Museum Day

November 30, 2021 bender.lori

Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) and Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH)

The high school that my son T attends requires 25 volunteer hours and 4 enrichment activities per year. Enrichment activities are educational and focus on photography/digital media components. So, we decided to take him to the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at MFAH. Since we are members of HMNS we decided to make a day of it and go to the new Ramses the Great exhibit as well. Going to finish the day visiting the In-Laws and going to dinner downtown.

Itinerary

HMNS (Museum District)
- Ramses The Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs
- Model Trains
- Cockrell Butterfly Center
Lunch – Bodegas
MFAH (Museum District)
- Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
- Caroline Wiess Law Building
- Audrey Jones Beck Building
Irma’s Original Mexican

HMNS (https://www.hmns.org/)

Since HMNS opens first, we parked in the HMNS garage. We are going to start here and walk to lunch and the MFAH. HMNS is located at the southern end of the Museum District next to Herman Park. It has extensive permanent exhibits including what I have heard is the largest Paleontology exhibit, which we did not visit this time, but have been to seem many times previously and highly recommend. There is plenty of parking, but it fills up early. Another option, is to use the park and ride and the lightrail system. There are multiple stops for Herman Park and the Museum District.

I bought tickets for the four of us into the Ramses exhibit, and the Cockrell Butterfly Center. In the main hall of the museum during the holidays they have a tree display. Each tree is decorated by different groups. There also quick service food in the museum, but we have not eaten there since it changed from a well known fast food joint.

Ramses The Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs

The Ramses tickets get us into all of the permanent exhibits. The Ramses exhibit also has a Virtual Reality portion that is a separate ticketed exhibit. It goes through the life of Ramses. Beautiful graphics for bringing the life, times, and battles of Ramses.

The Ramses exhibit ends in a mirrored hallway to give the impression of what an Egyptian structure would have felt like. It then leads you to the Hall of Ancient Egypt, which is currently closed except through the Ramses Exhibit.

After we finished the Ramses exhibit, I let my sons experience the 10 minute virtual reality experience.

Model Trains

Every year at this time HMNS has a model train set up of Houston and the rest of Texas. Our whole family enjoys looking through and the train set to see if we can recognize the landmarks. In previous years you could buy a train car and see to being pulled, but we did not see that this time.

Cockrell Butterfly Center’

No matter the time of year, I always enjoy a stroll through a tropical butterfly paradise. The Center starts with a great interactive educational area before you enter the dome. They also hatch the butterflies. If you go early, wear bright colors, and site on the benches quietly you may have some butterflies land on you. The large iguana in the exhibit used to be in a separate enclosure, but he is now allowed to roam freely. When you leave, you need to thoroughly check yourself in the mirrors to make sure you do not have any hitch hikers. There is a large iguana and a turtle that live in the exhibit. The iguana used to have his own enclosure, but now the entire dome is his enclosure.

Bodegas Taco Shop (https://bodegastacoshop.com/)

We love Bodegas, just 1.5 blocks from HMNS, when we are in the Museum District. Bodegas has a laid back atmosphere and a simple menu. My son J likes the buid your own quesadilla, but it resembles a flat grilled burrito with everything he puts in it. T likes the build your own tacos, every time. Husband ordered the fish tacos and I had the chicken enchiladas with tomatillos. Good thing it came with sour cream, because it was spicy. Ordered chips and salsa too. Love their queso, but did not order this time. I have to remember for the future that they are open for breakfast.

MFAH (https://www.mfah.org/)

MFAH in the museum district is made of multiple building that are connected by tunnels. So we bought our admission in the Audrey Jones Beck Building and made our way through the tunnels to the Photography Exhibit in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building (reason for the trip) and worked out way back. Even the tunnels are art exhibits.

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building

This building houses the more contemporary art collections. We spent the most time here, going through the halls and looking at various exhibits. The wall entering the photo exhibit was a wall paper made of nearly a quarter of a million images pulled from the internet, for a very cool effect. What I love about contemporary art is that it really makes you question what constitutes art? Can I understand what the artist is trying to convey? Some times I can, sometimes not. I do not always agree that is it actually art, but I do not have to understand it. There are pieces made from what people discard and there was one that kinda of looked like the bat signal made from Legos. They play with light and medium (material), all different. Most I would not buy, even if I had the money, but I do enjoy looking.

The layout is open and allows for you to stroll through at your own pace and stop and look without worry of blocking others.

Caroline Wiess Law Building

Currently, the only way to access this building is through the tunnels. We went to the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit. The prints of here work are actually very small, so you need to get close. Her work is not blown up, it is what you would expect to find in a family album. The discussion of how she re-framed the same subject that made it seem like a different subject was revealing. Also, she didn’t care that much about the camera, just the result. The exhibit also included some of her paintings as well.

We also toured the Asian Art. I enjoyed the mix of old and new is this collection that traveled throughout Asia. Strolling through this exhibit invoked questions of what society is going to think of our art and culture in a thousand or two thousand years from now.

Audrey Jones Beck Building

We didn’t really look through here, because we were tired. It will have to be the next time. We did visit the gift shop here. While there were some very cool items, I was disappointed in the selection of items that are branded MFAH. I like to collect lapel pins and magnets, and those were not an option. Time to make our way back to the car to drive downtown. We are going to hang with the In-Laws and go to dinner.

Irma’s Original (https://irmasoriginal.com/)

This place is located in downtown Houston and has been there for many years. Irma’s has been featured multiple times on Food Networks shows and for good reason. First off, my In-Laws eat there often, and take my children, because they were greeted as family and by name. We are seated and they bring the chips, salsa, guacamole, and queso. Margaritas also show up. They ask me if I want one and I am not a fan of regular margaritas so I ask what flavors and they just bring it. Soooo good. Too good, that pink margarita was chuggable. Not exaclty sure the flavor but I think strawberry? Didn’t matter, delicious.

Next a plate of tamales shows up, beef and spicy along with borracho beans. The borracho beans were some of the best I have had. Okay, time to order. There is not a written menu. The waiter tells you what they have. I had chicken mole, Husband and MIL had enchiladas. T and FIL had tamale plates. J had fajitas. The mole is dark, rich, spicy, and a touch of sweet. You can taste the chocolate and chilies. There was a hint of nut. I cannot believe that I have lived in the Houston area for over 20 years and this is the first time I have tried this landmark. We did not have room for it, but we ordered a plate of sopaipillas. Light and sweet with the honey. Did not get the camera ready fast enough to get a picture of the plate full of sopaipillas.

Time to head home. It was a great day.