52008: Dancing with Dinosaurs in Houston
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is kicking off its fifth year of Mixers, Elixirs and IMAX®. Beginning June 6, the perfect Friday night party returns with some of Houston’s most popular bands, a new IMAX lineup, and the addition of a private VIP room, known as “The Lab.”
The Mixers: At 6 p.m., the excitement begins in the Grand Entry Hall with award-winning DJ Sun spinning the wheels – or partygoers can make the evening larger than life with an IMAX® film to start. Doors to the Hall of Paleontology open at 7 p.m. for live music, dancing under the dinosaurs, a cash bar and complimentary appetizers.
The Band Schedule: June 6 Mango Punch
June 13 Little Brother Project
June 20 Picture Book
June 27 The Fab 5
July 11 Mambo Jazz Kings
July 18 Grupo Batacha
July 25 The Handsomes
August 1 The Chromatics
August 8 Siakara
August 15 Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters
August 22 Lady D and the Zydeco Tornadoes
August 29 Grupo Ka-Che
VIP Room: “The Lab,” located in a the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, fills with the sounds of DJ Sun, all accompanied by hors d’oeuvres, a top shelf cash bar, exceptional wait staff and comfortable seating. Admission is limited, special ticketing is required, and patrons must be 21 and up, with a valid ID.
IMAX: Every hour from 6 - 10 p.m., partiers can eake a break with an IMAX film including Galapagos 3D; Dinosaurs 3D: Giants of Patagonia and Grand Canyon Adventure: Rivers at Risk 3D.
Price: Tickets for Mixers, Elixirs and IMAX® are $13 for museum members, $15 for non-members and include a cash bar, complimentary appetizers and an IMAX® ticket. Tickets for the VIP room are $30 for members and non-members.
For more information:• visit
www.hmns.org• call 713-639-4629
Photo courtesy Houston Museum of Natural Science
Labels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 2:03 PM
POTD: Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport
This weekend we passed through the Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport, seen here. Just this month, the Houston Airport System (in partnership with Continental Airlines) announced that it will be spending $1.2 billion on a renovation and expansion of the airport. The project will expand Terminal B from 360,000 square feet to 1.7 million square feet, bigger than the city's Minute Maid Park. Look for work to start later this year and continue for the next seven to ten years.
Labels: Houston, Photo of the Day
posted by Paris & John @ 3:37 PM
Houston Gets CityPass
Starting May 13, visitors to Houston will have a good option for seeing the city's top attractions: CityPass. We've used CityPass in Chicago and it's a great deal offering savings in terms of money and time. This will be the first city in Texas (actually the first in the Southwest) to offer CityPass and we're looking forward to using it on our next visit.
How does it work? CityPass includes a booklet that contains actual tickets to attractions, attraction information, transportation directions, best times to visit, a map and info from National Geographic Traveler. A very important detail: CityPass ticket holders also avoid most ticket queues.
Price: The Houston CityPass will cost $34 for adults (a $63.40 value) and $24 for children ages 4-11 (a $44.70 value).
The Time Period: You'll have nine days to use your ticket booklet from its first use.
The Attractions: The Houston CityPass will include:
- Space Center Houston
- Downtown Aquarium
- Houston Museum of Natural Science
- The Houston Zoo
- Option ticket: The Health Museum OR George Ranch Historical Park
- Option ticket: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston OR Children's Museum of Houston
Where to Buy: Starting May 13, Houston CityPass can be purchased at any participating Houston attraction, at the Houston Visitors Center at 901 Bagby St. or online at
www.VisitHoustonTexas.com or
www.citypass.com.
Labels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 12:19 PM
32708: Houston Plans Dinosaur Exhibit
Mark your calendars for Sept. 19, 2008, the opening of Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation, a new exhibit planned by the Houston Museum of Natural Science in association with the Judith River Foundation. The museum will develop and tour a world premiere exhibition featuring Leonardo. Just who is Leondardo? The most perfectly fossilized plant-eating dinosaur ever discovered—with almost all of his skin still intact.
After the premier in Houston, the exhibit will tour the country with a replica of Leonardo...but to see the real thing, you'll have to come to Houston!
Leonardo was discovered in 2000 on a cattle ranch north of Malta, Montana. The 77-million-year-old dinosar was named after graffiti found on a nearby rock that read: “Leonard Webb loves Geneva Jordan 1916.”
