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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Driving in Houston

Houston is notorious for having bad traffic. When we went to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., there was a picture of Houston as the example for "Crawl and Sprawl":


Back when we lived "in town," I used to drive 6 or 7 miles to school everyday, and it took me about 30 minutes because of all the traffic. On a bad day, it could be up to 45 minutes, and I sometimes resorted to playing with my camera when I was bored in a traffic standstill. When we decided to move out of the city, we were very, very worried about what my commute was going to be like.

Jeff's lucky because his office is out in the suburbs. For me, that will probably never happen. About 90% of Houston's law firms (and oh, about 100% of the big ones) are located Downtown (or various areas closely surrounding downtown). So I'll probably be commuting into the city for the entirety of my career. 

When we were deciding where to buy a house, we picked a suburb that is known for it's good highways (i.e. lack of awful traffic). Well, I guess we did our research well because I LOVE my new commute! Now I drive about 20 miles everyday, but it only takes me 25-35 minutes. On a good day, my commute is no longer than it used to be, and EVERYDAY I get to drive without my speedometer hovering at 10mph. 

Plus, I get lovely views of Downtown as I drive in! 


Look at this pretty blue sky!

Pretty buildings!

Sometimes the Houston sky looks SO weird in the mornings! The other day I just couldn't help but take a photo or two:

Doesn't it just look like the clouds are all converging upon Downtown?

Oooh, scary sky!!

I really should stop taking pictures while I'm driving. It's not quite as safe when traffic is actually moving. Haha.

In summary, I just really love this easy-breezy commute that I have now, and I'm hoping it's similar when I'm driving to school in August instead of to my internship (the school is in a different area). Oh, and if you're wondering about Jeff - he leaves the house at about 8:05 every morning, and he makes it to the office at about 8:10. Lucky guy. He's not even out of bed yet when I leave at 7:30. I think it's safe to say he likes the new house's location. :o)

Does anyone else get up, get ready, and leave all before your husband has even got out of bed? I don't think I like it very much. Although, now that we're sharing a bathroom, maybe it's good that we're not getting ready at the same time! 

4 comments:

  1. For a long time Future Hubby and I had to be at work at the same time. And we work like 10 minutes apart. So we were getting ready at the same time, which was obnoxious. Now he goes into work 1/2 an hour later than I do and he isn't even out of bed when I leave. It's kind of awesome.

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  2. You are not alone I live in NE Houston and work in NW houston. 45 min drive with no traffic we just bought the land next to the family business so the Hubs only has to walk accross the street. I leave the house anywhere between 4:30-5:00am he leaves at 7:50am. (and I get home 30 min after him)

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  3. i've always thought it was funny that the best views of the houston skyline were from highway overpasses! but seriously, you have pretty much the best possible commute to downtown, lucky girl.

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  4. We are the opposite, my husband is normally out the door before I wake up.

    http://ourlifebeyondthegame.blogspot.com/

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