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texd
6/5/2006, 10:46 PM
Hope some of y'all are able to haul on down to Houston for the Regional. As a Rice fan who doesn't live in Houston but spends a hell of a lot of time there, I hope I can provide some tips:

FLYING IN
Houston has 2 commercial airports: Hobby (HOU) and Intercontintental (IAH aka Bush). Hobby is smaller and closer to town, though still larger than Will Rogers or Tulsa; this is where Southwest flies to. Continental flies into Intercontinental (if you fly in on a Continental regional jet, request the exit row for a ton of leg room).

GETTING AROUND
Rent cars shouldn't be too pricey for the weekend, but if you'd prefer to go without, it is possible, but not desirable or advisable... it will be very hot and very humid. There are hotels and lots of restaurants/nightlife within walking distance of the ballpark, problem is they're on opposite sides of the ballpark.

In this map centered over Reckling Field (the ballpark) (maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Lanier+Dr+%26+University+Blvd,+Houston,+TX+77030 ), the ballpark is right under the red balloon (note, to get onto campus, you have to go to Stockton St.) The Rice Village, which I keep referring to, is just west of campus basically in the area between Morningside and Kirby and between Rice and University.

HOTELS
Houston's a lot like OKC... most of the hotel rooms are booked for biz travel, making prices on weekends pretty cheap.

I would recommend staying either in the Medical Center (these are walking distance) or downtown (there's a light rail (www.ridemetro.org/pdf/routes/700-redline.pdf) that drops off in the Medical Center and goes downtown). If taking light rail, the proper ballpark stop is "Dryden/TMC." The Rice U stop will drop you at the wrong end of campus but give you a beautiful mile or so walk to the ballpark.

Several medical center hotels (Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn) are located about 1/2-1/3 mile from the ballpark, along Main and Fannin Streets, between Holcombe and Dryden. If you're booking these, they will all have "Medical Center" in their name. These will run $100-130/night. The Holiday Inn Med Center has a free van that will drive you to Rice campus and Rice Village (dining, shopping, bars), and the others may also have that.

Downtown of course has lots of hotels, and here's where I have some very useful experience:

Hilton Americas: This is a NEW gi-normous hotel built to go with the convention center. As a result it has a lot of rooms (over 1000) and not all that much going on during the weekends. If you go to Hotwire.com (one of those discount hotel sites that won't tell you the name of the hotel until you've paid for it) and search downtown Houston, this hotel shows up as "4-star hotel in Downtown Houston" for $73-77 and has 6 logos under it -- Restaurant, Swim, Weights, Spa, Internet, and Biz Center. I used this Memorial Day weekend and 3 weeks earlier. Parking is $12 (self) or $22 (valet) per day, but there's lots of street parking around the hotel as long as there's not a big event at the convention center or Toyota Center (this past weekend there were high school graduations, so that could be happening again). Normal rate from Hilton.com is $129. The Hilton is about 8 blocks from the light rail and from downtown nightlife. (Note, some Baylor and ASU fans reported getting the Hilton for $55 and $60 on Priceline last weekend.)

Hyatt Regency Downtown: This is also a big hotel, but not new. I stayed here three weeks ago using Priceline's name your own price feature. I told priceline to find me a downtown 4-star hotel for $50, and that's what I ended up paying. I tried to get it for Memorial Day weekend as well but was unable to. This was the headquarter hotel for the Conf USA tourney, so the 6 out of town teams stayed there. I don't know if it will be headquarters for the regional teams. The Hyatt is about 5 blocks from light rail and about 5 blocks from downtown nightlife. Parking there is about $20 valet and $15 self (but the self parking has no in-out priveleges, whereas the hilton does). There's a good bit of street parking available on the weekends though (M-F only meters).

The downtown hotels are all about 5-6 miles from the ballpark.

