January 30, 2013 Central Market, Houston

Last night was it really windy in Gilchrist.  We brought the front slide in, to save some wear-and-tear on the awning.  We didn't bring the bedroom slide in, but it wasn't a very relaxing night, anyway.  The wind kept intermittently rocking the RV - not enough to be dangerous, but enough to be felt.  And then it began to rain.  So we slept, but not very well.

That would have made today a good day to sleep in, except that we had other plans.  We've seen Central Market on Food Network and since there is one in Houston, we decided to go see it.  Today was forecasted to be windy and overcast, which is not good weather for walking along the beach, but it's just fine for wandering through a grocery store!  It's about 90 miles away but part of the trip is on the ferry, so it takes almost 2 hours.  That's alright - we kind of like the ferry.  As noted in our January 18, 2012 entry, the ferry is free and really efficient.  The ferries (there are several of them) look top-heavy; they have a very slender construction on the main level to allow for more cars, while the second level is where the crew works.

When we got off the ferry we took highway 45 north into Houston.  My first surprise is that Central Market is part of the HEB family.  I like the HEB stores but I didn't know they were associated with Central Market.  My second surprise is that the store is not quite as large as it looked on TV.  Oh, well, that's not important, because it certainly is large enough.  They have a good selection of fresh fruit and vegetables.  This is just the potato section:

Several aisles are devoted to wine.  I thought they could take out a few of those and add some more chocolate, but maybe that's just me.  I really enjoyed the samples, and they had tons of samples: oranges, apples, grapefruit, 6 kinds of breads with butter and cream cheese, chocolates (well, some), spreads, jams, and I can't remember what else.  And the bread was especially wonderful.  These folks know how to bake! 

In spite of having one of each sample (and two of some), we decided to have lunch at the Central Market Cafe. They do a really good sandwich business there.  Randy got roast beef and I got Black Forrest Ham on Ciabatta, with lots of goodies. 

After lunch we were ready to go back home.  On the ferry ride back we saw at least 10 huge tankers lining up on the horizon, ready to come into port, while overhead gulls and pelicans floated on the wind without a single wingstroke, like kites with invisible strings. 

When we got back on the Bolivar Peninsula, we thought again how strange it seems to us that so many houses are being built right on the spot where, just a few years ago, Hurricane Ivan wiped out everything.  Now we see whole groups of new houses, all high on stilts, at least one story above the ground.  Personally I think that if you have to build your house on stilts, you might want to consider building somewhere else.