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Texas is my home state and is truly a unique place in the United States. The population of Texas is 19,000,000; an increase of over 2,000,000 since 1990 and is increasing at the rate of 514 per day; making it the second most populous state in the United States. The largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States is Houston with a population of 1,749,000 and 4,000,000 in the metro area and there are 6,736 lakes in Texas, giving it 4,959 square miles of inland water, first in the 48 contiguous states. Texas is one of the top producers of forest products in the United States, with the second most forested acreage in the South. Also, a little known fact is that an average of 123 tornadoes touch down in Texas each year, and 5,281 tornadoes were recorded between 1951 and 1993. The highest recorded temperature in Texas was 120 degrees Fahrenheit and the lowest was -23 degrees Fahrenheit. Texas ranks number one in the United States in production of oil, natural gas, cattle, sheep, and cotton and is home to the largest military base in the world, Fort Hood, which is located in Killeen, in central Texas.

Some other facts that make the state unique include: Texas ranks first in the U.S in highway mileage, with over 70,000 miles; and first in railroad mileage and number of airports; the first rodeo in history took place in 1881 in Pecos; Texas has more churches than any state in the union, with 16,961; the last Indian battle in Texas took place in 1881; Texas leads the nation in the sale of pick-up trucks; Texas was the only state to put the issue of secession to a statewide vote; After citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor, Texas seceded from the United States and became one of the Confederate States of America in 1861.

Finally, did you know that the total area of Texas is 266,807 square miles; Texas is as large as all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois combined; It is 801 miles across Texas from north to south, and 773 miles from east to west.

HOUSTON

Houston, founded by two New Yorkers as a real- estate venture in 1836, is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in Texas. Although boarded-up vestiges of the 1980s’ oil crash remain, Houston’s economy is now more diverse and robust, and has spawned a downtown revival. A 50-mile-long ship channel links this inland city with the Gulf of Mexico, making it the third-largest seaport in the United States.

The city, which encompasses a land mass more than half the size of the state of Rhode Island, is also a university town, and home to a fine symphony and respected ballet and opera companies. Downtown Houston has the oldest and one of the largest indoor pedestrian tunnel systems in the nation.  If you’re here in summer, you can find relief from the heavy traffic and hot and humid climate in an underground landscape dotted with restaurants and shops.

NASA Johnson Space Center

This is the premier attraction in Houston. A major branch of America’s space program is housed at this complex that Disney teamed up with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to create.

Below are some pictures we took at our office Christmas lunch at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco.

They don’t come any bigger than the Big Apple - king of the hill, top of the heap, New York, New York. No other city is arrogant enough to dub itself Capital of the World and no other city could carry it off. New York is a densely packed mass of humanity - 7 million people in 309 sq miles (800sq km) - and all this living on top of one another makes the New Yorker a special kind of person. Although it’s hard to put a finger on what makes New York buzz, it’s the city’s hyperactive rush that really draws people here.

In a city that is so much a part of the global subconscious, it’s pretty hard to pick a few highlights - wherever you go you’ll feel like you’ve been there before. For iconic value, you can’t surpass the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park and Times Square. The Museum of Modern Art has to be one of the world’s top museums, and the Guggenheim Museum and American Museum of Modern History aren’t far behind. Bookshops, food, theater, shopping, people: it doesn’t really matter what you do or where you go in New York because the city itself is an in-your-face, exhilarating experience.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

The Statue of Liberty is the sort of thing New Yorkers do only if forced into it by out-of-town visitors which is why I went! I climbed to the top of the pedestal and wasn’t able to make it to the top because of the long waiting lines. Inside you get a glimpse at Liberty’s riveted innards and from the pedestal Lady Liberty offers visitors a unique vantage point from which to admire the buildings rising up in downtown Manhattan. Go as early as you possibly can since there’s a line to buy tickets and another to wait for the ferry. The ferry ticket gets you admission to Ellis Island as well.

Ellis Island is a really interesting place, right from the ferry docks where many of our ancestors first set foot in the new land and the place they had to clear before they could go on to their new lives. They were told to drop their earthly belongings, their jumbled valises, trunks, and rolled-up feather pillows, and led off to be poked and prodded and given literacy tests. Some were sick or detained for other reasons and spent months here; many of the exhibits detail what their daily life was like–where people died, were born, went on, or were sent back, “x” for unfit marked in chalk on their coats. The exhibits are wonderful. In what used to be old examining rooms or dining halls are vivid photographs and stories of what took place there. In each room, the high point is the telephones you pick up to hear real immigrants tell their memories of Ellis Island. Also, although they’ve jumbled up and displayed some of the detritus that had been abandoned when the island stopped processing immigrants in 1954 (a dusty old piano from the recreation room, signs from the infirmary), I wish they had left some haunted dusty corner just the way they found it before they renovated the building into a museum. Still a profoundly evocative place–look out across the water to see Manahttan and realize what it must have meant to people who had left everything behind to be so close and so full of hope.

There are some very interesting exhibits that show what it was like in America at the turn of the century.  For instance, check out these bills advertising Chinese plays in San Francisco.

The Cloisters

One sunny afternoon in New York City we visited the Cloisters in the northern part of Manhattan Island. The compound is an extension of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and contains some exquisite works of art. A definite must for any visit to the city!

World Trade Center

Veteran’s Memorial

New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street

Outside the Metropolitan Museum

World War Two Memorial

Jerry Seinfeld’s Watering Hole

Cathedral on the Upper West Side

One of the Largest Crystals in the World

Weird Statue on the Upper West