DINING
Houston has just tons of great restaurants. If you're travelling for a regional, you'r not likely to be digging into it, but should you decide to go upscale, may I recommend the following:

Brennan's (www.brennanshouston.com/) -- Upscale creole. The same family as the one in NOLA (different family member). Good for dinner or brunch. Be sure to try the turtle soup and the crabcakes. Reservations needed. Dress code. Very expensive. Located about halfway between Downtown and Rice U Campus (which is not very far).

any Cordua family restaurant (www.cordua.com/) -- Cordua restaurants include Americas, Churrascos, Artista, and Amazon. Upscale Argentinian at the base of all of it, but with variations from one place to another. Americas is the fancier one followed by Artista, and Churrascos. Amazon is completely casual, patio-style dining, and you order at the counter. Their prices are approximately equivalent to how fancy they are, with Amazon at the very low end running about $12/person if you're not drinking alcohol. Artista is located downtown; Amazon about 2.5 miles from Rice; Churrascos is a little farther away; and Americas is probably 7-8 miles. If you go after a game, you'll see several folks there who just came from the ballpark, sometimes even some players.

Benjy's (www.benjys.com/home.html) -- VERY GOOD and reasonably priced upscale American cuisine. Moderately expensive. Located in Rice Village

CASUAL DINING:
Lots of good places in the Rice Village and also up along Kirby from University Blvd north to Westheimer. Try some of the Goode Company joints (www.goodecompany.com/goodeRestaurant.aspx) (Taqueria, with good brunch, Barbecue, Seafood) up along Kirby or for some terrific Tex-Mex go to Chuy's (chuys.com/) on Westheimer about a block west of Kirby (long waits at typical meal hours on weekends -- be sure to consider the Elvis Fried Chicken and request some "Creamy Jalepeno Sauce" to go with your chips). The aforementioned Amazon is also along this stretch of Kirby.

BREAKFAST TACOS:
Start your morning right. Good places to go are Tacos A-Go-Go (Main at Winbern, right at the Holman/HCC light rail stop) and Villa Arcos (3009 Navigation -- will be a red building on your left with small white letters above the door) (maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=3009+Navigation,+Houston,+TX). Villa Arcos is the only place on this whole post that I consider hard to get to (cash only). It is soooooo worth it.

(Having said that, I'll give you the names of two other places for you to track down if you want some great Houston food very much off the beaten path: Thelma's BBQ and Frenchy's fried chicken. They're both cash only I think.)

NIGHTLIFE
Houston has a nightlife downtown along Main Street that's a little younger (and by all recent reports I've heard, rougher) in nature.

Also downtown is the Theater District, which is basically along Bagby, Louisiana and Smith streets downtown around Texas and Capitol streets. There's some dining, a movie theater, "family" pool hall, as well as the opera, symphony, and live theaters.

For great live music, try the Continental Club (www.continentalclub.com/). It tends to be Austin music in nature (rockabilly/very alt country). It's right at the Holman/HCC light rail stop.

For more mellow bars than downtown, and probably more appropriate for the general baseball traveler, I recommend the Rice Village (just west of Rice Campus), especially along Morningside. The Gingerman has a huge selection of draft beers and has a courtyard in back. Lil Woodrows is a bar with a deck on the street. There are several Irish pubs and some other variety of bars.

OTHER EXTRACURRICULARS
Great Museums (art and otherwise) and a zoo just about a half mile north of Rice campus on the light rail. Aquarium downtown. Galleria (www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=805) mall (third largest shopping mall in US). Here's a single link for info on all that jazz. (www.visithoustontexas.com/visitors/what_to_do/) Oh yeah, and golf at Hermann Park (www.houstontx.gov/municipalgolf/hermann/index.html) (immediately east of Rice U; immediately north of Med center)... a decent muni course complete with club rentals so you don't have to fly with yours.

I may add more information later, but surely that's more than enough to get you on your way.

See you at the ballpark,
texd

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SelmaBamaFan
6/5/2006, 10:48 PM
During my two stints in Houston, I stayed at the galleria mall, and loved it there.


