The nation’s fourth largest city, Houston is a thriving community bustling with activities, shopping, and nightlife. Linked by the Houston Ship Channel to the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles away, the city is a giant in the world of international shipping as well as oil, aerospace, and finance.
Truly Texas-size, the city sprawls across 617 square miles of bayou country while the metropolitan area takes in close to 9,000 square miles, all connected by one of the nation’s most extensive highway systems. Dozens of languages are heard in the ethnically diverse community whose residents have relocated here from around the globe.
Mention Houston and Galveston and two icons come to mind: oil money and sandy beaches. Long the capital of the Texas oil “bidness,” Houston is still dotted with high dollar hangouts and plenty of opportunities for fun. The choice of fun ranges from mild to wild–everything from highbrow art museums to quiet botanical gardens to truly Texas-size nightclubs.
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Hermann Park
Hermann Park offers a full weekend of activities right within in its boundaries.
The park is home to the Japanese Garden, the Miller Outdoor Theatre, an extensive playground, and many picnic spots. Hermann Park is also adjacent to the Museum District, where many of the city’s best museums are located.
The park is bounded by Fannin and Main Sts on the west, Hermann Dr. on the north, Alameda Rd. on the east and North MacGregor Dr. on the south.
Buffalo Bayou Park
With downtown Houston as a backdrop, this extensive park is a major destination for joggers, cyclists, and other outdoor enthusiasts.
The park is one in a series of parks and greenbelts that follow the slow-moving Buffalo Bayou.
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Considered one of the most visited science museums in the country, this four-floor facility is home to several distinct collections. The Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, considered one of the world’s best collections of its kind, houses priceless specimens dramatically spotlit in a dark showroom.
Nearby, the Strake Hall of Malacology showcases some of the world’s rarest seashells. With Houston’s ties to the oil industry, it’s not surprising to find one of the world’s most comprehensive exhibits on oil and gas, the Wiess Energy Hall, housed at the museum, where displays trace the exploration and use of these energy sources.
Children explore hands-on exhibits at the Fondren Discovery Place, the Challenger Learning Center and the Do The Weather Center.
The Wortham IMAX Theatre and Burke Baker Planetarium offer a variety of shows, from a look at Houston’s skies to laser displays to six-story, specially filmed nature shows on the IMAX screen.
The museum is also specially noted for the 25,000-square-foot Cockrell Butterfly Center housing over 2,000 live, free-flying butterflies within its glass pyramid.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science was one of our favorite stops in Houston thanks to its extensive and well-done exhibits. The museum is incredibly popular (so much so, if fact, that we waited nearly 30 minutes just to buy tickets to the museum and the IMAX). Families with children made up much of the clientele; favorites with children seemed to be the Fondren Discovery Place and the Challenger Learning Center. Our favorite was the Cockrell Butterfly Center, where free-flying butterflies were spotted along the walkways. Docents hand out identification cards before entering the facility (and admission is timed so visitors must select what time they plan to visit the butterfly center when buying tickets).
Memorial Park
Known as the largest urban park in the state, Memorial Park covers some 1,400 acres on Houston’s West side.
A wide array of activities are supported here including the 18-hole Memorial Park Golf Course, tennis courts, softball fields, a fitness center, pool and six miles of hiking and jogging trails.
Sam Houston Park
First opened in 1899 as Houston’s first public park, this 20-acre downtown park is now a historical park under the supervision of the Houston Heritage Society. It features a number of historic houses that were moved here and beautifully restored.
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Part of the Museum of Fine Arts, this collection showcases American 17th, 18th, and 19th century decorative arts with over 4,800 objects of furniture, ceramics, silver, paper, glass, textiles and paintings.
The collection is located in Bayou Bend, the former estate of Ima Hogg, daughter of a Texas governor. Items in the collection include a silver sugar bowl created by Paul Revere, colonial portraits by John Singleton Copley and Charles Willson Peale, and furniture by Duncan Phyfe.
Behind the home, the 14-acre gardens are divided into eight areas ranging from a formal garden to a butterfly garden.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Founded in 1900, this fine arts museum holds the title as the first municipal art museum in Texas.
The collection includes over 40,000 objects of art. Permanent collections include the Glassell Collection of African gold, the Strauss Collection of Renaissance and 18th century art, and the Beck Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, home to work such as Paul Signac’s “The Bonaventure Pine”.
The museum’s decorative arts collection is housed at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.
The Children’s Museum of Houston
The outside of this museum makes it quite clear to visitors who the target audience is: kids. The bright yellow pillars and block letters invite children inside to learn and play. There are nine galleries here in which children may participate in hands-on activities. Kids learn how to express themselves as well as learn modern skills such as how to use an ATM and how to shop like a pro.
This hands-on museum includes nine galleries that invite exploration by children. The Fondren Technikids Gallery illustrates everyday technology from magnets to car ignitions.
The Kid-TV Studio encourages children to try out their skills before the camera while the Roy and Lillie Cullen Investigations Gallery lets children learn the art of shopping, from use of a child-size automatic teller machine to gathering pretend eggs from a chicken coop.
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
The starkness of the metal building was our first hint at the modern art collection that this museum contained. The Museum’s building itself is a striking landmark in Houston’s cultural district. This distinctive metal building (Gunnar Birkerts, 1972) focuses on international art created within the past four decades.
