorks part. We totally did! But we never could have guessed how much fun we would have! It was seriously such a blast and we would totally do it again!

Helmets are sexy.

Practicing on the segways before our tour. 

Right from the start my segway kept trying to buck me off for going too fast for the "training mode" setting that it was on. Supposedly, it was trying to force me to slow down, but it did so by suddenly  shoving back against me, the handlebars wedging themselves up under my ribs, and I would have been thrown off the back every time, had I not clung on for dear life. All Jeff and I could do each time it happened to us was laugh as we watched each other strain to stay mounted on our unpredictable "steeds." 

We were happy to hear that our segways would be switched to regular mode about 1/3 of the way through the tour. It still happened a couple of times after that, but much less often, and we got to go really fast!

First stop on our tour: "Virtuoso" - the sculpture of the cellist plays classical music 24 hours a day.

A monument to the 9/11 tragedy.

La Carafe - a bar and the oldest building in Houston.

The restored 1884 Cotton Exchange building. Before Houston was an oil town, cotton was "king" and this building housed Houston's cotton market for 40 years. The building has been comprised of offices and a trendy bar since it was restored in 1971.

These crazy-looking birds live all over Houston! I have no idea what they are, but they're huge and if you get near a group of them, they will all start walking towards you thrusting their heads forward and back threateningly. It's terrifying!

There are several docks in a row and each one lists the goods that were shipped there back in the day.

Check out the dock next to us...mmm.. candy. I would be waiting to receive the goods at this dock, but I'll pass on the castor oil!

The City of Houston Jail - seems like an awful lot of windows .. until you look closely ...

Of every row of three windows, only the top half of the middle one is a real window! The rest are just painted on there for show!

I don't remember exactly what this building was. Our tour guide just showed it to us because he thought it was a cool-looking building, which it is.

This theater was clearly built at a time when air conditioning was not the norm. Look how clearly they advertised that!

The tallest building in Houston and all of Texas: the JP Morgan Chase Tower.

This all black building absorbs a lot of heat - even though it was kind of a chilly day, the building was really warm, so Jeff hugged it.

A painter and his dog.

Beautiful view of Sesquicentennial Park.

President George H. W. Bush Monument. This man had a very full and impressive life, some of which is displayed on the plaques behind the statue...

Becoming a an aviator in the U.S. Navy at age 18 (youngest in the Navy at the time) right after the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

At the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

 In Sesquicentennial Park, there is a long row of photographs depicting some of Houston's history. Here are just a few of them...

"Two girls making the best of their flooded neighborhood, an experience share by many throughout Houston's history."

"The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been a mainstay of Houston culture since its inception. Here an early calf scrambler keeps hold of his prize."

"A crowd of 150,000 gathers downtown to watch 1,000 Houston volunteers be sworn into the U.S. Navy in 1942."

"With the discovery of 'black gold' in the region, Houston quickly developed into the capital of the American oil industry."

"This rare photograph originally printed on tin, shows members of a black theatrical company that performed in Houston in the 1850's."

I was flattered when a silly boy hanging out with his friends in the bed of a parked truck told me I was "very beautiful" as we rode by them on our segways. However, after seeing this picture I took of myself with my goofy helmet and crazy hair combined with the group photo at the end of the tour, which is arguably the most unflattering picture of me in existence, I really questioned that boys sanity!

Beautiful white tree.

Look closely at these crazy structures - they look like faces.

Notice the row of metal structures. There are lots of these and they are all of made up of pictures that represent Houston, drawn by elementary-aged children. Some of the pictures are really impressive for kids to have drawn!

Here's a close-up.

Sesquicentennial Park again. Since, miraculously, every person in our group adapted quickly to the segways, we were able to cruise around to every location pretty fast and we had lots of extra time at the end to hit a couple of places again, along with some new locations that our tour guide came up with off the top of his head.

Eventually we made it back to where we started...

Victory lap!

So victorious!

This is the only picture of our entire group, so of course, I had to include it, but seriously most unflattering picture known to man! Why do I look so HUGE??

Jeff being the 4th Karate Kid in the parking lot.

Greg and Renita bought burritos for every one at Freebirds on the way home and we all met at Ben and Caitlin's (where the kids were being babysat) to eat.

Back at home, I made good on my promise to let Luke decorate one of the cookies I made for the kids in our Primary class at church the next day...

Regretting telling Daddy he could have a bite.

Jeff decided he had to have one of his own.

It was late, but we let Luke hang out in our room while he drank his bottle of milk.

And to finish up, a few pictures of my cute boys all ready for church the next day...