Houston Auto Show 2015

In 2012, I dated a guy that introduced me to the Houston Auto Show.

I had heard about and attended other car shows in the city but this is the legit show that happens every January and showcases all the awesome new cars from most major companies like Ford, Lincoln, Cadillac, etc. I'm partial to fine German engineered, luxury vehicles like Mercedes and BMW, but I still like to see what all the manufacturers have come up with as well.  

I wouldn't say I know everything about cars...but I can name a few if I see them and they're pretty to look at!

Since 2012, I have been to every Houston Auto Show and this year was no different. 

My friend was able to score discount tickets for us and we were on the way to NRG (formerly Reliant) Stadium around 3:30pm on Saturday. The show is usually in town from Thursday to Sunday but since we work....Saturday was the best day.

We walked a green mile from the parking area to NRG Center and were met with lines, long lines all the way out the front door and masses of people in the lobby in every direction. You see, for a mere $12 per person, you can gain entrance to the show and partake in all the festivities....pretty good deal, I think. Seems like half the city of Houston had the same idea we did.

But...I don't do lines and fortunately my companion had the good sense to pre purchase our tickets. We skipped the line...and went right inside. 

And then....there they were...all shiny and new....elegant and sleek...beautiful, astonishing...and distinctive...each in their own right. 

We picked a starting point near the Alpha Romeo...a car I have never even seen in person before....whew lawd.....they knew what they were doing when they made this one in red. This car almost had me sweating...and there were so many people around it I could barely get a clear shot. Definitely one of my favs of the day.

Next, I went for the Corvettes........Corvette has come a looong way, in my opinion. They've always been fly but this right here....the red and the gray. Impeccable. 

FYI: I'm born and raised on BMW. In fact, my first car was a sky blue 1990 525i and I named her Bessie. My parents gave her to me when I was 17 and still in high school. We parted ways my freshman year of college but then sophomore year, I proudly drove her down to San Antonio and she was with me until I graduated. Bessie carried me all the way through law school too. Then on graduation day, during the hustle and bustle of the day, I misplaced the keys and never found them again. So that's about 8 years I had her and in 2005 she was 18 years old with over 175k miles. I put so much money into caring for her and she wasn't cheap either... and after I lost the key she stayed in our backyard, completely untouched, until about a month ago when my brother sold her on craigslist. At least he had the decency...pity really...to get a pic and video of the tow truck carrying her away so I could see her in motion one last time. It all happened so fast. It was raining that day....the video was kinda epic too...capturing just enough drama to invoke one single solitary tear that fell from my right eye. 

Here she is....in all her light blue glory...being loaded on the tow truck.

And here's the video he took....I thank God for my sweet brother for he knew exactly what this little blue devil meant to me:

He followed it with a link to this video b/c he's a clown: 

And actually...this was the first picture he sent me. An empty space where my little blue baby used to be. Taking up valuable space in the backyard...but all the time giving me life. This picture was what actually had me all choked up...

Anyway....enough sad stories. Now you know I love BMW so this little car gave me the warm and fuzzies. It's definitely too small for me, I'm kind of an amazon, but it's the cutest thing ever and looks like it goes really fast. 

I appreciated, but was unimpressed by, all the other cars I saw until I noticed a large crowd around this one....the Pagani Huayra. I know nothing about this car except that its beautiful and blue is my favorite color. My brother says its worth millions....

Watch what this man has to say about it:

Then we saw Jaguar:

Land Rover:

This Aston Martin:

Ferrari:

Lamborghini:

And some others in between. I like the old school section. This year, they displayed old schools in the lobby as well. I like to get pics of these for my dad. 

Lastly....I enjoyed the paint on this Phantom. Turns out its a wrap and can be easily removed. Pretty cool.

All in all....nice little Saturday. Good time with a good friend and some majorly awesome cars. 

I've got some great adventures coming up. I know you're gonna love them!

 

A Summer Palace in Winter

In the afternoon, after our visit to the Forbidden City, we drove the 10 miles outside of Beijing to the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing...completely frozen over in the winter time lol. I forgot to mention that it was about 16 degrees and the wind chill made it feel something like 10. Literally the coldest weather I've ever experienced in my whole life....and I was outside...sightseeing the whole time...enduring the hawk smacking me on my cheeks (hawk - a noun used to describe cold weather with a biting wind or bitter cold as if it were an inanimate object...more commonly used by people in areas like Chicago where it gets unbearably cold in the winter). By the end of the tour, my hands were so cold they had gone numb.

