This summer I was lucky enough to visit a dear friend and her family who is living in Houston, TX, along with my youngest daughter. Another of my oldest and dearest friends who is local was also visiting with her family.
One thing I learned right off the bat – Houston is hot! Well, duh, Emily… It is summer time in the deep south! The thing is, I spent weeks in Guatemala in August and was unbothered by the weather, so I really didn’t think the heat would be a problem for me, until I walked out of the airport and it hit me square in the face. That heavy, oppressive Houston heatwave is definitely something to consider. Had I been solo as in Guatemala, perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered, but with little ones it was a different story. I felt like the sun was somehow much closer, and I felt like it had an insidious desire to melt us.
The good news was that our friends have a beautiful, spacious home with excellent air-conditioning. Also, they’ve lived there long enough to be familiar with the best indoor destinations for families with small children, and though we were only there a few days, they introduced us to several.
The Post
We had lunch at the Post, a former post office renovated into a fun event venue/food market. It even has an exhibition side dedicated to NASA, and a roof top garden with beautiful views of the Houston skyline. We sampled gumbo, hot dogs and that famous, delicious Texas BBQ.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science
We visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which was definitely one of the best science museums I’ve ever been to. After visiting their extensive collection of gems, shells, dinosaur bones, and displays of local habitat wildlife, we visited my favorite floor which focused on the science and technology of energy, with a focus on (and a diorama of) the city of Houston.
Minute Maid Park
We even caught a baseball game at the Houston Astros baseball stadium, Minute Maid Park. As an indoor ball park, it was hot, but most definitely much less hot than the outdoors. We even got to see the train move up and down the tracks for a homerun!
But the best part of the trip was simply being able to spend time together. What a treat to see our little ones connect, the same way we did when we met as children so many years ago. The hours we spent together after the kids went to bed, playing Dutch Blitz, laughing, and catching up on conversation were precious. Discussing parenting, family, work, places, dreams, and life with my dear friend was long overdue, and definitely worth the trip. I would even do it again in another Houston heatwave!
