Columbus Day

For Columbus Day weekend, Laury, Colleen, and I went to visit some family. Laury's mom went with us on our flight to Houston, where we rented a car (a nice silver Pontiac Grand Prix with the Neverlost navigation system) and drove to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to visit with John, Carrie, Kyle, and Katrin. I-10 was nothing special, but we left the highway at Sulphur, La., and traveled north on LA-27 through some small towns and woods of pine trees. It reminded me of central Florida, I even saw a cypress stand. No oak trees or Spanish moss in that part of Louisiana, however.

On Sunday we left Mom with John and Carrie and returned to Houston via Woodville, Texas (just west of Jasper). We met Karen at her townhouse, which faces a grassy courtyard (instead of the typical layout facing a parking lot or street). She has a small rat terrier named Pippin, who is extremely quick. Then we were out to have dinner with Kevin, Stephanie, Ben, and Zachary.

The next day we went to the Children's Museum of Houston, which had, among its exhibits, a Mexican village (Colleen put math problems on the blackboard of the school), a television studio (where she did the weather report in a parka and hat), and an exhibit with replicas of works by Marc Chagall. The last of those reminded me that, in some art history class I took somewhere in college, we had to study Chagall. At the museum, an actor impersonating Christopher Columbus was busy greeting everyone in the main hall.

Home again on Tuesday, where Maryland was having one last episode of summer weather. (We are back to autumn today, buying pumpkins and apples and raking leaves.)