Houston travel

[Mtneer]

My wife's job is recently requiring a lot of travel between DIA and Houston. Her work site is downtown, roughly in the former Enron area if that makes sense, and she stays in nearby hotels. She describes it as a bizarre major city with almost nobody walking on the streets (lots of tunnels WTF?). Never been there but the more she tells me, the more the hackles on my neck raise (long walking distances, few people at night, etc).

At my insistence, she carries pepper spray but I'd still prefer more protection. She has a Colorado CCP as well as Pre and Clear, so it isn't a matter of laws. The issue is how much travel time does it slow down a business traveler to carry a small handgun? My guess is too much.

Beyond all that, are there any cool areas of Houston with good restaurants she can Uber too? Not party scene, just some vibrancy. Sounds like most of her colleagues are commuters so she is often on her own but they sometimes go out. A good gun range or climbing gym I can direct her too that isn't an hour away? Open to other suggestions. Anything to make her nights a bit more fun.

[Irving]

Houston is extremely diverse and there are more cool restaurants than she'll ever be able to try. When I was there last summer my friends took me to the Asian part of town. What's that area down on Federal with the big Pagoda at the entrance and a ton of pho places around? Imagine that, but the size of downtown Denver.

[Great-Kazoo]

Not at all. Go to baggage check in. Declare firearm (in approved carry container) they tag it, TSA verifies it. Back in to her check in luggage. On to terminal, while baggage gets transferred to plane. This question comes up so many times, yet people have a hard time understanding how easy it is to check in a firearm.

https://tsatraveltips.us/guns-cases-and-air-travel/

[Bailey Guns]

In my experience travelling with a handgun it adds about 5 to 15 mins of time, depending on how clued in the TSA and airline people are.

[Great-Kazoo]

In my experience travelling with a handgun it adds about 5 to 15 mins of time, depending on how clued in the TSA and airline people are.

Good point. I suggest anyone who checks in a firearm, carry the airlines and TSA guidelines. It shuts down an anti gun employee who wants to force their agenda on you.

[Not_A_Llama]

My wife's job is recently requiring a lot of travel between DIA and Houston. Her work site is downtown, roughly in the former Enron area if that makes sense, and she stays in nearby hotels. She describes it as a bizarre major city with almost nobody walking on the streets (lots of tunnels WTF?). Never been there but the more she tells me, the more the hackles on my neck raise (long walking distances, few people at night, etc).

At my insistence, she carries pepper spray but I'd still prefer more protection. She has a Colorado CCP as well as Pre and Clear, so it isn't a matter of laws. The issue is how much travel time does it slow down a business traveler to carry a small handgun? My guess is too much.

Beyond all that, are there any cool areas of Houston with good restaurants she can Uber too? Not party scene, just some vibrancy. Sounds like most of her colleagues are commuters so she is often on her own but they sometimes go out. A good gun range or climbing gym I can direct her too that isn't an hour away? Open to other suggestions. Anything to make her nights a bit more fun.

So, having part-time worked there for years in (what else) the energy industry, here's what I can offer..

It's hot in Houston. Hard to tell now, but people aren't in the habit of walking. The tunnels are a lifeline in the summer. Like most downtowns in America, it clears out after dark. Be mindful.

Regarding carrying and safety. Like any place, there's fine areas and some areas to avoid. It should generally be apparent. Greenspoint ("gunspoint") is the big one and is by Bush airport. Regarding carry - it's surprisingly hard to carry on the job there if you work in an office - most of the corporations are huge with corresponding policies. People don't dress with heavy clothes like we do, so it's even harder. I refer you to the judgmental maps series. (Calibrate on Denver's)

As far as time spent in airport, I budgeted in an extra 30-40 minutes. Most of the time, an extra 15 was sufficient, BUT there's a lot of high-value fuckups that push the average if you travel as often as I did. You're banking on a short line, an ACTUAL AIRLINE EMPLOYEE AND NOT A CONTRACTOR (this is where Premier status helps) to help you "check in and declare an unloaded firearm - the orange tag". Then you need to wait for a (generally slow and unmotivated and probably not native english speaking) porter to slowly walk your gun to the x-ray room, wait for everyone else checking guns to have theirs checked, answer any questions from TSA, then sometimes it makes sense to accompany the gun back to checkin to make sure it gets there (NFA stuff makes ya worry). If you have priority status, you'll do better, and I always carried $20 as "encouragement" to have a porter or one of the guys at curbside help out if lines were crazy. ("hey man, how's it going? I got a flight I gotta catch and I need to check in a gun. That line looks crazy and I'm really worried. Do you know if there's anyone who can help me out? I'd really appreciate it.")

OK, so now you're in Houston. Houston is large. Very large. Hobby Airport is a shitshow, and Bush is far fucking away. I always rented a car when I was in town.

Big picture, there's two concentric ring roads that encircle the city. The inner one, I-610, is never referred to as such, and is called "the loop". She will probably stay inside here - it's about 10 miles across, and most of the urban and urbane things happen here. The second, outer road, is Beltway 8, known as "the Beltway". "Inner loopers" view everything outside as BFE, and they're not really wrong. Between the two is pretty transitional.

The only wonderful thing about Houston from my perspective is the restaurants and bars. They are everywhere and generally pretty good. Midtown and Montrose are just west of downtown, well within uber distance, and have some great places.
If I ran through my expense reports, offhand, the most common would probably be... Brasserie 19, State of Grace, Artisans, Underbelly (now UB Preserv), Steak 48, Pappas Bros steakhouse... I spent a lot of time in Agora, a coffee shop. Ethnic foods in Houston are incredible. Xochi is Mexican food like you've probably never had it. Uchi is fantastic sushi. Kata Robata and Jinya Ramen are awesome. BBQ downtown is tougher - I actually usually drove out to Rudy's, which you can get here in CO as well. Yelp will have the place-of-the-week well identified.

River Oaks is like the Cherry Creek of Cherry Creeks in Houston. Good food, and expensive shopping. Inside the loop.
The Galleria mall is just outside the loop, and is huge. Some good places there, too.

If she wants to get adventurous on food, Chinatown is incredible, but a haul. Not just Chinese food like you'd get at the mall - some crazy cool stuff like real-deal Sichuan (Chengdu Taste) and Xinjiang cuisine (Uyghur Bistro). A decent portion of the Chinese are also Vietnamese, and with that comes Viet-Cajun (Crawfish and Noodles). Good stuff.

Momentum Climbing is fantastic. No other words. Boyert Shooting center is pretty equivalent to our Centennial Gun Club. Athena gun range is a haul, but good. Top Gun I'd equate to our Firing Line. Outdoor ranges are a haul - American Shooting Centers is outside the beltway and not that great.

[Ah Pook]

Hot, humid poo hole. AC to AC. Who wants to walk? I understand there are some interesting area but am no help beyond that. The Vietnamese influence is growing. The displaced New Orleans peeps... The list goes on.

[Irving]

There are a bunch of Vietnamese/New Orleans restaurants as well, which is interesting.

[OtterbatHellcat]

I budgeted in an extra 30-40 minutes

I've usually planned for an hour, and almost used all of it in more than one instance.

[Not_A_Llama]

I budgeted in an extra 30-40 minutes

I've usually planned for an hour, and almost used all of it in more than one instance.

I'm with you, honestly - I just have a script down *pat*, and the Premier status really improves the probability of having an actual airline employee, vs a contracted drone. Without status and loads of experience, I'd do an hour or more.