The Downtown view

Houston is about 50 miles from the sea and yet it's only between about 20 to 50 feet above sea level in most places. My car's clever Sat Nav system has an altimeter so I can verify this daily, though I have no idea what use it is as a driving aid. A further 100 miles to either the north or west of Houston and only then does it start to go up, but only a bit. I guess what I'm trying to get at is just how close to sea level and also how flat the terrain is in and all around Houston ... for miles.

So relief (in both senses of the word) and vistas have to come to us in the form of man-made structures, none of which are more impressive against the low flatness around as the rather stunning Downtown skyline, for which of course there is a small premium to pay, from a real estate perspective that is. 

This shot was taken from the 4th floor roof deck of a really cool house in Montrose. In the UK we'd only call it the 3rd floor, the 1st floor here being called the ground floor there with the 1st being the one above it and so on. Why there's a difference I have no idea but I have to begrudgingly admit that it does seem to make perfectly good sense to call the first floor you walk into, the first floor. Yes, I think this might be a first for me too - admitting that something here is more sensible than 'over there'. Perhaps I have a touch of altitude sickness?