Sure, we could have spent our Houston, Texas weekend seeing the well-regarded Menil Collection artworks or the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, but no….

I want my artistic experiences to have a tad more funk, so instead we went to the ArtCar Museum, aka “Garage Mahal.”

Houston is a huge city that’s full of surprises, especially for those who have never been to Texas and have, shall we say, less than accurate opinions about what the state is like.

There is a lively arts community here, with a particular interest in contemporary and folk art.

Every year since 1988 (normally in April or May) Houston’s Art Car Parade draws hundreds of vehicular entrants and thousands of cheering spectators, but visitors can view a few of the more amazing cars year-round at this small Museum.

From the Museum Web site:

“The Museum has its conceptual origins in the 1984 Collision Show at the Lawndale Art Center which saw the unveiling of Larry Fuente’s Mad Cad….the Museum showroom celebrates the spirit of this post-modern age of car-culture, in which individuals have remolded the factory-model sameness of their automobiles to the specifications of their own idiosyncratic images and visions.”

The intricacy of the artwork, the imaginative use of every bit of available automotive real estate, a friendly, knowledgeable staff and the great price to get in (free!) makes for an unbeatable combination.

We got a little turned around finding it (going past the well-regarded Star Pizza in the process, if you’re looking for a place to eat nearby) but once you’re on the right street, you can’t miss the bizarro, Mad Max-ish metallic Museum exterior.

I found a slide show of 18 amazing autos and another site with photos of almost every car in the 2008 parade.

For those who want to learn more about this art form, look at the comprehensive and enthusiastic Art Car Central blog.

(ArtCar Museum 140 Heights Blvd. Houston, TX 77007 (713) 861 - 5526. Admission is free, open Wednesday - Sunday, 11am - 6pm. Post title partial credit to the Beatles’ “Drive My Car.”)

Thanks to a confluence of imaginative architects (and the unexpected redecorating opportunities left by the devastating 1871 Great Chicago Fire) the Windy City has a jaw-dropping collection of spectacular buildings.

A number of innovations were hallmarks of the “Chicago School“ of architectural style: steel-frame construction, refined exterior embellishment, sheets of plate glass and some of the first modern skyscrapers.

One of my favorites in the city is the 1929 Carbide & Carbon Building on Michigan Avenue. It is a soaring Art Deco marvel and I never tire of walking around it to see what new flourishes pop up that I hadn’t noticed on previous visits.

You can stay there if you’d like — it now houses the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago.

I don’t have any formal training in architecture; I just love cool buildings, but I don’t always understand or appreciate what I’m looking at.

Rather than wander around with a construction engineering history book under your arm, I recommend guided tours with the nonprofit Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF).

My teen daughter and I took their lively docent-led architecture tour on the Chicago River (there’s not a bad seat in the house - I mean, on the boat) so if you only have time for one, that’s the tour I’d recommend.

The CAF’s main office is just across from the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue, a few blocks down from that great Carbon & Carbide building.

I was amazed at the giant whiteboard absolutely stuffed with upcoming guided tours and programs of every description.

The gift shop is a most dangerous collection of interesting doo-dads related to the city and her lovely buildings. I barely made it out alive! :)

Although I can always use another commuter coffee mug, and it’s to support a good cause, right?

The CAF “ArchiCenter” is open 361 days a year; call them at (312) 922 - 3432 extension 240.

If you’re taking the Chicago-area subway (Chicago Transit Authority) get off at these nearby stations:

• Adams/Wabash station for the Brown, Green, Orange, and Purple lines
  
• Jackson/State Station for the Red Line
  
• Jackson/Dearborn Station for the Blue Line

Related posts:

• Lou Malnati’s: going local for Chicago-style deep dish pizza
• The unknown city of Chicago

How did Native Americans (the Choctaw and Chickasaw,) traders and early residents of the US South move back and forth between Mississippi and Tennessee?

You’re looking at it; the dirt path in the photo on the left is part of the original Natchez Trace that ran from Nashville down to Natchez, on the Mississippi River.

This particular section is called the Sunken Trace; it’s one of the only parts left of the original trail.

How did travelers use it?

The National Park Service says that “Kaintucks,” or boatmen….

floated merchandise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from states throughout the Ohio River valley. Agricultural goods, coal, and livestock were among the many products that were floated to markets in Natchez and New Orleans. Once the goods on the boats were sold….the boatmen would begin the long walk home [from Natchez.] Research indicates that more than 10,000 Kaintucks traveled the Old Trace in the year 1810 alone. The 500 mile trip on foot typically took about 35 days. Lucky travelers that rode horses could expect to cover it in 20 to 25 days.

Today, the 443-mile Natchez Trace Parkway (similar in concept to the Blue Ridge Parkway in the eastern U.S.) winds along over much of the original route. The Sunken Trace section is located at Milepost 41.5, and it is worlds away from the modern, two-lane asphalt Parkway nearby.

It is quiet here, and the canopy of trees and embankment lend a “mists of time” air (especially at sunset, when this photo was taken.)

