Houston: Army, comics and a pagoda

[Spartandude]

This will be a short day trippin’ report as I had to work for a lot of the day. The 72d Infantry Brigade Combat Team has been stateside for a little over a month, so all of the tearful welcome home celebrations have passed. The ceremony today is the military welcome home and is known as the uncasing of the colors ceremony.

My report time was 12:15 in Houston and I got there a bit early (thanks super slab!) so decided to do a little photo op. I wanted an outside picture of the Mega-church that the ceremony would be held in, so I popped across HW-59 and found an empty parking space.




Near this area is my favorite comic book shop the Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstore. This place is way older than the similarly named television show. It turns out Third Planet just painted the place and redid the driveway. I just couldn’t resist the primary colors in the sunlight. I didn’t buy anything, but found some stuff I would like to get later.




Nearing report time I arrived at the church and took some interior pictures to give you guys a feel for why I called it a Mega-church. The fog seemed to be because of the Air Conditioning and cleared as soon as the temperature rose from opening the doors and letting all of the troops in.





UFOs are real!! (not)




Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the ceremony, but being in the band means that I should follow protocol over picture taking fun. So I grabbed a public domain photo from the Battalion smug mug for you.

[Spartandude]

On the way back I was fairly near the Houston museum district. Hoping I could find some nice picture spots I was disappointed as the place was teeming with people. I eventually found a parking place and was walking toward the Chinese pagoda when I saw this lovely little car. MINI!!




The pagoda was in the perennial gardens at Hermann park. I just had to take a picture of one of the pretty flowers.




This thread needs a token hottie. It looks like she needs some hand surgery, poor thing.

http://spartandude.smugmug.com/Motor...1_VYbPp-XL.jpg


Yup, there was historical marker. In case it is hard to read here are the Cliff’s notes:
The railroad from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico was finalized with a silver spike. The pagoda and garden are to honor the approximately 3,000 Chinese immigrants who worked on the railroad.




Pagoda shots.

[Spartandude]

I saw a gent’ riding in shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes and found he had parked next to me. Dirty cruiser vs. immaculate sport bike.




On the way out of the park I saw a break in the curb and pulled in for a picture.



I then rode home on the super slab. Ride safely.