We wanted to go on a trip over the MLK holiday weekend, but flight prices were through the roof to most destinations. After giving up on Mexico City or a National Park trip, we saw that Houston wasn't bad and rental cars and lodging were quite cheap. Paul has been to Houston once more than a decade ago, and David had never been, so we booked the trip and started planning.
Houston is a huge US city, but it isn't widely known as a vacation spot. It has a few high profile attractions like the Museum of Fine Arts and Johnson Space Center, but it wasn't really clear to us what to prioritize or even what neighborhood to stay in. After some online sleuthing we decided to stay in the Montrose neighborhood and to focus our trip on trying different restaurants and visiting the big-ticket attractions.
We landed on a Friday late afternoon, and were immediately introduced to Houston's traffic. It's quite difficult to get around without a car (although they do have a small light rail line and bus service), so for this trip we were mostly driving around, but also did some walking around Montrose. Speaking of Montrose, it's an odd neighborhood. We saw it mentioned over and over online as a nice locals neighborhood with restaurants and bars, and we expected it to be something similar to Inman Park or Virginia Highland in Atlanta. Instead, it was a weird mishmash of townhomes, industrial uses, gay bars, a car-oriented main strip with some cool local bars and restaurants, and a few fancy new condo developments here and there. The sidewalks are completely inconsistent, so it can be a challenge walking around. It is centrally located, so overall we were happy using it as our base.
After dropping our stuff off at the AirBnB (which was much, much cheaper than a hotel), we drove about ten minutes north to Truth BBQ. This is a very popular (and touristy) joint, but it was often listed as the best BBQ in Houston so we knew we had to try it. For dinner they're only open 5-8pm, and when they run out they run out. We arrived about 10 minutes after opening and the line went a little bit out the door. It took maybe 20 minutes to get through the line. The food was hit and miss. Paul stuck to the classics and got a 2-meat plate with brisket, pork ribs, corn pudding, and mac and cheese. The brisket and sides were both good, but the standout was the pork ribs, which were perfectly seasoned and fell right off the bone. David got the brisket bahn mi, which seemed like a good option considering that Houston is known for Vietnamese fusion food, but the bread was like a hot dog bun and the fillings were wrong in proportion. If you go to Truth, get there early and stick to the basics.
We were deciding what to do during the evening, when we noticed that the Museum of Fine Arts was open until 9PM on Fridays. This is one of Houston's biggest attractions, getting over 900,000 visitors each year. It's a huge complex, spread across multiple building on several city blocks all connected by underground tunnels. We spent more than two hours there and it still felt a little rushed as there is so much to see. Some of our favorites included the Greek and Roman sculptures and mosaics, the underground tunnels with striking lighting, and the paintings by famous artists like Picasso and Matisse.
We ended the night with a stop for ice cream at Milk + Sugar (the Thai iced tea flavor is delicious) and walked around the Montrose Neighborhood for a bit. Unbeknownst to us, our AirBnB was right in the heart of the gay bar district. We were a bit exhausted and still operating on eastern time, so we didn't visit any, but it was still fun to walk around and take in the vibes.
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| BBQ plate at Truth. |
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| Some busts at the art museum. |
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| Cool underground tunnel. There's a drop-off on both sides that they had to warn people about. |
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| Paul in the tunnel. |
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| Bookshelf? Art! |
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| Frida Kahlo exhibit. |
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| Stuff of nightmares! |
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| Black & white room! |
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| Astronaut ice cream, but not the dehydrated kind. |
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| Montrose. |
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| There are food trucks everywhere in Houston, essentially permanently parked in a spot. |
On Saturday morning we walked a few blocks to 787 Coffee, a Puerto Rican cafe. It's in a converted house, which is a common theme in Houston, possibly thanks to really lax zoning. In general, we like this since it allows for small-scale shops in residential neighborhoods, which increases walkability. In practice it's a mixed bag because of Houston's general lack of sidewalk infrastructure and emphasis on parking. We did enjoy 787 coffee, and the drinks oddly came in little pouches rather than cups.
We then drove about 45 minutes (including some bad traffic on the interstate since it was reduced to one lane) to Space Center Houston. This is the visitors center and museum for NASA's Johnson Space Center. It was relatively crowded since it's a popular attraction. We started with a tram tour of the campus, which was a bit chilly on this overcast morning. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the mission control room where the Apollo missions were run, because the tours fill up weeks in advance. We still were able to see the outsides of the buildings, some deer wandering around, and a couple of random longhorn cattle. The tram also stopped at a large building specifically built to house and preserve a massive Saturn V rocket. Back in the main building, we explored various exhibits about the history of NASA space travel, the space shuttle program, and the new Artemis missions. It's a good museum and worth visiting when you're in Houston.
