Houston posts

by Katie Hammel (RSS feed) (17 days ago)
Nov 6th, 2009 at 12:30PM: I agree with Mike Barish's recent post. Road trips do rock. I love grabbing some friends, jumping in the car, and blasting great music as we cruise down the highway or along back roads. If you love a good road trip.....and you happen to live in Texas or on the east coast......and you want to drive one-way to Florida.....and you just happen to plan on going before November 15, well then Thrifty Car ...

by Karen Walrond (RSS feed) (1 month ago)
Oct 1st, 2009 at 11:00AM: Oh, how I'd love to regale you with my brilliant photographic skills in capturing the sky's majesty!
I'd love to, but I can't.
For some reason, I'm really, really horrid when it comes to shooting skies. Oh, I can manage to get a good sunset photo here and there, and occasionally my blue skies appear shockingly blue, but the truth is that for the most part, I get by with a little help from ...

by Alison Brick (RSS feed) (3 months ago)
Aug 10th, 2009 at 3:30PM: Even Gilligan used his creative wits better in crisis. The 47 people on-board a Continental flight last Friday night found themselves on their own "three-hour tour," a la Gilligan's Island. Rather than taking three hours to fly from Houston to the Twin Cities, they were stuck on the tarmac in Rochester, Minnesota for nine hours overnight, not even leaving the aircraft. The flight, operated by ...

by Katie Hammel (RSS feed) (3 months ago)
Aug 4th, 2009 at 1:30PM: On most flights, turbulence is a minor inconvenience. You have to return to your seat and buckle in, and you may have to wait a little longer to get your next vodka and cranberry (oh, is it just me that needs a cocktail, or three, to relax on a plane?). Planes are generally able to avoid the worst of the bumps, thanks to radar and reports from other planes in the area. But sometimes, turbulence ...

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) (6 months ago)
May 24th, 2009 at 1:30PM: Airport security never ceases to amaze me, every time I think things are getting a little wacky, I'm shown something new that makes everything I saw in the past suddenly seem logical. Urinals at the Southwest airlines terminal at Houston's Hobby airport have a sign warning peeing passengers that: "Automatic infrared flush sensors also provide video monitoring for security purposes" Seriously, the ...

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) (7 months ago)
Apr 18th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Who thought that Tennessee and New Hampshire would be some of the top towns in the country for art lovers. AmericanStyle magazine just issued the results of its twelfth annual arts destinations poll. Some spots are predictable. Others, like Chattanooga, will just blow your mind. This is the first year Chattanooga made the list, shooting all the way up to second in the mid-sized city category. If ...

by Mike Barish (RSS feed) (8 months ago)
Mar 23rd, 2009 at 4:30PM: Here at Gadling, we often have conversations revolving around where we want to travel next. As we run through our lists, inevitably the conversation will turn towards the opposite question. Where wouldn't you go? The usually hot spots always get named: Iraq, Afghanistan and, of course, Houston in August. But the New York Times featured a group of travelers bold enough to travel to Iraq. And ...

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) (9 months ago)
Feb 26th, 2009 at 2:00PM: Saquib Fatah of Houston, Texas, is suing Continental Airlines because he can't work his cell phone. Confused? I'll break it down: 1. Fatah gets on airplane in London with his new cell phone. 2. Captain makes the usual "turn off all electronic devices" announcement and the plane begins to taxi. 3. "BEEP BEEP BEEP!" from Fatah's phone. 4. A stewardess asks Fatah to "kill the phone." He appears to do ...

