We can't think of a more exotic, more fascinating venue in the city for dinner than the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Morian Hall of Paleontology. And so it was for 700 or so lucky individuals who paid the price of admission to be part of Saturday night's fantastic HMNS black-tie gala.
For those who had yet to visit the museum's latest addition, the experience was practically overwhelming and for those familiar with the beyond-spectacular exhibition, to see it set with glamorous dinner tables generated unexpected awe.
"So impressive," cooed one visitor. "Spectacular," observed another. "Phenomenal," commented one newcomer to the exhibit.
"A Prehistoric Party, Slither to the Sound" was the theme of the glam evening that, before auctions and special donations began, had brought in $1.1 million. That was sweet music to the ears of chairs Josiane and Conrad Georl and Lucinda and Javier Loya and to museum president Joel Bartsch.
Beaming board president Jason Fertitta, accompanied by wife Courtney Hill Fertitta, proudly pointed out that the HMNS has the largest number of visitors in the country per square foot of museum of space.
As guests entered the hall where giant (and we mean giant) armadillos, enormous ground sloths (think sloth-zilla) and all manner of ancient creatures roamed, the comments were rich. "So impressive," cooed one visitor. "Spectacular," observed another. "Phenomenal," commented one newcomer to the exhibit.
It was indeed a spectacular evening during which City Kitchen served one of its typically grand dinners, in which guests perused a vast array of auction offerings (including the traditional gemstones collection) and ultimately broke into dance as SkyRocket lit up the night. Receiving kudos for the array of auction items were auction chairs Carmen and Kiki Dikmen and Christie and Billy McCartney.
Lucky guests in this well-heeled group included Amy and Jim Lee, Melissa and Michael Mithoff, Laurie and Reed Morian, Carol and John Howenstine, Katherine and Bill Phelps, Elizabeth and Gary Petersen, Melinda and Sam Stubbs, Monsour Taghdisi and Henry Richardson, Stephanie and Bill Perkins, Debbie and Rudy Festari, Ericka Bagwell and Alex Klein, Jenee and Nick Stefanakis, Faith and Lee Majors and Anita and David Garten.