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| The land use in Houston, even in Montrose, is... interesting. |
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| Iced coffee in a bag? Why not. |
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| Houston, we have a problem - this place is too cool! |
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| The space shuttle atop the shuttle carrier aircraft. |
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| David by the Saturn V rocket. |
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| Inside the replica space shuttle Explorer/Independence. |
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| Apollo 17 capsule, the last Apollo mission. |
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| Inside Space Center Houston. |
We drove back toward Houston, stopping for lunch at
Cochinita & Co in the East End neighborhood. This was a cute little restaurant with bold flavors, and the chef, Victoria Elizondo, has been nominated for James Beard awards. We enjoyed our chilaquiles and cochinita pibil tacos, and the drinks from the cafe were great too.
From there we decided to check out
Meow Wolf Radio Tave. Meow Wolf is kind of an interactive indoor art exhibit. We went to the original one
in Santa Fe in 2021, and now there are five locations, each with a completely different theme and design. The Houston version is kind of a 1970s radio station with portals to other realities. The story isn't exactly clear, but there are some neat things to see and do throughout. Overall we enjoyed it, but thought the Santa Fe version was better,
Otherworld in Philadelphia was similar but better than either Meow Wolf, and our favorite by far is the incredible
TeamLabs Planets in Tokyo. Finishing up at Meow Wolf we walked across the street to the Saint Arnold Brewery and had a beer. It was really hopping despite the cold weather (all of the seating is outside).
We drove back to our AirBnB and relaxed for a while, before walking to get a cocktail. As we mentioned the sidewalks in Houston aren't the best (and the residential streets aren't well lit) but we didn't have much trouble walking the 15 or so minutes to Refuge. This was a cool little cocktail bar located behind and above another cocktail bar. We enjoyed our drinks. We then went to Roswell's bar, which is literally across the street but there's no crosswalk so we had to run across in between pickup trucks and SUVs. We actually saw several other people doing this - Houston, please put in a crosswalk here! Roswell's was neat, it's a blacklight bar with a space theme. The ice in our drinks glowed, and the tables have optical illusions of infinite voids. Sure it's tacky and touristy, but it was really fun and fits with Houston's space history. We then walked to Mi Luna where we had some tapas for a late dinner, and then walked the rest of the way back to our AirBnB.
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| These tacos were excellent. |
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| David loves a good chilaquiles! |
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| The "bartender" at Meow Wolf. |
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| Paul found his twin! |
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| Fluorescent forest. |
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| Well, I guess so? |
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| David running the Meow Wolf DJ booth. |
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| Getting drinks at St. Arnold. |
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| Having a beer with our new crazy cat stuffed animal. |
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| St. Arnold's had decorated cars that are used in the "Art Car" parade. |
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| Montrose streets, complete with giant truck valet parked on the sidewalk. |
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| Classy cocktail at Refuge. |
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| Roswell's is trippy! |
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| Our glowing drinks on the table. |
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| The space cowboy sign. |
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| Finishing the night at Mi Luna. |
On Sunday morning, we drove to the Buffalo Bayou trail, which is a bike/ped trail along Houston's river. It connects downtown with neighborhoods mostly to the west. It seems like a useful bike route, and on the weekend was being used mostly for exercise. In theory it's similar to Atlanta's Beltline, but the Beltline has much more development and in some places is lined with restaurants and apartments. The Buffalo Bayou trail was mostly a greenway trail that was separated from the actual neighborhoods by water on one side and a wide road on the other. We did enjoy the views of downtown from the Rosemont pedestrian bridge.
