2010 Jul 26 | surfing, zoo, kayaking, Lady Gaga



Apart from how incredibly fit this little group was, the most striking thing about them was how long that girl's hair was. It's almost to her knees, for goodness sakes. She needs to stay strong to haul that hair around.



Our shoulders were in utter agony after this boot camp. The instructor really hits them too hard, basically every single time, so we took a day off to recuperate.



Trying to win Wicked tickets for some friends. Wow, there are a lot more people here now than there were a few weeks ago.



Jenny's friends won!



Quick, run home and change.



The worst thing about the Wicked lotto: trying to get the damned smiley face off your hand. I swear, it's like impossible.



Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays our boot camp. Pouring rain? Keep going. But lightning? Oh yeah, we're outta here. Just in time, too, cuz I was gonna have to bunny hop up the hill with some weights as soon as Jenny got up there.



Dude.



Good time to take the local roads rather than the highway.



I can't find an iPhone 4 screen protector that I like, and I hate the rubber ones. This is just some strips of clear film, and while the ones on the sides seem OK, the front and back ones tend to get bubbles. What's the point of making a beautiful phone if you make everyone but ugly covers around them?



Apparently Jenny's neighbor dropped some wings on his way into his apartment and didn't bother to clean them up. This after I spend a morning covered in sweat cleaning this exact floor and stairs a few days ago. I feel kind of sorry for him, since he doesn't seem to really have his life together, but still, this is annoying.



Apple is giving away free covers for the iPhone 4 due to the antenna problems, but you have to use an app for it and it will take over a month to arrive.



We ate dinner at Taco Milagro...



...because they have salsa dancing on Friday nights.



Downtown from the Shepherd bridge above I-10.



I wonder where this goes and who goes there?



Friday night we drove to Katy for cosmic bowling from 11pm to 2am. I used this cool ball with long and short grip in one.



The group of guys to our right was really good and we are really bad, but it was still fun.



Hey, I want bumpers and a ramp, too!



They also had various videogames to play. This one ate our money, but he fixed it and gave us a refund.



Our loot from the games: snake, big die, top, and parachute man.



Snakes get thirsty, too.



Ooh, I love the tops that flip upside down.



The parachute man was less than spectacular, though.



President-head statues along an I-45 feeder road.



Great, what I need is back behind those boxes. Time to go climbing.



And this wig is too high to reach. Ah, look, there's a sword right over here. That will work quite nicely to knock the wig down.



I don't know who first thought of the whole "tucking the corners of boxes into each other to close it back up," but it's brilliant.



Switching over to Dailies for the beach.



We went to the beach because Richard was teaching surfing lessons for free. Here we're learning the basics on boards drawn in the sand.



Richard holding a board with Jenny behind getting on another one.



Richard steadying Jenny.



I'm in the distance, pushing up to jump onto the board.



Jenny plowing through a wave.



Me doing the same.



Since Texas doesn't have very big waves, nobody really surfed, although I think we got the basic idea pretty well. This was about the farthest anyone got up, and I felt like I almost maybe surfed a little, heh. Afterwards Richard said I was a natural.



Must resist the temptation to buy ice cream from the little bus that drives around.



Eating.



A few people had horses out on the beach.



Playing volleyball.



Everyone watching a helicopter that was flying by.



A view of some vacation homes from a bridge.



And some barges in the other direction.



That night we went to Meteor only because we heard they were giving away a pair of Lady Gaga tickets. Although my choice in parking location wasn't the best since it looks like everyone in the area had their trees cut down.



It was primarily a gay club, and there were these short tables where guys danced. We pretty much ignored them, though, because we were busy filling out the forms for the tickets. We must have filled out around 20 a piece.



And we won! Two $85 tickets to a show that sold out in 10 minutes for free. That's a pretty good deal.



They also had pool there, which was fun.



The gay guys are probably all thinking, "Get off our tables, silly girls."



A little magnifier by the jugs of water at CVS. Maybe the old people who can't see very well are really concerned about the ingredients in the water they buy or something?



Paddleboats at Hermann Park. Good thing they have covers to block the sun.



Lucy has a membership at the zoo, so she can bring one friend along with her when she goes, so we did that. Here's a meercat diggin away.



Cheetahs.



The worker kept spraying water into the elephants mouths, and then they'd stick their trunks into their mouths, suck up the water, and spray it all over themselves.



Giraffes.



Gotta love the misting fans, especially in Houston in the summer.



Tapirs.



An Ankole cow.



A sleeping lion. He was probably thinking the same thing we were: humans can't be that intelligent if they're out in this horrific heat.



Little bubbles so you could act like the animals.



Bats.



An otter.



Raccoon.



Porcupine.



Horned owls.



Another guy with big horns.



Zebras.



Some weird birds. They didn't have an info panel on them, so maybe they just flew into the pen from somewhere else.



Cranes.



Seals, which were kind of mean to each other.



After that we went kayaking along Buffalo Bayou from Woodway Memorial Park to Sabine Park. Here the guide is giving us a quick refresher course.



From a distance, we thought this might have been an alligator. But nope, just a branch.



Some tall buildings.



An abandoned boat tied up to shore. The guide was gonna take it but it created too much drag. We thought the owner might have just walked up the hill to run to the bathroom or something, so you probably shouldn't take it, but everything inside was pretty run down.



Us with the group behind us.



Me.



Lucy and the group.



There were lots of expensive houses along the sides.



Some stairs.



A nice house.



And another one that actually had a llama out on the lawn.



We had to dodge around the low branches.



A bird that wasn't scared of us at all.



The group ahead of us.



Another low branch to dodge.



Going under the bridge to Bayou Bend.



Cool house with multiple huge TVs on the patio.



Some people on shore waving to us.



Another big house.



And another.



Some expensive apartments.



Bats under the Waugh Bridge.



Our first view of downtown.



There was a fair amount of garbage collecing on the shores in different areas.



Getting closer to downtown.



Lucy.



And us.



Going around a corner.



A bird flying overhead.



And closer.



Disembarking to the left.



And downtown from Sabine Park.



Lucy.



Me.



Us. There were actually tiny little ants that bit really badly, so after the picture we ran away swatting at our feet.



Normally you park at the point the tour starts from, kayak here, and then take their van back, but since the Lady Gaga concert was starting a few minutes after the tour, I parked here to save some time.



The best part of the Lady Gaga concert were the outfits of the fans.



The pictures didn't come out very well because I used my iPhone, but here she's raised up on a stage with a huge white dress on.



Another song.



Near the end, with a big monster like an angler fish attacking her.



The last song, with everyone in the crowd waving their hands.



With the fan outfits, it was like being back in San Francisco.