Daily Archives: August 10, 2021

Nothing New Under The Sun . . .

Jan and I were on our way into Houston by 9:45 this morning, meeting Brandi, Landon, and Sophie at Cleburne Cafeteria. We got there a little before they opened at 11 to be sure that we didn’t have to wait in line.

Cleburne Cafeteria

Cleburne’s is fabled in the Houston area, having been around for over 80 years, and surviving two fires during that time.

This place is not your Luby’s or Piccadilly’s, but a high-end restaurant that’s also a cafeteria. You can even order a custom-cooked Ribeye or Prime Rib. All of their veggies and fruits are fresh, never frozen, and all the sauces and salad dressings are made from scratch. And they’re known city-wide for their desserts, with all the pies, cakes, and puddings made daily.

Cleburne's Food Line

We did park Landon and Sophie in their own booth, just so we could have an actual conversation.

Landon and Sophie at Cleburne's

Getting to the Houston Museum of Natural Science we parked in the parking garage (worth the $20) and headed inside. For some reason when I bought the tickets online, I was only able to select Will Call and not Digital Tickets.

But there was no obvious Will Call booth, just a long line of people buying tickets. I thought that’s why I got my tickets online ahead of time. I even asked an employee, and was told that this was the line for Will Call.

Of course 20 minutes later, as we all walked down the long hallway to the actual entrance to the museum area, what do I see but this.

Museum Will Call

Well isn’t that special!

Inside we came across Victoria the T-Rex from the ads.

Victoria T-Rex 2

and also a T-Rex skull.

T-Rex Skull

Finally in the Pompeii exhibit area, we found a lot of neat items, many demonstrating that there’s nothing new under the sun.

These are Roman keys from there.

Museum Pompeii Keys

And some of glassware looked like something you could buy at WalMart. Especially when you consider that the art of glassblowing had only been introduced to Roman culture in the last 50 years before.

Museum Pompeii Glassware

The horn-shaped piece on the left is a wine glass.

But the cooking utensils were even more amazing.

Museum Pompeii Cooking Utensils

The iron skillet looks like it could have been my grandmother’s.

And the two ladle-looking pieces are actually colanders.

Museum Pompeii Cooking Colander

I gonna wrap up tonight’s blog with Landon and Sophie watching the movie about the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, on August 24-24. So an anniversary coming up.

It also destroyed nearby Herculaneum, but Pompeii gets all the press. Probably had a better agent.

Museum Pompeii Movie Landon and Sophie

I’ll finish up our fun day in tomorrow’s blog.


Thought For The Day:

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

GRANDPA: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?