Tampa Bay

Who knew that Tampa is a bunch of islands? I guess I never did. You can kind of see them from the above picture taken from an office building downtown. As a result of this spread, you drive over water half the time you are there. Just watch out not to take 275 the wrong way....

Then you have to drive for about 20 minutes over water and no exits... about 7 miles away. However, the drive is beautiful. I really enjoyed Tampa as it seems to me to be the Hawaii of continental America. For two reasons: 1) the tropical weather and plants like the one below...

... and 2) because of Clearwater beach that reminded me of Kailua beach so much. The sand is just as white, sugary, and soft (just the water is not as clean).

I like the last picture a lot because it shows how white the sand is with my white towel and also what I was doing there. At sunset, a lot of people came to fish and enjoy the view...

...and these big birds came in to eat the fish remnants that people would give them. It was all beautiful.

I didn't see anything architecturally interesting but what I noticed is that people love to write on their cars. Here are some examples that I captured :-)

Talking of cars... the radio stations were really really bad and they played the same music over and over. I need the car rental companies to have a radio station guide. Another very annoying thing that kept on happening is that the car thought that there was someone sitting in my passenger seat and it was constantly beeping for them to put the seat belt on but it was only my (very heavy) purse :-(

How can you fix that cars?

PS: no BP oil spill had reached Tampa when I was there and I don't think it ever did because of  a current that pushes waters away from the bay. That is cool!

Detroit and almost Canada...

...put your hands up for Detroit!

It's kind of like Chicago but smaller and more french (that's why this bridge to Belle Island looks like it could be in Lyon). Here we go:

USA is clearly taller. I don't know why but I was expecting Canada to look different... however it is pretty similar to the US.
Anyways, back to Detroit. Very many abandoned houses like expected but not so bad after all. I guess the fact that I had a friend show me around could have made the difference. Some random images from driving around:

This last one is taken on the back of a really cute and delicious little restaurant. I forget the name...maybe Millers?
My friend bought the house below on the left for really cheap and will fix it himself.

Across the street a professor from the Art Institute in Chicago is already doing that. Is this the new thing to do? Everyone lets just get houses in Detroit! Some of them though look like this:

Enough with the conventional stuff. Here comes Mies and Lafayette park, aka IIT in Detroit. If I crop this picture the right way no one will be able to tell the difference.

I think, more than anything else about the park, the landscaping was amazing. It put you in a totally different mood than the rest of the city and it was just gorgeous. Way to go Caldwell! 
One of the saddest things to see in Detroit is the abandoned central train station, the Depot. It is so big and so destroyed that looks kind of fake. I guess people are trying to save it and a lot more people are trying to take pictures of it, just like me. I think Hollywood should take advantage of such opportunities for horror movies or concentration camp movies or whatever and help the city's economy. Just throwing some ideas out there.

Houston

...aka "no-signal town"

This image probably best describes my impression of Houston: Highways, highways, highways - with so many of them you would think people would know how to signal - but no. And if I don't think of Houston as a bunch of roads put up on columns then this is the next best image:

I visited a bunch of these as they employ most of the town's population. This one specifically made plastic. Yay!

One good thing about all the highways is that there is no traffic really. But while you drive you might see these amazing things:

The 80 or so foot cross is quite impressive but I don't think it served any other purpose than the symbol that it is. And then everything is stamped with the Texas-shape. Even our waffle-maker at the hotel - unfortunately I don't have a picture of that.

Probably the single most interesting thing to do in Houston is visit the space museum and the NASA headquarters there. Jump on a tour tram, get your tickets, and explore the tools of space.

We did have quite first class tickets!

This last one is "Saturn 5" or "Apollo 18", not sure anymore - but it is one of the ones that never went to space obviously. I have no idea how to describe the size of it but the tour guide definitely did not warn us before entering just another warehouse at the space center. This thing is gigantic.

 "-Houston we have a problem! Can you hear me Houston?" Yes, this is historic mission control. I got goose bumps seating there. Apparently the red phone on the right is where all the important decisions used to go through.

Finally, the tour stopped by this tree site - every tree is planted for a lost life in the different space missions. I think it is a great idea - we should just plant a tree for our loved ones instead of a stone...

After the space center, we headed to the art district of Houston - very cute little area. Here you discover Renzo Piano's Menil Collection museum. It was a nice fresh break from the heat and it has some interesting ground digging artwork upfront.

Another typical Renzo Piano detail but what can I say - it works!
Unfortunately, no good cowboy or cow pictures - but went to a very fun movie theater/restaurant with great and affordable food.

And my last image from Houston will be that of the multiple electrical wires running through the sky. They have multiple electricity companies which makes for great competition if you ask me, no monopolies, and cool looking skies.