First Impressions

Henry and I arrived in Houston on Thursday morning. Andy warned me that our drive to the hotel would be anything but scenic. "Think about the surroundings driving from Midway to downtown," he warned. When we arrived at our hotel, I was surprised by the lush trees and landscaping. It was beautiful! We stayed at the Houstonian, and it was a lovey setting. Once we were settled in and had some lunch, we took the 610 South to Sugar Land. Now, THAT was the view I was not prepared for. It was nothing but strip malls and chain restaurants. There is no other word for it other than "ugly." But, redemption awaited once we arrived in Sugar Land. We really liked parts of the community known as "First Colony." Overall, there were parts of Sugar Land that we liked, but it seemed like the commute would be bad for Andy. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early.

On Friday morning, we treated Henry to his first IHOP visit where he downed a two-egg omlette and a pancake. We headed up to Katy, a suburb West of Houston. Katy is a booming suburban community, home to many master-planned communities. We looked at Cinco Rancn and Seven Meadows. We drove by Grand Lakes, with no time to stop. We regretted that decision later when we found out that many of the lots in Grand Lakes sit on waterways. These communities are unreal. They are huge, with multiple pools and recreation centers. They have a lot of activities for kids and families, which would be nice. We looked at some new construction and met with a builder, but no decisions have been made. Overall, we decided we could handle the move for a few years, but, at this point, we don't see ourselves living in TX for the long term.

There will be future posts about some of the various quirks of our trip, but I wanted to update you with our first impressions.
Here are some sites for the various communities we saw
Cinco Ranch: www.cincoranch.com, Grand Lakes www.grandlakes.com, Seven Meadows www.sevenmeadows.com