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) (10 months ago)
Jan 25th, 2009 at 12:00PM: Some people will do anything for a free flight. Instead of waiting for the airline to screw up, Arthur David Proskin used a bump by the beverage cart as his ticket to glory ... and hopefully anywhere in the continental United States. He used what was probably an accident to shout obscenities at the flight attendant who so egregiously wronged him (hint for the tone-deaf, this is sarcasm) and other ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (11 months ago)
Dec 16th, 2008 at 9:30AM: Meg isn't fond of the idea of airport karaoke. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread, particularly after I heard the NPR radio story about the small karaoke stages at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. That's the very karaoke effort that Meg gave a bah humbug review.
By the time I arrived where I was going and had parked my car, the story about the airport karaoke and ...

by Meg Massie (RSS feed) (11 months ago)
Dec 5th, 2008 at 11:30AM: When I'm waiting for a flight, I like to dive into a book or pop open my laptop and try to forget my surroundings. Other travelers tend to annoy me, and I have a better time in transit if I can just ignore everyone else. So I'll be avoiding Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston from now on. The Texas airport has recently set up karaoke booths for travelers inside the terminals. Airport ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Sep 3rd, 2008 at 1:30PM: When I lived overseas some friends of mine, who also lived overseas, complained that when they were in the U.S. on vacation, they couldn't relate to what excited people.
For example, one friend said that a friend of hers in the U.S. was excited about getting a new deck. My friend didn't think that getting a new deck was exciting news. Planning an adventure vacation was exciting, however--unless ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Aug 27th, 2008 at 5:00PM: There is a newly published Forbes.com article on the top 10 cities for making a living in the United States. Each has something to offer travelers as well. Here are the top cities and one place to go to in each. These are the first places that immediately came to mind. It's an odd assortment.
1. Houston, Texas. I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles and found it incredibly worthwhile ...

by Jerry Guo (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Aug 20th, 2008 at 2:00PM: In the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas, is a curious sight: a house being sucked into a wormhole. It's the handiwork of two artists, Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. From their press release: Havel and Ruck will create a large funnel-like vortex beginning from the west wall adjacent to Montrose Blvd. The exterior skin of the houses will be peeled off and used to create the narrowing spiral as it ...

by Anna Brones (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
May 27th, 2008 at 11:20AM: Some weird things can happen in the skies. At least if you are the Continental Airlines pilot who reported seeing a rocket fly past his cockpit window while he was about eight miles away from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. "We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing," said Roland ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Mar 31st, 2008 at 2:30PM: As far as I can tell, I haven't had anything stolen from baggage in my travels. I've had it opened with an official notice left inside that it's been searched. As we've found out by messages about baggage handlers posted on Gadling--this post has 276 comments--others have not been so fortunate. Some people, though, may get their stolen goods back--not necessarily those who have told us of their ...

by Justin Glow (RSS feed) (2 years ago)
Aug 13th, 2007 at 3:00PM:
It may be the most superfluous website on the entire Internet, but it's done well. FastFoodMaps.com provides a Google Maps interface for locating fast food restaurants around the United States. If you're having problems locating a fast food restaurant in America, something is wrong. In fact, I'd urge you to not locate a fast food restaurant on your next road trip. Impossible. Even so, ...

by Justin Glow (RSS feed) (2 years ago)
Jul 11th, 2007 at 9:39AM:
You may recognize this "Singles" map from the February 2007 issue of National Geographic. It ranks the number of single women versus the number of single men in metropolitan areas, and you may be surprised at some of the results. Girls, looking to travel to a bachelor-heavy area? The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metro area, for instance, has the highest population of single males, with ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (2 years ago)
Mar 9th, 2007 at 9:02AM: Each country I've lived in has some food or drink item I came to crave. So, when I think of that food or drink I think of that country. Like how eating Creamsicles and pork rinds reminds me of my childhood. (Okay, I have some southern roots and I can not recall the last time either passed my lips.) Bubble tea reminds me of Taiwan. When I left there I was sure that was the end of my bubble tea ...

by Adrienne Wilson (RSS feed) (2 years ago)
Dec 29th, 2006 at 12:14PM: Um, this bothers me. A LOT. According to this story found in the Seattle Times, 68 suitcases which were taken from George Bush International Airport were found outside of a pet store dumpster in Houston earlier this week. The stolen baggage apparently came from nine different airlines and from destinations such as France, UAE, and domestic locations. Investigators are trying to determine now if it ...