We visit family so often in Houston that we forget to take advantage of the many museums, gardens, and other activities. On our recent trip, I took Thing 2 with me to Bayou Bend, the mansion and gardens of the late Houston philanthropist, Ima Hogg. Not knowing what to expect, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and left with a better understanding of Houston’s history.
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We often spend a portion of the holidays in Houston. Although we love seeing family, sometimes Houston itself gets old. We’ve tried various trip add-ons through the years – Texas Hill Country, Big Bend National Park, New Orleans, and even a detour through Hot Springs, AR and Memphis, TN. This year, we decided to take an overnight trip to Galveston since the weather was mild at 70 degrees in December.
It’s important to note that Galveston experienced its pinnacle as a prominent port city, rivaling New Orleans, during the late 1800s. However, everything changed on September 8, 1900, when a massive, Category 4 hurricane wiped out the town and killed approximately 6,000 residents. For more detailed history, I recommend Eric Larson’s book, “Isaac’s Storm.” Although the citizens quickly rebuilt the town, Galveston never attained its former glory as nearby Houston took over as the larger port city. In many ways, a trip to Galveston is like stepping back in time.
During Prohibition, two Sicilian brothers, Sam and Rosie Maceo, built a gambling empire that led to Galveston’s second surge of popularity. Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Phil Silvers and others frequently headlined acts at the Maceo’s high-class gambling joints bringing tourists and money in. This “Free State of Galveston” lasted until the Texas Rangers closed the famous Balinese Room for good in 1957.
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Located at Ellington Field, the Lone Star Flight Museum is a new addition to Houston tourist destinations. The museum focuses on Texas’ role in aviation history and includes the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. Not too far from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, it’s easy to tour both in one day.
Two hangars flank the main entrance hall and the theater featuring an introduction to the museum. We started with the Heritage Hangar to the right of the theater where about a dozen early aircraft welcomed us.
The museum opened in the fall of 2017 so everything was new and shiny. The planes were in a similar condition. I’ll just say upfront that I’m not an aviation buff. However, the mint condition these planes exhibited impressed me. I walked by most of the exhibits until a commercial airplane peaked my interest. (more…)
After reading Texas Monthly for years, I’ve always wanted to visit Big Bend National Park in Texas. But it is hard to get to – and that may be the appeal for many. In fact, its one of the least visited of the National Parks.
Big Bend is located far west Texas – the part that’s under New Mexico. The park offers a place to hike, bike, fish, camp, whatever you want and it’s absolutely beautiful. But it’s 653 miles from Houston where we go to visit family. We chose to add a few days after Christmas and make the drive from Houston.
We found a reasonable room at Terlingua Ranch Lodge. Although Terlingua sits three miles from one of the park entrances, the ranch was about 30 minutes north of the park. That seems far, but in reality it was one of the closer places to stay as Alpine is an hour and a half (83 miles) and Marfa is 2 hours from the park. (more…)