Keith’s Blog – November 2017
Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors
Hi. November is often a slower month than those months that surround it. Thus, it is easier to schedule a personal tour. With the Thanksgiving holiday and people departing to be with friends and family in other cities and states as well as those who are hosting friends and family and watching lots of football, less people are going on tours. Throw in Black Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving and many people have already been planning their alternative activities.
We still have more quilting tours at the beginning of the month.
Weather
The weather is pleasant, if a little cool. You might want to wear a light jacket. This is a wonderful month to go on any of the tours that involve being outside.
November is Houston’s fourth coldest month. Be prepared to wear a sweater or jacket. The monthly average high temperature is 73 degrees Fahrenheit/23 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 53 degrees Fahrenheit/12 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 63 degrees Fahrenheit/17 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 4.54 inches/11.5 centimeters. It is tied for the fifth wettest month of the year.
Wine Tours
November is a great month to go on a wine tour. See the countryside, sit outside sipping one sample of wine after another at a variety of wineries, possibly listening to a musical performer, and all without sweating – what a wonderful way to spend a day! We offer 5 different winery tours that venture into different directions to a total of 14 wineries + 2 wine tasting rooms = 16 sites. Eleven of the wineries have their vineyards attached to the winery. It cannot get much fresher than when you see where your product has been grown. Sometimes, you can walk or stagger through the vineyards. You can go to 1 to 4 wineries on these tours. The tours can last from 3 hours one close winery to 12 hours for 4 more remote wineries. Most wineries offer 4 different samples from dry, semi-dry, sweet, and dessert wines. All of these wineries or tasting rooms are in or close to rural towns with names like Brenham, Chappell Hill, Burton, Bryan, College Station, Old Town Spring, Montgomery, Plantersville, Anahuac, Sour Lake, Winnie, Anahuac, and Baytown. If you wish to purchase any bottles of wine, the prices of such bottles are generally much cheaper than going to a store. Many of these wines are only available on site or in local stores. Stock up for the holidays. You must be at least 21 years of age to go on this tour.
Click here for more information about our Wine Tours.
San Jacinto State Park Tours
Another popular tour for the month of November is going out to the San Jacinto State Park. This is normally a six-hour tour. Go inside the San Jacinto Monument, Observation Deck, the San Jacinto Museum of History, watch the Charlton Heston narrated movie “Texas Forever! The Battle of of San Jacinto” and see the diorama. The Monument is the tallest monument in the United States at 567 feet/173 meters. It is taller than the Washington Monument because a Star of Texas caps it. This is the most important battle of Texas’s War of Independence where on April 21, 1836, Texas won its independence from Mexico and captures Santa Anna. This tour also includes going onto and inside the Battleship Texas, the only surviving US battleship from both World War I and II and the only one that survives that served in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during WW II. It was the first ship adapted to serve as an aircraft carrier. A lot of history is here. For groups of 14 or fewer people in a van or sedan, we will also go on a ferry boat. The ferry cannot have buses on it. Lunch is at a great restaurant that specializes in seafood and with huge windows with the best view of the Houston Ship Channel. You will watch barges and oil tankers passing us. If we skip going onto the Battleship Texas, the tour can be shortened to five hours.
Click here for more information about our San Jacinto State Park Tours.
City Tours
Of course, if you are visiting Houston for the first time, or new to Houston and still learning your way around, go on one of our city tours. You have 9 options ranging from 2 to 9 hours, depending on how much you want to do and see. Three hour hour tours and longer generally have one stop per hour. Four hour tours and longer have a stop for lunch. For groups of 10 or fewer people, on Monday through Friday, we include a trek into a 59th floor observation and about a 3-block walk through the underground tunnels of Houston. Houston has over 7.5 miles/12.1 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels. These help form a city underneath downtown Houston with over 500 businesses and 10 food courts. They are air conditioned or heated and dry. They are a secret gem in Houston. These can cover from about 20 to 60 miles/32 to 97 kilometers.
Click here for more information about our City Tours.
Monthly Special – Discounted by 23 to 46% Based on the Number of People
The monthly special for November is a Houston Heights Walking Tour. This 2.5-hour tour focuses on going through the old downtown area of the Houston Heights, the area where serial killer Dean Corll lived, by beautiful old Victorian homes, Marmion Park, Opera in the Heights, Heights Theater, where a reservoir exists, one of the best spice shops in Houston, Penzeys, can be found and more. The weather is crisp, the leaves are different colors, and the big oak trees are imposing. You will find yourself returning to the Houston Heights to go shopping and eating now that you know what it has to offer.
Click here for more information about a Houston Heights Walking Tour.
See you on a tour.
Sincerely,
Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com