Urban Walking and a Few Stops

This morning I decided that I was going to walk around the four major streets that frame the Hyde Park neighborhood.  I have been in the car with Jackie as we have driven to the house from all of those directions, but I decided that I wanted to really get a sense of all the businesses, interesting sites and maybe find some places that I would like to check out.  I spent over two hours walking and made two stops before I headed back to the house. 

After about  an hour I somewhat surprisingly came upon a eyeglass shop.  I had just read about the shop yesterday but had not idea when I set out to stretch my walking area that I would walk right past The Eye Gallery .  I do love my glasses.  Even though I had my eye exam in December when I was in Minneapolis, and my prescription had changed a little, I decided that I would not get new glasses at that time.   For the last couple of months every know and then I found myself thinking that I might want to get some fun glasses.  So....

I rationalized that I had been walking for quite awhile and it would be good to take a little break. I could just stop in to see what kind of glasses they had, it wouldn't be a bad thing.  Well,  I had a lot of fun.   The two staff who were there had a hay day pulling out glasses that they thought would look great on my face.  I had great fun trying them all on!  I could feel my self weakening and beginning to imagine what it would feel like to have a new pair of drop dead styling glasses.  It isn't like I don't have great glasses right now, but why not have another great pair?  I started thinking that it would be good to have my new prescription lenses.  So I relented.  I will have a new pair of glasses at the end of the week, or early next week.  I will post a picture.  But no clues yet!

Then it was back to the concrete!  On the walk I found some great restaurants and cafes:  Greek, natural bakery,  sandwich shops, Mexican, Japanese, Thai and classic "American".  There were neighborhood restaurants and national chains.  Saw the bagel place that is supposed to be best outside of New York City. 

After another hour of walking I decided to stop for a late lunch at Barnaby's Cafe
there are several Barnaby's in the Houston area, named after the owners favorite childhood dog.  They have a dog patio and really good food.  I had a Cesar salad and iced tea.  I was ready for a cold drink and getting out of the head.  I hate to say this but I was sweating and warm.  I realized that I need to wear my hat to shade my face from the sun.  I also found that I wanted to walk on the shady side of the street when I could.  I have been out of the cold for over a week, and I find that I continue to enjoy the change more and more. 

After lunch it was onto the final part of my walk.  In the over two hours of walking I did today, I did not see one other person walking.  I did almost get run over by a biker, but no pedestrians.  I did see one public bus, but no one waiting at any of the stops.  There may be some other neighborhoods were people are walking but it was not in this one.  Houston is 75 miles around and there are lots of cars.  There are really expensive cars, Porsche's, BWM's, Corvette's, and a whole list of others.  People love their cars and Texas is a big state, Houston is a big city and there is lots and lots of asphalt.  So it was no surprise that on my walk there were as many "hand wash" car washes as coffee houses.  However, I was the sole walker.  Clearly, it is not a place that anyone would say had high "walk-ability".  I was definitely a walking oddity.

I have some other plans besides walking this week and I am thinking that tomorrow afternoon will be another movie day!  I will walk to movie as well.  I am not expecting to see any other walkers but I am expecting to see a good movie.  I'll be sure to let you know how it is.  But for today I enjoyed urban exploring and a bit of shopping in the neighborhood!