Texas: The Cities
As I’m preparing for my second Texas trip, I’m looking back over our favorite things from our first visit (which was an incredible two-week tour of the state). We visited all over, here are a few of my favorites!
Dallas
Our first stop right outside the airport was Blues Burgers, which turned out to be my new favorite burger place! Their large burgers are delicious, and I LOVED the fried cheesecake roll for dessert. I’ve been trying to schedule a long layover in Dallas ever since just to have these burgers again.
From there we stopped at La La Land cafe, an adorable bright-yellow chain of coffee shops with cute yellow trucks parked out front. There are a few locations around the city, and definitely worth a quick stop.
The Dallas Farmers Market is open daily, and was a beautiful stop even in chilly January. This large building has lots of indoor and outdoor shops, flowers, and food vendors. I loved to see flowers blooming and plants growing outdoors in January!
From there we went to Thanks-Giving Square and explored a little of downtown. We didn’t do a ton in the downtown district, but Thanks-Giving Square is a short but pretty walk through a unique city park with interesting structures, water features, and a pretty all-faiths chapel.
We grabbed dinner one night at Thunderbird Station, which was a fun diner with a large cocktail menu of unique creations!
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens was beautiful on a sunny winter day, when many things were still in bloom and pretty water features were running even in January. This was maybe my favorite stop in Dallas, and tickets are discounted in the off-season.
We spent some time at Fair Park, which houses Cotton Bowl Stadium. The place was completely abandoned on a Sunday afternoon in January, and it was a super weird experience. It felt like we had stepped onto the set of a post-apolcalyptic movie about what happened after the world ended in 1999. I’m not sure I would be hyped to go back again, but we had fun exploring the area and seeing a “different side” of the stadium without the crowds.
Lots of other things to do in Dallas that we didn’t spend much time on include Dealy Plaza (where JFK was assassinated), the Galleria Mall (a huge shopping mall, we visited its sister location in Houston), and the Bishop Arts District.
We had a fun day at the Fort Worth Stockyards visiting the open-air market, looking at historic cars, and watching the impressive and unique cattle drive.
Waco
We only made a one-day stop in Waco to visit the Refit Studio and so I could take a class (I am a committed member with a Refit crew in Columbus, Ohio)
While there we went to Chick-fil-A (always a great find, and a great spot to open a laptop and work for a couple hours) and got Andy’s Frozen Custard (the BEST frozen custard in the USA).
We made a brief obligatory stop at Magnolia Market, and being that it’s really not our thing, were rather unimpressed. There were lots of delicious food options (unfortunately we had just finished lunch). The place looked nice and probably would have been more fun if it weren’t a gray rainy day.
They’re all over Texas, but you have to find a good Buc-ees location to make a pit stop. People there rave about it, and it is truly a very unique experience of a gas station/store. They are known for having exceptionally clean bathrooms. There is no way to explain what the experience is like, just add it to your list.
Houston
I was, unfortunately, rather unimpressed with Houston as a whole, being jam-packed with traffic and commercialism, but there are still a few unique and interesting things in the area.
The NASA Johnson Space Center is, in my opinion, the main attraction of the city of Houston. On the Southeast side, this is easily an all-day experience learning about space and the NASA program. There is an admission fee, but then most other experiences onsite are included in the cost of admission. There are many activities for both kids and adults, and we enjoyed riding the tram around the campus on the NASA Tram Tour.
We visited the Galleria Mall in Houston, which was a fun experience with high-end retailers, a large food court, a Tesla store, and an ice rink on the lower level.
Before leaving the city we toured the Buffalo Bayou Cistern, which was surprisingly very informative and interesting. We toured the pretty underground cistern with a small group, and our tour guide sang us a lovely song at the end of the tour while the echos of her voice bounced off the walls.
Austin
After Houston we spent a few days in Austin, which had a few cool activities in the winter. The 2nd Street District and Congress Bridge are some of the main areas in Austin, featuring walking areas, restaurants, and shops. Take a walk through the area and check out the stores and street signs that Austin is known for.
Mt. Bonnell was absolutely worth the trip, as you can see views of the city and the beautiful blue Colorado River. There is parking along the street and a short walk around the area, but be cautious about leaving anything in your car. We saw several piles of broken glass where vehicles had been broken into previously.
Austin has several natural spring-fed public pools, and I discovered one of my favorite places at the Barton Springs Pool. It was amazing to see this crystal-clear body of water with pool concrete built-up around it for easy access. It was too cold to swim when we were there (for me at least, there were some lap-swimmers in the water), but I look forward to visiting again to use this pool!
Uncommon Objects is a fun thrift store outside of town consisting mostly of old books and other knick-knacks.
San Antonio
The best part of the whole trip was seeing family in San Antonio for a few days. We got to see some local spots, starting at Local Coffee and the Pearl, which is known as “the local’s riverwalk.” It’s a funny foodie area with some shops and a small public park.
From the Pearl we walked along the river, and ended up walking the whole way to the main area of the San Antonio RiverWalk, which was a great way to spend a day.
We had the BEST Churros and ice cream at Honchos-The House of Churros, I would fly back to Texas just for that!
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was a very fun evening visit and a chance to explore beautiful old architecture in the area. We didn’t have much time, but there is a ton of history to learn if you arrive with enough time before they close!
Historic Market Square was a great way to spend a day, even though it was raining. The indoor shopping area has tons of vendors back-to-back selling funny, unique, and handmade creations.
We took a week and a half to explore these major cities in Texas, spending about three days in each place. There’s so much more in Texas I would love to see, but this was a great tour, and our first two-week trip out of state. It was a great sampling of the state!