Adventure 7 // Houston Texas

Length of stay: Eight Nights

Accommodations: At the In-Law's

Hello friends. We have just returned from a three week road trip adventure, and boy did we learn some lessons! This was way more difficult than our Portugal/Zurich/London adventure a few months back - simply because so many unplanned events happened. That's another post for another time though. This post I am excited to share because I have been to Houston more times the I can count, and this is the first time we actually decided to write about it! Joey was born and raised right outside Houston and still has a good amount of friends there. Just by coincidence, I have a childhood friend who lives down the street from his parents. Small world after all.

We were able to pack a lot of friend and family time in as well as tourist-y things. Our first stop was the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We had been here before when Atlas was quite a bit younger and wildly obsessed with dinosaurs and it was a hit. This time he was a bit disappointed because he thought it was a video arcade, only to find out it was not. There is not a lot of interactive things to do in all fairness, and he wanted something to do. We paid an extra $5 for him to ride the dinosaur in the middle of the museum which lasted about thirty seconds, and then we were on our way.

We had more of an exciting day at Schlitterbahn, which wasn't exactly Houston, but close enough. It's located Galveston, only about an hour away from Houston. We were able to spend the day with friends, which was so fun for Atlas to have someone to pal around with. We started on the lazy river and went again, and again, and again. It was pretty fun and I tried my best to ignore all the germs and just go with the flow. Catch my pun? Hanging out with Joey 24/7 has gotten me hitting back with the bad-dad-jokes. Trust me, I am not paranoid. These places are dirty, even when they seem clean. We weren't there five minutes before the lifeguard blew his whistle and demanded everyone leave the pool immediately.

There, along side Joey, was a turd floating.

Atlas thought it was the funniest thing that ever happened in life and wouldn't stop talking and laughing about the incident and asking "who did it". Needless to say, we all took very deep showers that night. Besides the turd incident, we had a bunch of fun in the may other areas of the park.

We liked that parking was free, you could bring your own lunch/cooler, there were tons of covered picnic tables to perch, and there was a lot to do.

The third tourist-y thing we did was go to the Space Center, which Joey and his dad were really excited about. We explored the center and took the tram tour and saw mission control, which was awesome. Atlas loved how big the rockets were, touched a piece of mars, and did some fun interactive activities. It was a hundred degrees out, so it was nice they had a large indoor area with good exhibits.

The fourth, and final tourist attraction we hit was the Water Wall. It was pretty, it made nice photos. There was nothing else to do or see in walking distance we could gather. Basically it reminded me of the "I believe in Nashville" mural people line up for.

Honestly thought, I think Atlas had the most fun hanging out with Joey's friends' kids, my friends' kids and walking the dogs at Grammie and Grandpa's house. We had some fun water balloon fights, slip and slide, and days of unplanned exploring - and they were great.

A cool place we found ourselves eating and drinking we have never been to before was Tout Suite. I got the tofu place, which I loved and may have been my best meal while we were there. The coffee was great too. They also had a vegan cheesecake-in-a-jar option both nights we were there. We left with one of their juice jugs as well, and it was very good.

We have been to Green Seed many many times. I got my usual taco plate and side of cauliflower and they were both delicious and awesome.

Because we were in an adventuring mood, we tried another new place, AHH, Coffee. They had vegan kolache's and treats as well and all their stuff was good. The vegan Twinkie was OK, not my fave thing there.

An easy everyone-can-eat-happily place we went to was Baba Yega. I got the vegan Ruban and it was great.

We tried out the True Food in Houston, which we have been to a few times in Boca, and they had a new menu and it was very good. Joey and I shared a vegan pizza that was delicious.

Niko Niko was a pleasant surprise Joey shared with me. I had never been, but I loved my falafel sandwich and hummus.

One of my favorite places to eat is a place I always get "to-go". Pepper Tree. It's no frills, it's all vegan, it's a buffet. I always feel panicked when I load up my to-go container because it's something like $18 and you have one shot to make all the right choices. Do I skip the soup? Do I add more dessert? Three things look the same, but are they different? All while people behind the counter are staring at you debate your decisions. Whatever the case, I always wind up with 10 pounds of amazing vegan Chinese food, which I miss a ton after leaving New York.

So there you have almost a thousand words, and way-too-many pictures about Houston with a five-ish year old and how to feed a vegan there.

If you are doing Houston with a five year old:

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Schlitterbahn Houston

Space Center Houston

Water Wall

If you are a vegetarian going to Houston: