By Shannon Williams
I would like to know just where did October go to?? It cannot be over already, I have way too many “fall things” to do yet. I guess, I do know where it went, I spent 10 night in hotels and only one of those nights were for work, most of it was family related. A trip out to West Texas to see my mom with my son, and then into Houston a few times for fun and a few times for medical reasons, and when you add it all up, the month just came and went before I had even brought a pumpkin. But you know it will come around next year and maybe I can plan to take time to “fall”.

One of the things that is so great about living on Crystal Beach, is that we are close enough to Houston to take advantage of all it has to offer, but far enough away that it seems like another world. Well, it is kind of another world. I have lived in a few big cities for short periods of time in my life, but mostly I lived in small towns. I want a big town close enough to go out to eat or have more shopping choices, but I don’t want it too close. We are very lucky to have the best of both worlds.

My husband has been having some medical issues for the past couple of months. It is something that several other family members have dealt with, so we were able to go to the doctor that they had all used in Houston. Years ago, I spent three weeks in the medical center with my then mother-in-law, who was being treated at MD Anderson. We flew in and took cabs everywhere. We had a family member who was a Rotarian so we were able to stay at Rotary House Hotel for some of our time during that stay. If you are not driving to the medical center and only have to walk across the sky walk, you really do not realize how big that place is!

We had gone into Houston to see the doctor this summer, and while his office is in the medical center, it did not seem as overwhelming as it did last week. Thanks to our phones, we had directions, BUT…that place is crazy to get around. You have to figure out which of those great big tall building you are suppose to go into, and heaven help you on parking. We just used valet, but it got costly in a hurry.

We had a hotel that I thought was across the street but it was not. It was a three-ring circus trying to figure out how to get into the parking lot, and after it was all said and done, we had driven right past the entrance for valet parking for the hotel three times. We had an early start one morning and did not think it would take us more than ten minutes to go the .5 mile to the hospital. Well that was a laugh, we went around and round and missed turns, but we got there.

Once we got into the hospital they had a great system of color coded elevators, and it was a great system. They had large arrows with the color you needed to find and you just followed the arrows and you would wind up in front of the doors for the color elevator you were looking for. It was a good system and I was able to find the bathrooms, find a cup of hot tea in the am and a snack when I needed it. I was not about to leave the hospital and try and figure all of that again!

While, it was stressed going into Houston (I have found that if you stay out of big cites, you soon lose your big city skills LOL), but being able to get top notch medical care so close to home is a priceless gift of living on Crystal Beach. I have always thought I can go to a city to see and do all that I want to and then come home to this lovely, slow paced little village. I think we have the best deal, close enough to have fabulous dinning, entertainment, sports teams and medical care that most people come from very far away to get to, and it is all within two hours. Then you get to return and cross the bay to another world. Most folks live in a big city and fight the stress and traffic all the time and then come to Crystal Beach to get away from it all. I am glad we don’t live in a place that we “have to get away from” and also glad that we have a place to go to like Houston that has so much to offer!

[Nov-2-2021]