A Lotta Terra Cotta

During last night's session of video games, we played nothing but disc golf on the PS3. Katie and I couldn't help but want to play the real thing and in the morning we looked up a nearby course and proposed the idea to our hosts. Much to our delight, they were more than up for a round. After a great breakfast of waffles and sausage, we left the base and headed to nearby Kileen for some real life discing. The course was short and it was immediately obvious that the skills from the game the night before did not translate into real life. Once we were through with the round we backed up our separate cars and parted ways. Next stop on our list was Houston and we spent the majority of the day driving through rural Texas to get there. My cousin's boyfriend Kyle offered to house us for a night and once we reached town we met up with him for drinks then dinner. For dinner, Kyle was forced by my cousin to take us to Papacitas to enjoy some of the best steak fajitas around. We were all glad that she did and proceeded to eat until we were about to burst before heading back to Kyle's place for the night.

In the morning we headed straight for Forbidden Gardens. Visiting this place was one of the

main reasons that Katie and I headed to Texas in the first place. Long ago, while still living in Chicago, I had found this place on Roadside America and have wanted to visit ever since. After Steve persuaded us to travel to Arkansas I just couldn't help checking in on Forbidden Gardens and found to my dismay that it was being

torn down, soon to close its doors forever! Let me start from the beginning. Forbidden Gardens was basically started by one man who after visiting China and experiencing its many wonders wanted to bring a piece of it back to America. So, in the small suburb of Katy Texas he created a 1/3 scale exact replica of the Terra Cotta Army and a 1/20

scale replica of the Forbidden Palace, along with numerous other small displays and exhibits

about ancient Chinese culture. After 15 years of business they will soon become a victim of highway expansion and close their doors forever a mere 2 weeks after our visit. When I saw this back in Arkansas, I knew we had to make it to Texas. When we got to Forbidden Gardens that morning I was

immediately surprised by the number of people visiting. I figured since it was going out of business, that implied that not many people came to visit, but that was certainly not the case. We spent a few hours walking

around the grounds in awe of the time and detail that went into making this amazing recreation. Before we left, Katie bought some fish food at the gift shop and on the way out she fed the giant Koi fish that inhabit the lake outside, a highlight of her day. After Forbidden Gardens we made our way over to another under appreciated Houston landmark, the Beer Can House. Unfortunately for us, the Beer Can House is only open for tours on the weekends so we were forced to enjoy this work of art from the sidelines. We

left the Beer Can House and decided it was time we had a cold one for ourselves. We went back downtown to Flying Saucer where we had met Kyle the night before and had some snacks while we waited for Katie's friend Laura to get off work. After a while we headed to her place where we would be shacking up for the night. Laura wanted to treat us to dinner and we headed down to the Kemah Boardwalk to enjoy an excellent seafood meal at a place called Landry's. The food was amazing and if possible, even better than our meal the night before. The restaurant was right on the water but because of the intense fog we had virtually no visibility at all. Dinner being complete, we walked around the boardwalk once, enjoying the cold wind and fog, before heading back to Laura's where we watched Dead Poets Society before falling asleep for the last time in Texas.