The picture also does not give you a sense of a slight problem in warmer weather — the aerial bombardment by local mosquitoes. At the time of my visit, I was soaked in Deep Woods Off repellent, and it’s still a miracle that I wasn’t carted away by hundreds of buzzing companions.

To continue exploring the early culture of the area, investigate the seven groups of Native American prehistoric mounds in Mississippi, along the present-day Parkway. Many were constructed 2000 years ago and were occupied as recently as 400 years ago.

Just be sure to carry bug repellent and apply determined swats.

On the road and looking for something a little different this summer ? Well, if you don’t mind a little ’shock and gore’, head to the nearest medical museums.

From stomach sized hairballs (National Museum of Health and Medicine) to a giant hamster wheel for energetic patients (Glore Psychiatric Museum), medical museums offer the chance to explore the medicines colorful history and discover the bizzare, the offbeat, and the extreme treatments of days gone by.

You’ll be amazed (and relieved) by how far the practice of medicine has come.

1. The Glore Psychiatric Museum is housed in the former ‘State Lunatic Asylum No. 2′ building in St Joseph, Missouri. From medical artifacts such as a tranquilizing chair and a dousing tank to exhibits featuring the ‘1,446 Objects Swallowed by a Patient’ and the ‘television diary’, this museum will leave you speechless, spellbound, and mighty relieved that the days of such barbaric medical treatment is well and truly over.

2. The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia was orginally established as a place where trainee doctors could go to learn about anatomy and human medical anomalies. It’s those anomalies - such as the preserved body of the ‘Soap Lady’ and a cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland - that now draw the public to it’s doors.

3. National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC is a goldmine for American history buffs. Here you can see not only the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln but also the probe used to locate the bullet and the blood stained shirt cuff of the surgeon who attended Lincoln’s autopsy. Other permanent displays include ‘Medicine During the Civil War’ and ‘Battlefied Surgery 101′.

4. International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago offers a diverse collection of surgical memoriabilia and artefacts from around the world. Spread out over four floors, the exhibits include early 20th century X-ray machines, trephining (skull drilling) instruments, and an iron lung. The museums newest exhibit, Beyond Broken Bones, looks at the history of orthopedics and prothestics from the Ancient Egyptians to modern day.

There are medical museums all over the USA open to the public. So next time you are on the road and looking for something different, find out if the city you’re in has one.

Folks can get pretty worked up about finding the best, most authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza; a quick search on the topic at foodie site CHOW.com brought 15 pages of feedback.

While in Chicago last weekend for the terrific SOBCon08 blogging conference, I had a good appetite from walking around the city and decided to dive into the deep dish at one of the two restaurants that most of my sources recommended - Lou Malnati’s.

It’s near the corner of Wells and Hubbard, just north of the Chicago River and the Loop.

(The other recommended Chicago pizza place seems to be Gino’s East; anyone out there tried them? Please let us know in the comments.)

The pizza’s fresh to order at Malnati’s, so they need 25 minutes or so to make it. If you’re ravenous upon arrival like I was, order their house specialty spinach bread appetizer, but don’t eat the whole thing (maybe split it with someone) because it’s an incredibly rich and cheesy little stuffed loaf and you won’t have any room for pizza.

Malnati’s deep dish pie sure ain’t Pizza Hut.

The crust is pulled up at the sides, like a little round walled garden for toppings, and it manages to be crunchy and soft at the same time thanks to a lot of oil and other calorie-laden magic that I’d rather not acknowledge.

You eat it with a knife and fork, not picking it up with yours hands the way that most Americans eat pizza.

The tomato topping is chunky, not smooth (I ordered a sausage and green pepper pie) and it’s not gooey cheesy at all. You’d better like tomatoes, which I do. The individual pizza is “only” two slices, but they are big ones, and after the spinach bread I was quite happy with a small pizza serving and the enormous bucket-sized glass of Coke that arrived when I ordered my drink.

Malnati’s has a hopping To Go business (1-800-Lou-To-Go) with a loaded freezer case right by the checkout register offering a variety of ready-made pies. They’re in foil containers so I don’t think the microwave is involved, which probably would make an icky, soggy crust anyway.

One guy came bouncing into the restaurant while I was eating and bought a stack of three frozen pies to take out; when I asked him which one was his favorite, he said, “Hmm, probably the sausage!”

The Malnati’s decor is exposed-brick homey and full of items on the walls to please sports-mad patrons: hockey sticks, Cubs photos, a program from the 1959 Chicago White Sox appearance in baseball’s World Series and one of the gold records of the Chicago Bears football team’s 1985 one-hit wonder “Super Bowl Shuffle.”

As a nod to sports teams outside of the Windy City, a pair of Shaquille O’Neal’s basketball shorts are also framed and hung on the wall (size 52 Long, thank you very much.)

That afternoon pizza meal was so filling that even after a lot more walking, I skipped dinner that night without blinking an eye.

My kinda town, Chicago is….

Related post (on my Family Travel blog) - Taste of Chicago: Garrett Popcorn