Next, we drove west to the Galleria area, which very much reminded us of Buckhead in Atlanta. Our reason for visiting was the "Waterwall." Opened in 1985, the Waterwall is a big half-circle wall with cascading water. It's a pretty cool space but was a short stop. We drove back into town, to visit the POST market. This is a former post office that was turned into a food hall and office space. It's a similar idea to Ponce City Market in Atlanta but on a much smaller scale. It's off to the side of downtown, across Buffalo Bayou and literally encircled by interstates, so it has kind of a "drive to urbanism" feel. The roof is really neat, with nice views of downtown. We explored for a bit, then had some bubble tea, and lunch from ChopnBlok which was really good. We then left the POST market and walked around downtown a bit. It was really quiet since it was Sunday, although there were some people in Discovery Green, which is a nice park. There was an ice skating rink set up, which was a little incongruous on this warm sunny January day. Downtown Houston seems like mostly office buildings, with some residential buildings around the edges, and then a hotel district around Discovery Green and the convention center. It has nice sidewalks and even a couple of cycle tracks. But overall it felt a little dead and the wide one-way streets didn't help. There are blocks like this with 5 lanes of traffic and blank walls fronting the sidewalk.
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| Sidewalks in this state of disrepair were quite common. |
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| Pedestrian bridge over Buffalo Bayou. |
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| Views back to downtown Houston. |
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| The Williams Tower, at 901 feet, is considered the tallest building in the US outside a central business district. |
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| The Water Wall. |
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| Views from the Sky Lawn of POST market. |
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| Downtown Houston has a lot of large office skyscrapers very close together. |
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| Lunch was a blend of East African and West African cuisines. |
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| They did a good job with the interior of POST market. |
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| Downtown Houston. |
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| Ice skater in Discovery Green. |
Leaving downtown, we drove to the Menil Collection, a free art museum tucked into the residential part of the Montrose neighborhood. It has an esoteric collection of art, ranging from ancient Greek mosaics to African carved masks to modern sculptures. They don't allow photos in the exhibits (just in the atrium and hallway), and there are a ton of staff who basically follow you around to enforce this rule.
After the museum we relaxed at the AirBnB for a bit, before heading to the Heights, another neighborhood we had read was nice to visit. This was a pretty pleasant neighborhood, with tree-lined streets and we even saw a bike path. We walked down the main strip on 19th street and stopped in a couple of shops. This seemed like the Houston neighborhood that was most our style. We then drove to
ArtecHouse Houston, a digital art exhibit. There were several rooms with installations, most notably a giant room where the walls and floor had projected videos of fractal worlds, and a cool exhibit with hundred of red lasers moving in patterns. Finally, we had dinner at Xiaolong Dumpling, which was a highly rated small restaurant just a few blocks from our AirBnB. It's in an old service station, and only has a few tables, but luckily we were seated right away. The owner was super nice and we enjoyed the food. The prices weren't bad either!
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| The interior hallway of the Menil Collection. |
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| 19th street in the Heights. |
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| One exhibit in ArtecHouse had a giant bubble on the ceiling. |
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| The laser exhibit. |
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| The fractal room, where you're surrounded by evolving digital fractals. |
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| Dinner on a chilly night. |
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Crystal dumplings.
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Our final day in Houston, MLK day, we started with coffee from Black Hole Coffee and breakfast tacos from the food truck in the parking lot. We then drove to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which is near the museum of fine arts and the zoo, in the "Houston Museum District." It's a similar set up to Balboa Park in San Diego, with a number of high octane tourist attractions and park land in one spot. It also has a bizarre series of boulevards and oblong traffic circles leading up to it. Seems like they were maybe going for a Paris-style boulevard experience, but instead it's just a huge jumble of cars and confusing multi-way intersections.
The Museum of Natural Science is huge, with four floors covering a wide variety of topics. We especially liked the impressive fossil and dinosaur exhibit. Our least favorite was the energy exhibit, which took up the whole 4th floor, was sponsored by oil companies, and focused on fracking and oil extraction with only the slightest mention of climate change or environmental impacts. We also saw a planetarium show narrated by Tom Hanks. We were surprised how expensive it was - $30 for parking, $25 each for entry, and $12 each for the planetarium show. There was also a butterfly exhibit that would have been $15 each. A family of four could easily cost over $200.
That just about wrapped up our time in Houston - our flight was in the late afternoon, so we left the museum and started driving north. We had time for one more stop though - tacos! We found a place that was about 3/4 of the way to the airport, right off the interstate, called Azteca Taco House. We had to order in Spanish, and enjoyed our tacos before driving the rest of the way to the airport.
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| Breakfast taco time. |
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| View of the fossil hall from above. |
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| An Egyptian tomb exhibit. |
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| Last tacos before leaving Houston. |
Overall we enjoyed our time in Houston. We had some great food, and several of the big attractions were impressive. We'd love to see more of a focus on walkability and connections between neighborhoods. For now, a rental car is a must.
