ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Plan for Chow Chow gatherings in your city.

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Scarlets Mom
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ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Scarlets Mom »

Are there any planned around this area? I have never even seen another Chow down here. Would love to meet other chows and their people!
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Ginger Bears Mom »

We are just north of Houston, have members in Amarillo, some further north of me San Antonio, Dallas, and I think others in Houston.
Scarlets Mom wrote:I have never even seen another Chow down here
I agree they are HTF in this portion of TX, saw a few in North TX.

Welcome to the site! What part of Houston are you located?

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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Nita F. »

We would be interested in attending a Houston or San Antonio Chow Fest. It's about a 5 hour drive to Houston from here. Of course that would depend if there is a hurricane brewing in the Gulf and if we can get away from work.

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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by vicster605 »

Hey, I would go for one there too......and Nita we may have to run that way anyways :roll:
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Scarlets Mom »

OMG, there are more chows in Texas? We live in Sugarland. How great would it be to have a chowfest! I'm up for it, anywhere, time or place!!!!!!
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by jerryo »

Benny ]):) here.

I would certainly have my biped, JerryO, bring me to Texas ChowFest !
U. S. ChowForce's Fort Piney Woods Chow Center is actually just outside of Trinity, ~80 miles north of Houston, so we won't have to go far for this one.
Lady :o) and I made him drive to California for ChowFun last year, and to Alabama for Southern ChowFests, so he won't even notice this drive.

Both of the other ChowFests were SOOO much fun!! They were well worth the trip.
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

I could probably make it if it's later in the year. I'll have a hard time deciding who to bring because I don't think I could handle all four at once. #-o
There are some members in Austin too.
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Scarlets Mom »

So how do we go about arranging this. I would love for this to happen!
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Nita F. »

I haven't organized a ChowFest before but I guess the first thing would be to find a location. A fenced dog park with shade and picnic area, preferably not on a busy road in case any Chows escape. Do you have some places you take Scarlett? Perhaps someone at a Petsmart , or a dog owner's organization may know of a place.

Once you have a location, set a date. Then see if there are any dog-friendly hotels nearby for those who will spend the night. We have a camper so we'll be looking for a campground.

Bama had a wonderful set up at her home last year, with treats for the dogs and as well as lots of food provided by her and some of the guests. She worked more than she got to visit with us. So I vote for keeping things simple. We can do a picnic menu since most folks will be traveling. And we know Houston has lots of places to pick up food too.

We can't do it around September 13 due to a family wedding, but otherwise are fairly flexible. Anyone else with some ideas?

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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

I vote for Oct/Nov so it'll be cool enough to not worry about the Chows getting too hot. I can help in some way if someone wants to get this thing kicked off. We can ask some of the others how they organized their CFs and go from there.

Here's a link with dog parks in the Houston area. I see there's one in Katy near the big outlet mall.
http://www.houstondogpark.org/map.htm
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

The Woodlands TX has what looks like a nice dog park. That's where Ginger Bear's Mom lives. http://www.thewoodlandsdogparkclub.org/index.htm The Woodlands is just north of Houston. It's about 4 hours from me.
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by TJordan »

I like the sound of a Texas Chow fest. That may actually be do-able for me!!
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

My schedule just went from bad to crappy...I think the only weekend I have open is 1-2 Nov (Sat-Sun) or 15 Nov (Sat only).
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by jerryo »

The first weekend in November sounds good to us. That gives it a chance to cool off a little and get the hurricanes out of the way.

Benny ]):) , Lady :o) and Jerryo 8-}
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Nita F. »

Jerry,

We just hope the hurricanes are finished by November! I can remember some in December too!

As far as the Houston Chowfest goes, I'll do whatever I can to help from a distance.

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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

So, if the good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise...we're on for 1-2 Nov?

Nita's right about the hurricanes...the season officially ends 30 November, but I don't think the hurricanes know that. We'll have to pray for a short season.

Any suggestions for locations? The park in The Woodlands looked nice. Jerry, you've been to several Chowfests...what recommendations do you have?
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by jerryo »

As I understand it, if we agree on the time (like 1 or 2 Nov) then we need a place. I haven't been to the dog parks around the Woodlands, but they look good on the webpages. A friend just told me about a new one in Huntsville, but I don't know if that would be any better for the Austin/Dallas/Amarillo folks or not.

For ChowFun in San Jose, we all just met at Swancin's house and Kodi let all the furbies share her backyard. Swancin, Kingalls, Lou, et al really "put on the dog" with refreshments, personalized neckerchiefs for each furbie, treats for furbies and bipeds.and a gift box for each furbie that Lou fixed up to look like a chinese resturant take-out order of "chow fun".

Bama's ChowFest was another backyard event, but since The Colonel's backyard runs about seven beautiful acres along a river, most of the action was a BBQ on Bama's back deck. Since we had people coming from FL, GA, AL, LA and TX, we did a two day event. Most people came in to Birmingham on Friday night, then we had the ChowFest on Saturday. People brought BBQ specialties from their own area, like Texas brisket, New Orleans Boudin, Louisiana pralines, Georgia peach sauce and a lot of other great stuff. With the other fantastic stuff Bama fixed, all attendees ate way too much, regardless of their number of legs. Benny, Lady and I camped in a tent down by the river, in Mark and Bama's far backyard. I set up tie outs so that they could come inside the tent or stay out as they decided. Both stayed out the first night, but Lady came inside the second night. Benny decided that his duty as family protector-in-chief required him to sleep across the door, just outside the tent. I kinda felt like an ancient chinese nobleman when I woke up and saw him there. (OK, I'm not noble, or Chinese, but I AM ancient.)
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by vicster605 »

SOOOO Did anyone pick a spot???? I want to come :D :D We also need Motels near by that are dog friendly and then we can decide what we are gonna do for food and fun :D :D
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

Once we figure out if Houston is still on the map after Hurricane Ike, we can make some plans. I was thinking the park at The Woodlands looked pretty nice. After the storms clear, I can do a recce or maybe Ginger Bears mom can tell us what its like. If we do decide on Houston, I'm sure there are plenty of dog-friendly hotels around, but we'll figure out which ones are best when we decide on a meeting place.

Is that weekend good for everyone??
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by Nita F. »

So far this date looks good for us. I was reading the Woodlands Dog Park website and it sounds nice. They mentioned human food is not allowed in the park. Is there someplace nearby we can picnic?

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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by TJordan »

I came across a website today http://www.dogfriendly.com that shows dog friendly cities, where they allow dogs to stay, different places to eat, shop etc. that you can take your dog. It might help in narrowing a place down.
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

That's a good link. I noticed some of the hotels list a pet fee of anywhere from $25-75. A few had no fee. Some of them had a weight limit and also a limit of one pet per room.
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by vicster605 »

How bad is Houston??? Looks pretty bad :cry:
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by TJordan »

so this one looks like a no-go. What about another place in Texas?
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Re: ChowFest in Houston, Texas?

Post by fillyok »

My schedule flip-flopped and I'm facing another shoulder surgery, so I might not make it...unless it's closer. Anyone have any ideas?? I know we wanted our LA neighbors to attend and that's the reason for the coastal location, but maybe we could make a mini-Texas CF somewhere.
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