Fine Art and Feathered Friends

Houston has a museum district where there are varying types of museums appealing to all interests and ages.  We had heard that the Fine Arts Museum was excellent, so we went.  Here are a couple of my (Peggy) favorites pieces:

Picasso  - such an interesting perspective

"The Corn Poppy" by Kees van Dongen (1919) was my favorite piece of art in the entire collection

  
Anahuac National Wildlife Preserve

Today we decided to visit one of the many birding areas found along the east Texas coastline.   The quickest way for us to get to Anahuac was take a ferry from Galveston Island to an area just north where the preserve is located.  The ferry is considered part of the highway system, so there is no fee to ride it.  I had taken my Dramamine and was ready to go!  (Really, I just sat in the car for the 20 minute crossing and practiced my deep-breathing exercises.)

The name did not reflect the quality of the ride

Gene was excited to walk around the ship.  He said he saw tons of dolphins.

The Anahuac Wildlife Refuge is very large and located in a fairly remote section of Texas, just north of Galveston.  Basically we were the only tourists there.  We saw (but didn't take a picture of) a Vermillion Flycatcher - a bright red bird that only seemed interested in flying up a few feet and landing on the same branch over and over again.  There were lots of pelicans, snowy egrets and herons.  Our most interesting sighting stopped us in our tracks and wasn't a bird at all:

This is a very poisonous water moccasin who was just sitting on the path we were walking.  Needless to say we turned around, but not before snapping this pic!

Sticking to the man-made paths, we came upon this cypress swamp.