Along with Leonardo, the exhibition will feature several other real specimens including another duckbill named Peanut—a teenager that will illustrate their species’ body structure; an Ichthyosaur mummy, which has contents of her intestines and four babies preserved inside her body; and the only mummified Triceratops skin ever found, which will also be on display for the first time.
Exhibit Dates: The world premiere of Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation is scheduled for Sept. 19, 2008 through Sept. 7, 2009 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
For more information (and a video):• visit
www.hmns.org/generic/dinosaur_mummy_press_room.aspTickets: Tickets for the special exhibition are now on sale; $15 for adults; $12 for children (3 – 11), $10 for seniors (62+), and college students with a valid ID; $8 Museum members; $5 school groups; and $9 for groups of 20 or more.
For tickets:• visit
www.hmns.org
• call (713) 639-4629
Leonardo mural photo courtesy Houston Museum of Natural Science
Labels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 3:56 PM
03062008: Spring Break Fun at Houston's Xploration Station
Looking for some fun activities for the upcoming Texas spring break? Most kids are off for the week starting at the end of the school day on Friday, March 13 through Sunday, March 22. To celebrate the event Houston's Xploration Station, an educational satellite facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, has some special events planned with everything from edible bugs to cockroach races.
Friday, March 14: Learn more about the 12 giant dinosaurs on display with dinosaur tours every hour. Kids can also make and paint casts of dinosaur footprints.
Saturday, March 15: Free Admission. Grand Opening of Paleontology Prep Lab with Dr. Bakker. Dig for fossils of the fearsome Dimetrodon, the largest pre-dinosaur predator, which Museum paleontologists discovered in Seymour, Texas. Learn to identify and sort fossils, make casts of dinosaur footprints, and tour the 12 giant dinosaurs on display.
Sunday, March 16: Insect Day – race cockroaches, handle live insects, sample bug delicacies and tour the live insect exhibition.
Monday, March 17: Learn more about the 12 giant dinosaurs on display with dinosaur tours every hour.
Tuesday, March 18: Discover frogs and insects from all over the world with tours of the new frog exhibition and the insect exhibits every hour.
Wednesday, March 19: Insect Day - tours of the live insect exhibitions will be available every other hour.
Thursday, March 20: Learn more about the 12 giant dinosaurs on display with tours every hour.
Friday, March 21: Chemistry Day: Discover the surprising properties of common materials all around us in chemistry demonstrations at 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and learn to make slime all day.
Saturday, March 22: This year, Easter comes a day early for paleontologists. Celebrate by digging for dinosaur eggs at the Xcavation Station.
Location: The Woodlands Xploration Station is located on the lower level of The Woodlands Mall, across from Sears.
Admission: Admission is $5 for children (3 – 11) and $10 for adults; free for Museum members.
For more information:• visit
www.hmns.org • call (281) 364-7200
Photo courtesy Houston Museum of Natural Science Labels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 3:17 PM
Tintype Exhibit Opening at Houston Museum of Natural History
The Houston Museum of Natural History (of the country's most visited museums) will be opening the
Robb Kendrick’s Texas Tintypes exhibit on Feb. 16. This exhibit is a unique look at the cowboys of today's ranches portrayed using a 19th century photographic technique: tintypes.
Revealing Character: Robb Kendrick’s Texas Tintypes features 66 tintypes of cowboys taken all over the Lone Star State as well as 12 enlarged prints of tintype images. Four cowgirls, primarily from West Texas, are also highlighted in this exhibit, which was initially commissioned by Frost as a campaign in Texas Monthly. The images struck such a chord that Frost felt it was important to share these tintypes with Texans across the state, and tapped Margaret Blagg, executive director of the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas, to curate the exhibit.
What's a Tintype? Tintypes are created through a labor-intensive process that involves coating a thin metal plate with emulsion, sensitizing it in a silver nitrate, and exposing it in the camera before the emulsion dries. A lavender varnish is flowed onto the tintypes after the photo is taken to preserve the image. Making even a few tintypes requires hours of work.
About the Photographer: Robb Kendrick, a native Texan whose work has been featured in such publications as National Geographic, Audubon, and Smithsonian, notes that he is one of very few photographers in the United States that use the tintype process. “Tintypes are a challenging medium because they require the subject to stay still for a number of seconds as the image burns onto the plate, but the process provides so much reward in terms of truly capturing someone’s soul,” said Kendrick. “It’s a perfect medium for exploring a subject matter like character, and there is no better place to find that character than in today’s Texas cowboys. I’ve been privileged to meet so many of these men and women through my travels, and to spend the time with them that this photographic process demands. I hope that Texans will see a little of themselves and their ancestors in this exhibit as it travels across the state. It’s an honor to share these stories and photographs.”