Located in walking distance of other attractions in the Houston Museum District, the building features a changing display of modern art. An unusually tight focus on the past 40 years allows the CAM to explore its speciality in great detail.
Changing exhibits ensure that the galleries remain fresh and provocative to museum regulars as well as the casual visitor.
Our latest visit exposed us to the work of Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The museum does not have a permanent collection but instead features changing exhibitions by artists including Nic Nicosia, Peter Shelton and Ernesto Neto.
Holocaust Museum Houston
Honoring both the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, this somber museum emphasizes Houston-area residents who endured the tragic period.
The Ethel and Al Herzstein Theater continuously shows “Voices”, a film of oral testimonies by Holocaust witnesses from the Houston area. The Josef and Edith Micberg Gallery houses Holocaust-related artwork.
The Lack Family Memorial Room provides a quiet place for reflection with the Wall of Remembrance, The Wall of Tears, and The Wall of Hope as well as The Memorial Wall.
The Eric Alexander Garden of Hope memorializes the children of the Holocaust through sculpture as well as a quiet garden landscape while the Boniuk Library and Resource Center contains oral histories, books, and archives, many provided by Houston-area survivors.
Some parts of this museum might be too intense for young children.
Menil Collection, Houston
This museum houses the private collection of John and Dominique de Menil, an assemblage of over 15,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs and books. The extensive survey collection is especially noted for its Byzantine and medieval works, tribal collections from African, Oceania, and the American Pacific Northwest, and 20th century materials.
Its most noted exhibits is the Surrealist collection, often cited as one of the world’s most extensive. Adjacent to the main collection, the Cy Twombly Gallery houses 35 major works by the artist.
The Byanztine Fresco Chapel Museum holds the only intact Byzantine frescoes in the western hemisphere, works rescued from thieves attempting to smuggle the 13th century artwork out of Turkish-occupied Cyprus. The frescoes underwent a two-year restoration and are on long-term loan from the Church of Cyprus.
Nearby, the *Rothko Chapel serves as an ecumenical center for all faiths. The Chapel contains 14 paintings by Mark Rothko as well as the Barnett Newman sculpture, “Broken Obelisk”, housed by a reflecting pool in memory of Martin Luther King Jr.
Museum of Health and Medical Science
As home of the world’s largest medical center, downtown Houston makes a natural location for this extensive facility dedicated to the human body. Visitors can walk through the Amazing Body Pavilion for a tour that includes a 22-foot-long backbone, a walk-through brain, and numerous interactive kiosks that present questions about anatomy.
While visiting this musuem, it was obvious that children were enjoying their learning experience.
Space Center Houston
Space Center Houston is a visitor-oriented facility located adjacent to the Johnson Space Center, the mission control, training, and research facility for the US space program.
During our summer visit, it was easy to see that Space Center Houston attracts, in a Disney-like fashion, mass numbers of families. The $70 million center was filled to bursting with children engaging in hands on video fun by piloting a shuttle, driving a lunar rover, or other video exhibits.
The was designed to explain space travel in terms even the youngest visitor could understand. At Kids Space Place, 17 interactive areas invite exploration as children ride across the moon’s surface in a Lunar Rover or command a space shuttle.
A full-scale mock-up of the space shuttle allows visitors to tour the flight deck while nearby Texas’s largest IMAX theater showcases large format films about space travel.
The real technology lies in the far less flashy Johnson Space Center. Visitors have their choice of three tram tours for a behind-the-scenes look at the training facilities, mission control, or an underwater training area.
The Mission Control Center tour is, by far, the most popular; wait times can exceed one hour. All the tours take visitors of a guided look at the space center and several stops. We took a tour of the training facilities and viewed three areas from a glassed-in observation level. At the end of each tram tour, travelers can get out and photograph early rockets.
Location: Located at 1601 NASA Road One, 25 miles south of downtown Houston off I-45 South.
Houston Theater District
This downtown district is home to the city’s opera, theater, symphony and ballet, making Houston one of the few US cities with resident companies.
The Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet both perform at the Wortham Theater Center, noted for its six story grand foyer; the Houston Symphony performs in the block-sized Jones Hall, easily identified by its facade of travertine marble.
The professional theater company, one of the three oldest resident companies in the nation, performs at The Alley Theater which offers a balcony with a view of the city skyline.
Houston Zoological Garden
Spanning 55 acres in central Houston, the zoo is home to over 5,000 animals representing over 700 species.
The popular zoo, with the highest attendance figures of any zoo in the Southwest, includes primate exhibits, a remodeled giraffe habitat, a pygmy hippo display, sea lion training exhibitions and even vampire bat feedings.
San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site
When you’re ready for a break from the busy Houston atmosphere, head out to this small park, operated by the Texas Historical Commission, and the neighboring Stephen F. Austin State Park in the small community of San Felipe.
This site is home to the original San Felipe town site and includes a statue of Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, as well as a log cabin replica of his headquarters and a small museum.
Stephen F. Austin State Park
Located just down the road from Houston, the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site is found in the community of San Felipe. This state park makes an easy getaway from the Bayou City. Located on the Brazos River, the park offers a place to picnic and camp or enjoy a hike on nature trails.
