I had just touched down in Houston yesterday. During our twelve hours flight from Moscow to Houston, as usual, the crew were asking around to see whether anybody was interested in going to the factory outlets in Houston. For those who don’t know, that is what most of the cabin crew like to do in Houston – SHOP SHOP SHOP, especially the stewardesses. I love to shop too, don’t get me wrong(who doesn’t?) but if given the choice to go sightseeing, I would definitely choose to sightsee.
I’ve been to Houston twice previously, but I didn’t really get to see the whole of Houston on both occasions. And on both occasions, I missed the chance to watch the Houton Rockets game, they were playing away on both my previous trips to Houston. So I decided that I would have a nice tour around Houston this time (after doing my shopping definitely, because it is a MUST here in Houston, if not you would be like the odd one out) and if the Rockets were playing at home this time around, I would also definitely catch their game. For me, that would be the perfect way to spend my two days here in Houston. For those who didn’t hear about the Houston Rockets before, they are a NBA basketball team. Their most famous players are Yao Ming and Tracy Mcgrady. If you don’t know who Yao Ming is, hmmm…
Yao Ming
Okay, so after asking around, there were two of my crew, D and S, who were interested in going to San Antonio, which is another city three hour drive away from Houston. Well, the only thing I know about San Antonio was the San Antonio Spurs – the NBA team from San Antonio. Yes, Eva Longoria’s husband – Tony Parker is one of the star players for the Spurs! I am a fan of Tony Parker, but not Eva, don’t get me wrong I just love NBA more than Desperate Housewives. Anyway, I was quite excited about it(seldom you will find ‘kakis’ who want to go sightseeing) and I told them I would tag along.
tony parker
After discussing, our final plan was to rent a seven seater the next morning and drive down to San Antonio, followed by a short trip up to San Marcos to do our factory outlet shopping. I could immediately see the disappointment in the face of one of the stewardess Z, whose only plan was to go shopping. But Z had no choice but to join us, as nobody else was driving.
Day 2 – After picking up our SUV from Hertz, me, D, S, Z, F, J, and DJ were off to San Antonio, woohoo! When we arrived in San Antonio, there wasn’t really a lot of excitement in the air, especially Z. Well, San Antonio was just like any other city in the USA, nothing really spectacular. Nevertheless, it was a nice city to spend some relaxing time. We went to the Alamo, which was the main attraction in San Antonio. The Alamo is a church and a fort during the old days, and it was an important symbol and identity for the residents of San Antonio. Z was clearly not in the mood to sightsee as she has been complaining non-stop since we arrived in San Antonio. I actually felt bad for D and S who planned this trip, but had to listen to Z and her complaints. The complaining from Z finally ended after we finished our lunch and decided to go to San Marcos, thank god…
The Alamo, San Antonio
It was a short thirty minutes drive from San Antonio to San Marcos. We arrived at the San Marcos Tanger outlet at around 330pm and all of us was very excited. Z was without doubt the happiest person on earth now(who would be more happy than her?). Tanger had most of the famous brands – Adidas, Banana Republic, Calvin Klein, DKNY, American Eagle, Gap, wait wait wait.. something was missing. ‘Where is Coach? Kate Spade? Oh my god, is this the correct factory outlet?’ was the first thing that came out from Z’s mouth. And Z was obviously starting to panic, frantically looking everywhere for the Coach store.
San Marcos Tanget Outlet
Z was already thinking of PLAN B(to be more exact, she was already executing PLAN B). After checking the outlet directory to confirm that there wasn’t any Coach or Kate Spade in Tanger, she started asking the store assistants where the next nearest outlet would be. It is common sense if you can’t find something here, LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE! Hmmm, I think she is just really really really desperate and determined to get her Coach and Kate Spades. But the nearest factory outlet would be at least a few hundred miles away, she couldn’t be serious, right?
To her relief and ours(I was definitely not going to drive another few hours just to go to another factory outlet), there were actually two factory outlets in San Marcos – Tanger and Premium just next to each other. And there were Coach and Kate Spade over at the San Marcos Premium outlet! Z’s eyes immediately lit up with delight. By the time we were done at Tanger, it was already 530pm. Factory outlets usually closes at 9 or 10pm, except Sundays where they close earlier at 7pm. Of all the days, it had to be a Sunday, which meant we only had 1.5 hours left to shop at Premium. Again, Z was the first to push the panic button. Even before we could find a parking bay, she and the rest of the girls were already out of the car and running to Kate Spade. I guess every single second counts now, no time to lose! I didn’t know they could run that fast in their boots, haha.. At the end of the day, Z ONLY managed to get two bags from Kate Spade, which was considered a failure by her standards. I managed to get a few Coach bags for my friends so I was happy. The rest got their stuff too so generally most of us were quite satisfied, except Z of cause.
San Marcos Premium Outlet
It is actually quite amazing to how far a girl would go to get what she wants especially when it comes to shopping, just look at Z for an example. Shopping is like food to them and they would die of hunger if they don’t shop. Even if they have already like 10 handbags, they still need to get the 11th bag or the 12th, 13th, hmmm…
If there wasn’t any Coach or Kate Spade at San Marcos, would she had asked us to drive to the next nearest outlet? I really don’t know. Luckily for me, I can leave that answer for my next shopping trip with another stewardess 