Dates: The exhibit will be on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from February 16 – May 4, 2008.
Price: Tickets for the exhibition are included in general admission to the Museum; $9 for adults; $7 for children (3 – 11), seniors (62+), and college students with a valid ID; free for Museum members; $2.50 school groups; and $4.50 for groups of 20 or more.
For more information:• visit
www.hmns.org• call (713) 639-4629
Photo by Robb Kendrick; courtesy Houston Museum of Natural ScienceLabels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 12:01 PM
Four Seasons Hotel Houston Offers Backstage Kitchen Passes
If you're a real foodie, you might be interested in the new Sunday brunch offered at the Four Seasons Hotel Houston's Quattro restaurant. Every Sunday from 10:30am to 2pm, you can stroll right into the kitchen and watch the chefs work, even asking questions of the newest culinary team members, Executive Chef Andrea Ossola and Executive Sous Chef Chuck Kazmer. Nibble on some tapas-style entrees right off the line then check out the rest of the buffet: the egg bar with everything from omelets to eggs benedict; an antipasti room with fresh seafood, cheeses and breads; and dessert buffet.
For More Information:• visit the
Four Seasons Hotel Houston websiteLabels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 2:06 PM
CSI Exhibit Opens in Houston
If you’re a fan of CSI, you can’t miss the forensic science exhibit, CSI: The Experience. The exhibit opens Feb. 1 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and will remain on display through April 30, 2008.
Visitors to the exhibit learn what it’s like to step onto a crime scene and then collect the evidence and analyze it using the latest scientific methods.
The special exhibit was developed by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History with support from CBS Consumer Products, the cast and crew of the television show, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the National Science Foundation.
Cast members from the CSI television show welcome guests into the exhibit, lead them through the experience, and evaluate their conclusions. The exhibit starts with one of three mock crime scenes – “A House Collided,” “Who Got Served?” or “No Bones About It!” then the work turns to collecting and recording the evidence, then entering a forensic lab for scientific testing then on to autopsy rooms for pathology analysis.
“There is nothing like a crime or mystery to fire the imagination, and the CSI television series has gone a long way in making science cool,” said Kathleen Havens, assistant director of youth education for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. “Putting a fresh face on science by taking it “Hollywood” is an outstanding way to attract bright young minds to the scientific field.”
Price: Tickets for CSI: The Experience are $15 for adults; $12 for children (3 – 11), seniors (62+), and college students with a valid ID; $9 Museum members; $5 school groups; and $11 for groups of 20 or more.
For More Information:• visit
www.hmns.org• call (713) 639-4629
Photo © 2007 Fort Worth Museum of Science and HistoryLabels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 10:17 AM
Houston Plans Largest Public Food and Wine Event
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is just around the corner and that means it's also time for the city's largest public food and wine event. Now in its fifth year, Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition will feature over 200 wines as well as food from over 50 local restaurants, caterers, and culinary institutions.
Where: The event will take place on the floor of the Reliant Astrodome in Houston.
When: Monday, Feb. 18, 2008, from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Price: Tickets are $100 per person in advance or $125 at the door, with limited reserved tables of 10 seats offered for $1,800. Individuals who purchase a limited reserved table of 10 will be permitted to enter Reliant Astrodome at 6:30 p.m. Individual ticket holders will be able to enter at 7 p.m.
For more information:• visit
www.rodeohouston.com• call 832.667.1128
• Tickets also are available at the Show’s Ticket Office inside Reliant Center.
Labels: Festivals, Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 8:36 PM
POTD: The Children's Museum of Houston
There's no missing The Children's Museum of Houston: just look for the giant yellow columns! The museum is aimed at youngsters up to age 12 and features interactive exhibits that keep children entertained and learning all at once.
