3.10.2011

Coushatta Casino and Houston

On our last day in New Orleans, we had an amazing lunch at Chef John Besh's restaurant, August. Then we wandered up and down our favorite street, Royal, and went back for our favorite cocktails at the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel. Our charming bartender, John, took extra special care to make our Sazeracs, coating our glasses with absinthe and flaming our lemon rinds to release the delicious smells of the drink. While we were drinking our Ramos Gin Fizz, slow poured by John, we chatted with Naman, an A&W executive from Vancouver. While we were drinking our Old Fashions, with whiskey soaked cherries and orange bitters, we made some new friends with Pratt and Brian, also in town on business. They asked us a million questions about our trip, amazed at what we had embarked on, and wishing they had the time in life to do the same. After spending a few lovely hours with us, Pratt said that he could probably hook us up with an RV park to stay in, exactly on our route West, in a casino RV park. When he excused himself to go to the loo, Brian whispered that Pratt was just being modest, was actually on the Indian council and basically runs the casino. As we were pulling out of our French Quarter RV park the next day, Pratt did call to say that, even though he wasn't going to be there, his Host of VIP services, Bryan, would call us in a bit, to arrange our stay at the Coushatta Casino.

The RV park at the Coushatta Casino was green and beautiful, Bryan was a charming escort for a juicy steak dinner, and we had a great time losing some money in the casino at night! The next afternoon, we were invited to lunch by Pratt, who was back in town for a golf tournament. When we reached, Bryan asked for a table of 9, and told us that the whole Coushatta Tribal Council was coming for lunch. They were all charming people, very interested in our trip, and sharing some good advice of places to visit. At the end of the meal, Pratt, true to Indian customs, presented us with a gift: a pine needle, raffia basket, handmade by the Coushatta women. It is absolutely beautiful, a real treasure.

After those peaceful days of rest, we thanked our kind hosts, and headed West into Texas. We drove straight into Houston and parked at the Museum of Fine Art for free admission Thursday. The Museum was absolutely amazing! It is one of the largest art museums in America, with more than 300000 square feet of space devoted to the display of art, and every inch of it was fantastic. Mary Lou's favorite piece was a Bouguereau portrait of a young girl, Nicole's favorite was "Women in a Purple Jacket" by Matisse, and both of us could not stop laughing at a Picasso sculpture of a strange flat man with a tiny head. We weren't allowed to take photos of it, but Mom snuck one from the other room!

But, most amazing of all was the current exhibition: the complete works of Carlos Cruz-Diez. "For more than five decades, Carlos Cruz-Diez (born 1923) has experimented intensively with the origins and optics of color. His wide-ranging body of work includes unconventional color structures, light environments, street interventions, architectural integration projects, and experimental works that engage the response of the human eye while insisting on the participatory nature of color. The MFAH and the Cruz-Diez Foundation, Houston, present the first large-scale retrospective of this pioneering Franco-Venezuelan artist."

It was probably one of the coolest exhibitions that we have ever seen. Wow.

The next morning, we visited the Menil Collection, which was listed in Mary Lou's book of "1,000 Things to See Before You Die." The de Menil's collection was extensive, especially the antiquities and pre-Columbian artifacts, but it didn't compare to the MFAH. To be fair though, the de Menil's were on the board of the MFAH for many years, donated a large portion of their collection to the Museum, and supported it financially. The de Menil's were huge contemporary art lovers, and there is a whole building dedicated to Cy Twombly. It was terrible. Huge canvases of pencil squiggles and white out and scratches and total rubbish.

The de Menil's collection did however, include a contemporary Byzantine Chapel built to house and restore purpose to some rescued and restored Byzantine frescos, and the Rothko Chapel. Mary Lou remained unmoved in her hatred of Rothko, but Nicole was actually pleasantly surprised at the experience of viewing the commission inside that space. She kind of liked it.

Enough art! On to San Antonio for the weekend!

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