Dad's Adventure in Houston

Howdy from Houston. I'm here at ExxonMobil's Technical Training Center for three days...which isn't so bad except they are smack dab in the middle of the five days that Christina is home between Tijuana and Ecuador, and the last few days Brian will be home for the summer! Argh! How did that happen!? Ironically because I applied for the Team Captain role on ExxonMobil's engineering interviewing /recruiting team at the Univ of Illinois, thinking it would be fun and also maybe a chance to cross paths with Brian & Chris more often. Although it's in addition to my primary project manager job, I'm really excited about the role. But so far the schedule part has totally backfired. Oh well....I hear the whole gang (Deb, Brain, and Chris) are meeting me at the airport & tomorrow night & we're all going out for an early celebration of Christina's birthday which will be great! I'm really looking forward to that!

The training is actually going well and quite interesting....we'll be hiring all kinds of engineers for all ExxonMobil locations, so we need to have a decent understanding of all the various jobs in this big company, as well as what all the various organizations do, from exploration to drilling to production to pipeline to refining to fuels marketing. Plus research and chemicals. And know all the good reasons to work for ExxonMobil, and Plus learned a lot of interesting stuff about what today's college students (like Chris & Brian) are like and what they are interested in and looking for...and I must say they are an impressive generation already.

But two days in conference rooms had given me a serious case of cabin fever and wanderlust. So tonight after 'classes' I decided to take a long hike from the Renaissance Hotel where I'm staying to the Rice University area and back...the concierge said I was nuts to plan to go that far, but I had a general idea of my route and distance, and was able to home in on the campus nicely by walking against the steady stream of outbound joggers. (I later realized the campus is encircled by a kind of gravel sidewalk that is almost completely shaded by enormous oak trees...so it is cool and therefore a popular jogging path for students & staff. (I was actually very impressed by the number of joggers, but none of them seems to be in particularly good shape....compared to Brian & Chris that is...which isn't a fair comparison!). I cut thru a really nice residential area adjacent to the campus called University West, which I later learned is occupied largely by doctors & medical staff who work at the nearby medical centers (such as Rice, Baylor, and Methodist hospitals). Ahhh...I still love Texas. I've happily grown into a certified Midwesterner, but still feel instantly at home whenever I see bermuda grass and walk in the shade of those low, sprawling oak & pecan trees and see the dogwoods, and pick-up trucks and lone stars and state flags everywhere. It was a pleasant walk.

Rice University is a beautiful campus, full of well maintained landscaping (even when school is out) and interesting architecture highlighted by lots of arches and...well...bricks. I hear its the best endowed school in the country and after roaming the campus tonight, I believe it.

It was a hot night (but not as hot as yesterday, when temperatures peaked at 101 deg F). So when I spotted the MetroRail on the far side of Rice campus, I decided to hop on just to soak up some A/C. I basically road it across the city and back. Thru several interesting neighborhoods, sitting with several other 'interesting' riders. The MetroRail runs right through the city of Houston at ground level with no crossing signals. Kind of like the trolley & train in Fort Collins, except the MetroRail is electric and modern (read quiet and fast) so I quickly learned pedestrians really need to be alert! By the time I got back to Rice campus, I had cooled down but was pretty hungry & thirsty so stopped at a local deli for a sandwich & a beer. Hit the trail again and finally arrived back at the hotel well after dark, where my buddy the concierge was impressed by my trip report and congratulated me for not calling the shuttle to pick me up (that would have been embarrassing!). It was nice urban hike (7.5 miles round trip based on my plot on Google Map) and the only problem was not wearing hiking shoes...I have the blisters to prove it.

Now I'm going to bed. I think I'll sleep well now, considering I'm pretty tarred (that's Texan for tired) and really looking forward to getting home tomorrow evening & spending it with all four of us together again.

See you'all soon!
Love
Dad