Labels: Houston, Photo of the Day
posted by Paris & John @ 12:35 PM
Hotel ZaZa Houston Offers Shop Til You Drop Package
Still have big plans for lots of holiday shopping? We've received word of a package at Houston's new Hotel ZaZa that's great for shoppers. The hotel's "Magic Carpet" shuttle service will keep you out of the holiday traffic, providing door-to-door service to Houston retail hot-spots Rice Village, Highland Village and The Galleria for guests who book the “Shop 'Til You Drop” overnight package
The Package: The “Shop ‘Til You Drop” package includes:
• Shopping bag
• Transportation to Rice Village, Highland Village and The Galleria
• Complimentary gift wrap for all items purchased during stay
• Special ZaZa holiday turn down service each night of stay
Rate: $265 (+ tax) per night. Maximum 2 people. A fee of $50 per night will be added for additional guests.
Dates: The package is available until December 22.
For Reservations:• call Hotel ZaZa Houston at 713.526.1991
Labels: holidays, Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 4:46 PM
Houston Wine Competition Scheduled in November
The fifth annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition is scheduled for November 10-11, 2007. All 2008 competition winners will be announced shortly after the competition.
The top winners from the competition will be recognized at the Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition on February 18, 2008 at 7 p.m., on the floor of the Reliant Astrodome. Buckles, chaps and saddles will be awarded to the Grand and Reserve Grand Champion Best of Show, Class and Reserve Class Champions, Top Texas Wine, Top All-Around Winery, Top Wine Outfit, Top Value Wine, Top Red Wine, Top White Wine, Top Sparkling Wine and Top Dessert Wine.
Guests get to sample the Champion wines as well as signature appetizers from area restaurant and catering institutions. Guests will vote on their favorite bites in the Best Bites Competition.
All Champion wines will be auctioned at the Rodeo Uncorked! Champion Wine Auction and Dinner, March 8, 2008. The 2007 auction was a record-breaking event, bringing in more than $840,000.
For More Information:• visit
www.rodeohouston.comLabels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 9:04 AM
Houston Hosting International Quilt Festival
As the weather turns cooler, thoughts turn cozy...and nothing's cozier than a quilt.
There will be plenty of coziness next month at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, an event called the "World's Fair of Quilts." The festival takes place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston from November 1-4, with classes beginning October 29. The festival will also hold Preview Night on October 31. Over 2,000 quilts will be display throughout the event which will draw over 50,000 visitors.
About the Festival: Festival features more than 1,000 booths selling everything from antique and contemporary quilts to fabric, tools, patterns, and books. Many other vendors also will offer antiques, jewelry and country crafts. From large fabric companies to small mom-and-pop shops, Festival's vendors and special exhibits will spread out over the equivalent of more than 15 football fields in the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Classes: Quilt and textile art education are also integral parts of the show. More than 450 classes, lectures and special events will take place as part of Festival's Quiltmaking Academy, taught by dozens of well-known instructors and covering all quilting styles and skill levels.
For More Information:• visit
http://www.quilts.com• email shows@quilts.com
• write Houston Festival, c/o Quilts, Inc., 7660 Woodway, Suite 550, Houston, TX 77063
• call 713-781-6864
Photo: courtesy International Quilt Festival.
Texas(73” x 98”) by Lois Atkins, machine quilted by Leslie Sparks.
From the special exhibit “In the American Tradition VI.”
Partial sponsorship by Coats & Clark.
Labels: Festivals, Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 8:02 PM
Houston Zoo Expanding exhibit
If you love elephants, you'll love the changes that will be taking place at the Houston Zoo with the expansion of its McNair Asian Elephant Habitat. Presently a half-acre exhibit, the elephants will have plenty of elbow room in the new three-acre facility, making this one of the premier elephant conservation centers in the country.
The elephant area will expand with three large yards, the addition of a second pool, and a new barn that offers guests a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of our elephants. The new yards will be able to accommodate additional elephants, creating a true breeding herd. Two of the three yards will accommodate bull elephants.
The expansion will be built in two phases. Phase One, a $5 million project, includes an improved viewing area, a new 9,000-square-foot elephant barn and additional outdoor holding areas. Completion of the first phase is expected in spring of 2008.
The $3 million Phase Two consists of renovating the existing barns and adding much larger exhibit space – nearly an acre and a half – for future family groups in a bull yard and a female/family group yard. Completion of this second phase of the expansion is expected in 2009-2010.
Labels: Houston
posted by Paris & John @ 8:20 AM
Fredericksburg
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is kicking off its fifth year of Mixers, Elixirs and IMAX®. Beginning June 6, the perfect Friday night party returns with some of Houston’s most popular bands, a new IMAX lineup, and the addition of a private VIP room, known as “The Lab.”
