We were off today, and we really didn’t have anything we needed to do. Kevin wanted to pick up a few things at the Camping World, so we headed that way. It is just outside the city of Katy, so we thought we would stop at Camping World, then get some lunch and a few groceries, then head back home. We got a few necessities, plus they had these neat foldable rocking chairs for only $28, so we got one of them, too. Now we have two comfortable recliners and two comfortable chairs. After Camping world, we got back on the freeway looking for a place to eat. We saw the sign that said Houston 25 miles, so I said we should go into downtown. We did not have a plan of what to see or do, but we went ahead and drove into Houston. The downtown area is big, but not super huge, so we drove around a bit looking for somewhere we could go. We decided to go to the Downtown Aquarium. It looked big, and it was something we could easily do with the time we had. It cost $9.50 for just the aquarium, or $15.99 for an all day pass to the aquarium and the surrounding amusement park. I figured we would never be back, so we got the all day pass. The aquarium was neat, and nicely planned out, but not very big. It did not take us long at all to see the whole thing. It was very different from the Seattle aquarium and the Newport, Oregon aquarium, which mostly house local sea life. This one had fish and creatures from all over the planet. Plus a white tiger. I don’t know why there was a tiger at an aquarium, but it was probably the best part!!

After we walked through the inside part, we went on the ferris wheel outside. We were at least able to get some decent pictures from up there. Then we went on the shark train. It was a train through a tube of sea water with a bunch of sharks…pretty neat, but the pictures did not turn out that well.

So by the time we were finished there, we were both very hungry. We had passed a buffet place on our way into town, which just happened to be right next to Ikea. We decided to try it out. The food was okay for the most part–typical buffet food. Then we went to Ikea. We bought a few things for the kitchen at the park, and a few things that we needed Then we got right into rush hour traffic for our drive home. We went home the more direct route, but it did put us on the Sam Houston Tollway, which cost us $1.50. We stopped quickly at JC Penny then went to Wal-Mart for a few groceries.

Wow. What a long day. We were both exhausted when we got back to the park. Good thing we were still full from lunch so we didn’t have to worry about dinner. I set up my new rocking chair and sat outside with the cat until the bugs drove me crazy…