Hooray for Houston!-

Hooray for Houston, my home town!

We are BIG!!  Houston is spread over 655 square miles, an area large enough to include the cities of Boston, Minneapolis, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. combined! 

Houston is crisscrossed by bayous.  It's often called the Bayou City.  See bayou map below:

We are one of the most diverse cities in the U.S.  145 different languages are spoken here.

Houstonians love to dine out.  In fact, we're number #1 (what else?) in dining out in the country.  We have 10,000 restaurants, enough to keep us dining out for a long time.  And, oh yes, we also have the largest number of food snobs in the country.

Houston is the home of the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with 106,000 employees (My daughter is one of them.)  It covers 50 million square feet and is the 8th largest business district in the U.S. It's home to the country's number 1 cancer center and number 4 children's hospital.  If you need medical care, Houston is the best place to be.

We have more parks per 1000 people than Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and New York

We have 5 professional sports teams--Astros (baseball), Rockets (basketball), Texans (football), Dyanomo (men's soccer) Dash (women's soccer).  We are hosting the 2017 Super Bowl, but alas, neither the Texans nor their predecessors, the Oilers, have ever played in one.

The Houston Astrodome was the first domed stadium ever.  It was known as the 8th wonder of the world.  Now it stands empty, while over the years, people have tried to decide what to do with it.  No one has come up with a solution yet.

Houston hosts one of the largest livestock shows and rodeos every year.  The day before it opens there's a parade and it usually rains, but who cares.  Anyone interested in advertising in the livestock show catalog?  My daughter is selling space.

Houston has some of the most unusual landmarks in the country.  Here's the Beer Can House:

And here's the Orange Show, dedicated to the orange, of course:

Houston is hot and muggy in the summer, cool and muggy in the winter.  It has horrendous traffic.  The bayous flood after heavy rains.  It's ranked high for cities with the most obese people (All that dining out).  We are one of the few (maybe the only) large city without zoning, which makes for strange neighborhoods.

BUT----
The people are friendly, we have a vibrant cultural scene, it almost never snows and if just a few flakes fall, the city grinds to a halt, and best of all, it's in Texas.  The University of Houston sponsored radio station has been asking if we should have a Hexit (secede from Texas) but most people say NEVER.  
I wouldn't live anywhere else!

What's your favorite city?