TEXAS: HOUSTON MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, PART I, CALDER-PICASSO SPECIAL EXHIBIT

 November 24, 2022

After several days in the wilds of the Gulf Coast (It's a whole different country down there, but then, Texas has about eight different countries within its borders), it was time for the wilds of Houston.

We spent a brief amount of time in Houston in 2012, and for some reason I didn't have a very favorable impression. I did a 180 on this visit.  I loved Houston. I suppose that's why it is a good idea to visit a place more than once.

It helps that our first destination was the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, one of the largest art museums in the United States, and with 300,000 square feet, it is the 12th largest in the world by gallery space. The permanent collection includes roughly 70,000 works from six continents. 

We were very fortunate to catch the "Calder-Picasso Special Exhibit" while we were there. A touring exhibit created by the artists' grandsons, it highlights Calder's and Picasso's artistic affinities as well as their actual physical encounters with each other. 

Portrait of sculptor Alexander Calder January 3, 1957 by Arnold Newman
Portrait of artist Pablo Picasso on June 2, 1954 by Arnold Newman

TEXAS: PORT ARTHUR MUSEUM OF THE GULF COAST

 November 24, 2021

Ninety miles east of Houston is the town of Port Arthur, population 54,000 and home to the largest oil refinery in the United States. Oil refineries dominate the horizon.

Our destination was the Museum of the Gulf Coast, which specializes in just what its name implies--the history of the Gulf Coast.

I stopped to say hello to their welcoming mascot.

Nope, no cavities.

LOUISIANA: FIVE HURRICANES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF CAMERON

 November 23, 2021 

In our travels from one birding spot to another, we drove south from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Cameron, Louisiana, about 50 miles. The area we drove through didn't really have any population centers, just small towns, but we began to see a trend: houses on stilts with not a lot around them.

In Southern California we have almost no houses with basements. In this part of Louisiana, they have almost no houses with ground floors. That area under the house does make a great place to park your car.

We figured that the area must be prone to flooding from the nearby Gulf of Mexico.

Many of the houses looked recently painted and/or remodeled, with new, unpainted wooden stairs leading to the front door.

TEXAS AND LOUISIANA: CATTAIL MARSH WETLAND, PINTAIL WILDLIFE DRIVE, SABINE NWR, AND PEVETO WOODS SANCTUARY

November 22-23, 2021

Southern Texas is supposed to be one of the country's best places to birdwatch, and I think that is one of the primary reasons Bob wanted to go there. During the Covid pandemic, he has developed a pretty intense birding hobby, which has included upgrading his camera. I can understand that he wants to use his new toy!

In a two-day period in Southern Texas, we visited four wildlife areas, and I'm going to include all four in one post, partly because they have a lot of similarities. We did visit more wildlife areas later in the trip, but they were in a different region and have a different look.

Our first stop, Cattail Marsh Wetlands, was just outside Beaumont, The City of Surprises.

There is a large viewing station that looks over 900 acres of marshes.

A lot of strategically placed information boards help visitors identify what they are seeing.

I've always connected alligators with Louisiana and not so much with Texas, but they are everywhere (and Beaumont isn't actually that far from Louisiana anyway).