Christmas International House - Day 10; Downtown Houston

Day 10
Woo hoo! This day I’ve been looking forward to for some time, as it is the day my daughters and I participate with the International students in their daytime events, and later my husband is joining us for the evening entertainment – a Rockets basketball game (and my first professional basketball game ever)!

It is fabulously fun, despite the gray skies and intermittent rain. We take a Metro train ride from the Theater district to downtown Houston where our first stop is the City of Houston Visitors Center at City Hall. We watch a short video clip on Houston and browse their shop and displays, then move on to the Niels and Mellie Esperson buildings with their beautiful Italian Renaissance architecture.

The Niels Esperson building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in Houston. As part of our tour, we ride the elevators to the 28th floor, then walk the remaining four floors to the open cupola at the top overlooking the city. This part of the building is not open to the public, and it is special indeed. We even get to see Mellie Esperson’s office, untouched and preserved as it was “back then.”

Next stop, the 60th floor of the Chase bank building where we see magnificent city views. From here, we actually look down to see the top of the Niels Esperson building.

Oh, and I almost forgot our yummy lunch. We eat in the downtown tunnels at Treebeards, another first for me and a place I will highly recommend.

We arrive at the Toyota Center for a tour of the facility, and then finally, the Rockets game!

What can I say? Ren Zhe is such a huge fan of the Rockets because of Yao Ming. She expects that even her father in China will watch the game, so we are all very excited and happy for her.  We have our faces painted to show our support of the Rockets and enjoy a wonderful victory over the New Orleans Hornets. A great ending to an already perfect day!