On Friday we went to

On Friday we went to Houston and got our Visas to Brazil. Mine only cost $20 while Jennifer's was $45 - sometimes it pays not to be an American. To kill some time, we also visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science (their web site sucks). We spend most of the time at the Cockrell Butterfly Center which was very cool. The day was overcast, so there weren't too many butterflies flying around, but it was still neat. We also got to see the huge Iguana "Stanley" that hangs out at the center. Thanks to Felicia for letting us borrow her membership card.

Before we left to enjoy Houston traffic on the way tot he embassy to pick up our processed visa applications we made a quick dash throught the "Energy" section of the museum. It was a very impressive collection talking about all sort of aspect of oil exploration and production (I finally learned how directional drilling works). The oil propaganda section ended with three small displays about alternative energy (solar, wind and tidal). Yep, we were in Houston where oil is (at least until fairly recently) still king.

On Friday night we had fun at Tim and Felicias having wonderful dinner and playing on their pinball machine and got home to Margaret's around two AM. On Saturday we also got to visit the Houston Arboretum which I highly recomend. Although visiting it in the spring would allow you to see some animals (I only saw half of a squirel, one tiny brown bird and a couple of labrador retreivers - Jennifer missed the bird).