Those of you that read the blog may recall that I (Russ) took Calvin on a thirteenth birthday adventure with one the of the goals being to present him some sage advice on becoming a man. Here's that blog:
http://calvinandoliver.blogspot.com/2018/12/13th-birthday-father-son-adventure.html
Instead of Chicago like his brother, Oliver wanted to watch an NFL game for his trip. The original plan was to watch the Chiefs play the Raiders in Vegas at their new stadium, as the game was scheduled for his birthday weekend. The only problem was that no fans are being allowed to watch Raiders games this year, so we had to improvise. Our options were limited. We wanted a short, direct flight. We wanted good weather, a good matchup, and most importantly, a place that actually allowed fans. So that is how we ended up settling on the rather strange destination of Houston, TX, for Oliver's 13th birthday adventure.
Oliver grabbed a Starbuck's Carmel Macchiato at the airport and, eight dollars later, we were off.
After a smooth landing and rent-a-car pickup, we headed to the coast as Oliver had never seen the western Gulf of Mexico.
Halfway to the water was the Johnson Space Center, where NASA and central command of the Space program is located. Who doesn't remember the famous quote from Jim Lovell on the Apollo 13 mission, "Houston, we have a problem". . .
The land where they built the NASA headquarters was originally ranchland donated by President Johnson. As an homage to the land's original use, to Texas, and to Johnson himself, there are still a few longhorns overseeing things.
The longhorns were directly across from the building housing this Saturn V Rocket. These are the rockets used for all of the Apollo missions. The one you see here was built and ready to be launched to the moon when Congress cut funding for subsequent moon missions in the early 1970's. The rocket is a technological wonder. It's roughly 400 feet in all, with three stages, a lunar module, and much more.
This is the actual "double-decker" plane used to haul the space shuttle back to Houston after it landed in California or Florida. Much like everything else NASA has ever done, stacking the shuttle on top of an airplane and flying it was an incredible feat.
After leaving NASA, we were a few miles from Galveston and the beach. Our first stop was this awesome restaurant overlooking the water. I love seafood and Oliver thought it would be fun, so it was salmon for him and both oysters and shrimp for me.
For those of you who've never been, Galveston has a cool beach area with an amusement park on what they call the "Pleasure Pier." We took a stroll on the beach and put our feet in the water before heading back to Houston to find our hotel.
We stayed at an Embassy Suites on the west end of town near a high-end shopping area called "The Galleria." I'm assuming the hotel is usually a happening place, but with the pandemic, I think Oliver and I and swans, Pa and Gram, were the only four guests.
As I mentioned, "The Galleria" was adjacent to our hotel and we walked around before eating dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. While walking around, I came really close to an impulse buy. What 42-year-old doesn't need a game-worn and signed jersey from his favorite football player, Warren Moon, of the long-since defunct Houston Oilers. 
The Cheesecake factory didn't disappoint. Who doesn't love how they treat you on your birthday?
The next morning we got up early and drove downtown. We walked around and found Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros, and The Toyota Center, home of the Rockets.
Outside of the Toyota center was a tribute to one of my favorite players, Hakeem Olajuwon, the greatest Rocket of all time.
Oliver loves James Harden, so he snapped this picture of me emulating the famous step-back lefty three.
We were impressed with downtown Houston; it was clean and well-maintained. I was a little skeptical of visiting because I've heard horror stories about the traffic, but we had no trouble. We even got to visit the old Astrodome.
They opened the doors for the Texans game at 10:30 and we were near the front of the socially-distanced line to get in the building. The Texans have had a disappointing season, so the stadium was even emptier than the 20,000 COVID capacity. I'm guessing there were 8,000-10,000 people out of a usual capacity of 72,000. Sitting in this stadium was just about the safest I have felt since this pandemic began.
One of the more entertaining parts of the game was our introduction to Gunner Olszewski, the obscure rookie punt returner for the Patriots. Sitting in the section right behind us were probably 20 very enthusiastic Patriots fans, all wearing #80 jerseys (that were surely custom-made). I told Oliver that they had to be family members, and sure enough, it was his dad I was talking to. They are from suburban Houston and we will root for Olszewski any chance we get from now on. Here's hoping Belichick doesn't ruthlessly cut him for dropping a punt next week. We got to see the Texans escape a with a thrilling win over the Patriots before heading over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a few more thrilling NFL games. As an added bonus, when we got back to our hotel, we watched the Chiefs come back and beat the Raiders on Sunday night. Aside from the Chiefs' Super Bowl win, this was the best day of football we'd ever spent together.
And apparently it really wore Oliver out as he slept for a while on the plane ride home the next morning.
What a great trip we had. I especially want to thank all the guys who wrote Oliver advice-laden "becoming a man" letters.