Brief history of the Summer Palace: Construction started in 1750 as a royal garden for the royal families to rest and entertain. Later, it became the main residence of the royal families in the Qing Dynasty. After being burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces, it was rebuilt in 1888 and renamed the Summer Palace. The palace was destroyed again in 1900 and repaired 2 years later. In 1924 it was opened to the public and named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. For more information about visiting the Summer Palace, click here. The site is in Chinese but can be translated. 

The most prominent parts of the Summer Palace are Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake. The lake is man made...and all the soil excavated from that area was used to build the hill. For more historical information about the Summer Palace, click here. Also, the UNESCO information can be found here. 

Approaching the Summer Palace, I'm thinking to myself, I really need a side hustle because my next goal in life is to acquire a summer palace of some sort. Just think, coming to visit me at the summer palace and having great gatsby-esque parties by the lake (the depiction of the parties from the movie)....I can see it now. Of course, my summer palace would be on a smaller scale but its definitely something worth looking into. My lake doesn't have to be this big...I could swap it out for a really dope pool but you get the idea.

In the picture below, you can clearly see Longevity Hill. 

There were so many spectacular examples of Chinese architecture. UNESCO refers to it as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape and garden design and combined with the various structures it forms a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthitic value. I honestly couldn't agree more. Every time I turned my head there was something else interesting I wanted to photograph, some exciting angle. It seemed like it was all very intentionally designed, very calculated. Almost like it was made to give you a phenomenal visual experience. Actually, this was pissing me off a little. I tried to capture everything, literally, but since I have little to no training on how to use my camera aside from the traditional point and shoot...I felt like I wasn't able to really get everything. I did the best with what I had though....sigh. 

I really adore the picture below. About 75% 85% (let's be real) of the awesome pictures I take are completely accidental. I spend tons of time trying to maneuver the camera to get great angles etc but its in those random moments when I raise my camera that I get something that I think is truly beautiful. This is a picture of the Smartours group my cousin and I traveled with, all focused on a large rock or shield on display in the garden. You can see the Smartours flag, our beacon that kept us from getting lost in the crowd of tourists, flapping in the wind. I love how it captured kind of an intense and epic moment....sun shining from the east...clear blue skies....everyone kind gazing upward towards the arch in the background....I'd like to pat myself on the back for this one.

Other random shots of the gardens...

Also, in a couple of my pics you'll notice a blue hue. It's weird b/c that's just the shadow cast by the buildings and the position of the sun in the sky but it made things look pretty cool too. 

I have more pictures of this corridor than I'd like to admit but....the picture below shows The Long Gallery (Changlang). This is the most classic feature on the grounds of the Summer Palace and it was astonishing. The corridor is 728 meters long and is the longest in Chinese classic gardens - built in 1750 by the emperor so that his mother could walk outdoors regardless of the weather and view the garden. Like most of the attractions we saw in China, it was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1886. The corridor has 273 "rooms", which is literally just the space between the two pairs of columns that support the roof. In the center is the Gate of Dispelling Clouds. 

The corridors or galleries are an important part of ancient Chinese architecture. What stood out to me the most was the 14,000 Su style colored painting on every beam and every cross member. The Long Gallery is also commonly referred to as "the colored paintings museum". Because of its length and the abundance of colored paintings, the Long Gallery was included in the Guiness Book of World Records in the early 1900s. To say this was the highlight of the Summer Palace would be an understatement. 

Please enjoy the pics of the gallery and surrounding area below.

Then, we came upon this beauty. This is a Marble Boat. Yes...that's right. Made entirely of marble. Built in 1755 and rebuilt in 1893 using a western design. The Empress Dowager Cixi used the boat to view the scenery and be entertained. Of course...this boat is completely non-functional because marble would just sink to the bottom of the lake. It's decorated with glass windows and wheels paved with colorful bricks. It is said that the huge mirrors were installed so that the empress could enjoy the exquisite lake scene while having tea. 

 

The part of the Summer Palace is called Back Lake. The gate, bridge and dock with the yellow roof boats depicted below were incredible. 

The back of the Marble Boat in the frozen Lake Kunming...

We toured the gardens surrounding the palace.

This picture is an example of the angles I mentioned earlier. Look at that....it looks purposeful. 

I LOVE this bridge and there are beautiful, droopy weeping willow trees all over China. Of course it was winter time so they were lacking some foliage but... my goodness. The drama of the scenes from on top of and around this bridge....gave me life.

Round of applause for the Summer Palace ladies and gentleman....I'll wait. 

More of China and maybe a throw back to Greece up next!

"There's no where to go but everywhere...so get going!"~~GEV