Dunno how close that is to the rail or whatever, but lots of eateries (not to mention a freaking MALL) in the area... Chipotle being one of them :D

Sooner24
6/5/2006, 11:17 PM
Thanks for all the info. If I wasn't already going to TMS this weekend I would consider heading down.

KyleUT
6/7/2006, 02:57 PM
During my two stints in Houston, I stayed at the galleria mall, and loved it there.


Dunno how close that is to the rail or whatever, but lots of eateries (not to mention a freaking MALL) in the area... Chipotle being one of them :D

If y'all are coming to H-town, please do not eat at Chipotle. There's a reason we're like the #2 fattest city in America, we know how to eat! PM me if y'all have any questions or need suggestions...

The Galleria is no where near the light rail nor really easily accessible to West U/Rice area.

Oh and congrats on the comeback this past weekend! I'm definitely gonna be rooting y'all on the rest of the way, and may show up down at Reckling this weekend...I'll be the one hiding in orange!

GoOwls
6/7/2006, 03:24 PM
Yes, dear lord, don't go to Chipotle.

And the light rail as it exists now is just a straight North-South rail from downtown through the Rice area, and down to Reliant. So unless you plan on booking a hotel within 5 blocks East or West of Main Street, it won't prove to be extremely useful.

texd
6/7/2006, 06:02 PM
Dunno how close that is to the rail or whatever, but lots of eateries (not to mention a freaking MALL) in the area... Chipotle being one of them :D

Gotta agree with everyone else thus far on the don't come to Houston and then eat Chipotle statement.

If you only eat at places named in my post above, you will be one really happy camper.

My personal favorites from the casual dining side of things:

Villa Arcos - Migas plate or Bacon Egg & Chz / Chorizo Egg & Chz tacos
Chuy's - Elvis Fried Chicken (it's battered in potato chips) or Southwestern Enchilada (fried egg on top)
Amazon - Amazon
Frenchy's - Fried Chicken (It's a fried chicken joint)
Thelma's - 'Cue and sweet tea

Actually here's one I can't believe I left off the list above:
Ragin' Cajun - Bucket o' boiled crawfish or Softshell Crab Po'Boy (the Cajun is located on Richmond west of Shepherd and Kirby (your most likely north/south routes to get there), but east of the galleria area

And if you get a hankering in the wee hours, there are lots of good 24 hour taquerias... an easy one to direct you to is La Taqueria Tapatia at 1749 Richmond (east of Shepherd). Technically its hours are 'til 3:00AM weeknights and 'til 5:00AM Fri-Sat.

Also good for a late night nosh is Mai's Vietnamese Restaurant at 3403 Milam (between downtown and Rice U). They have hours (2:30 AM weeknights; 3:30 weekends) but they really stay open until people stop showing up, which on weekends can be until 4:30 or 5 am)

As far as staying at the Galleria goes, you can do it but traffic in that part of town is terrible on weekdays and actually gets worse on weekends. It's not the kind of thing you want to fight every time you go back to the hotel.

texd
6/8/2006, 08:46 AM
Gotta agree with everyone else thus far on the don't come to Houston and then eat Chipotle statement.

I'd like to amend my previous Chipotle statement.

Don't come to Houston and eat Chipotle if you're looking for Houston food. If the decision is Chipotle vs McD's/BK/Wendy's, by all means eat at Chipotle. It's decent for fast food (let's face it... that's what it is) and they are a longtime sponsor of Rice Baseball. (And any sponsor of college baseball -- regardless of the team -- should be supported when appropriate).

But if you're trying to decide between Chipotle and the hundreds of excellent authentic eateries in Houston, skip Chipotle.

Sooner95
6/8/2006, 12:18 PM
Nice info..thx

King Crimson
6/8/2006, 02:23 PM
i'm in Colorado and won't be making the trip but i will remember the name Villa Arcos. i like migas. and also Taqueria Tapatia. for the future.

thanks.