Butterfly exhibit

Thursday
Another full day today, and better weather - still overcast, but at least it was dry! This morning we went to visit the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, Texas, about a 30-40 minute drive from Jen and Jason's. It comprises a one-third scale reproduction of the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang-di, the First Emperor, and the 6,000 piece terra cotta army which was buried with him, as well as a 1/20th scale replica of the Forbidden City, home to the Imperial family for almost 500 years. The models are populated with thousands of hand-painted figurines portraying all aspects of public life and ceremony in old China. Forbidden Gardens was built in 1997 by Ira P.H. Poon, a Hong Kong real estate mogul who wanted to educate people about Asian culture. Although a resident of Seattle, he chose to construct the exhibit in Texaas, where land is cheap, it could be open year-round and where there was a large Asian population. Houston has the third highest Asian population in the nation. Unfortunately, the humidity and blistering heat of southern Texas has taken its toll, and some of the figures are in need of some repair, but it was still fascinating, and gives you an idea of what it must be like in full size. We had lunch at a favorite burger place of Jen and Jason's, Beck's Prime - one of the best burgers I've ever had! In the afternoon, we went back to the Museum of Natural Science to see their Butterfly exhibit. This is a permanent exhibit, housed in a simulated rain forest in a 3-story glass structure built around a 50-foot waterfall. In the evening, we went on a walking tour of Houston, which was quite interesting, though the lady tour-guide, in her sixties I would guess, had a tendency to ramble a bit - she could probably have condensed what she said to about two thirds of the time!