Rain, rain go away come again another year

Have I mentioned that it has rained a lot here? Oh yes, I guess I have. But as much rain as we have in the two months we’ve been here, today topped them all.

The time change threw me for a loop this morning and I got up much earlier than I needed to. Joan, on the other hand, stayed in bed until after 10 a.m. (new time).

Once we had cleaned up we sat down to watch a hockey game on NBC. All week they had been promoting the Sunday Hockey Game of the Week, but when the time came what was on the TV was the ACC Tournament basketball game.

Lion Fish

We still had two tickets in our CityPass booklets and one of them was for the downtown Aquarium, which we had heard good things about. So with no hockey we decided to start for downtown Houston and visit the aquarium before we headed to the afternoon Houston Aeros versus the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game that we had tickets to.

Now when I think of aquarium, I think of Monterey. No one will ever confuse the Houston Aquarium with the Monterey Aquarium. Not in the same league, not in the same solar system, but we had a ticket so we went.

Bet you didn't know I was a diver

Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad aquarium, it is just small and probably the big draw for families is that after you tour the fish tanks, which takes about 40 minutes, there is a 7-acre park with a ferris wheel, a thrill ride and a train ride along with carnival games.

By the way, all the children we saw at the Natural Science Museum and the next day at the Health Museum were all at the aquarium with their parents on Sunday.

White Tiger

But the real adventure was on the way to the aquarium when we ran into a 30-minute monsoon on I-45. I’ve driven in bad rain, but this may have been the longest stretch of bad rain I have ever driven in. It just went on and on. The wipers had no effect, even on the highest setting. That’s how hard the rain was coming down.

For the whole weekend they told us we had 4-inches of rain. A record for the entire month of March in one weekend.

Fortunately we arrived safe and sound and ate lunch in the car before we headed into the aquarium. By then the rain had slowed some, but it never really stopped until we were inside the Toyota Center for the hockey game.

Shark tank

Inside the aquarium we enjoyed the settings and environment of the tanks, but just kind of expected more of them. Actually, the biggest fish tank was in the restaurant, which we got permission to look at even though we didn’t eat there (pricey).

The museum also includes a display of rare live White Tigers. The tiger was calm except when on man wearing a red shirt got near the glass. For some reason the Tiger did not like the man and continued to jump on the glass and bare his teeth at him.

Me at the Toyota Center with Red Wings shirt

After our tour of the aquarium we sat in the lounge for a little bit and then decided to take the Shark Train (for an extra $5 a person). The train goes into a building in which the aquarium is around and above you. The train stops and you get a short talk on the importance of sharks, which are swimming all around you while the broadcast is going on.

With the train ride complete we headed to the Toyota Center for our second and final hockey game with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Last night, as you will recall, we witnessed a blood-letting and the Michigan team lost 5-1. It was ugly.

The Aeros mascot

Tonight was much, much better. Ty Conklin played goal like he had actually been in the NHL earlier in the season, as he was and the rest of the team played much more aggressive in front of him. Final score: 5-2.

The game was a fund-raiser and celebration of Breast Cancer awareness and there were many activities between periods related to that. Also, Joan and I ate dinner at the arena.

It is a beautiful arena for hockey and holds almost 18,000 people (only about 9,000 were there) but it is a modern stadium and very comfortable. I love Joe Louis Arena, but it would be nice to see hockey every time in an arena this nice.

The trip home was uneventful and the rain was completely stopped so the ride home was much easier than the trip downtown.

And although I'm not a big basketball fan was excited to learn that the MSU Spartans won the Big Ten Conference Championship today beating Ohio State University.