Houston, Tx

Houston, to be honest, wasn’t a place I thought I would ever see. It’s not really on my list of places to go nor did I have the desire to go. 

But when Casey mentioned he had to go there for work I thought that could be fun, let’s give Houston a try! 

Well, I sure am glad I did! Houston was a beautiful city, a mix between San Diego and Los Angeles. The city of Houston was a lot slower than I expected, which is okay with me! Now, don’t get me wrong I love the hustle and bustle of a city but sometimes you just want a mellower New York City vibe. 

I think we came at the perfect time too, the city was still riding strong from the historical win in baseball and all the overwhelming love and support from hurricane Harvey. Plus, the weather was cold but still completely bearable for a California kid.

Aside from checking the weather I always try to find some spots that we can visit and of course take photos.  I always try to learn something new about a place we are about to visit, that way I don’t completely feel like a tourist. I try to find things that are close to our hotel or further out depending on how much time we have. Usually, when Casey and I travel, we don’t have that much time to do things, so it’s best if I can find spots that are close to our hotel or where ever we have to be. Although this time I couldn’t find much that was around our hotel or really much of anything to see in Houston, you can only Google and look at Pinterest so much (ha-ha). Nonetheless, we did manage to find some spots I think you should check out on your next visit!

First and foremost, FOOD I love trying new food spots and seeing what the locals tend to eat.

We tried a few spots for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Moonshiners, to be honest, we ate at twice, it was that good. First, go around I had the chicken and waffles and let me tell you, it was damn good. The waffles were perfectly fluffy and the jelly they put on the top, oh my god, it’s like grandma was back there making it by hand with love.

The second time I had the grilled cheese sandwich, it was okay. I just couldn’t get over the chicken and waffles, that was worth all the calories in the world.

The Flying saucer was so cool to see! They had so many ‘saucers’ on the wall.  I actually thought this place was cool, I am big fan of Aliens hah so if you join the club on the website it looks like you joined an alien club (ha-ha) hence the “saucers”

We also enjoyed a Mexican place called ‘Batanga’ that served Tapas and drinks. That was a great place to sit and enjoy with the family. They serve single dish appetizers that you can share with the family. This was a great spot to grab a snack since we weren’t that hungry at the time.

For breakfast, we ate at The Honeymoon, it was a cute café that played great music! They also served really good lattes and teas.

Since we didn’t have too much time to wander around all of Houston, we had to stick to some local spots to entertain us while we had some free time away from the festival. I usually pull up google maps to see what is in my surrounding areas (sometimes they even show you the best picture spots). I found this park that is called the Market Square Park, it was a small park where you can just sit and enjoy your coffee and watch the dogs play. I love people watching so this was fun for me (hahaha)

But if you need a bit more excitement than that, Houston is known for the NASA Space Museum, so that is another option as well. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to make it down there. I highly suggest you put that on the list though and buy the tickets in advance.

There is also the festival we went too. This is a fairly new festival and only happens once a year so you can think about doing it for 2018! This is the whole reason that we can to Houston, was for the Day from Night Festival. I have never been to a festival before so I was excited to go to one!

However, what I didn’t know, was that this festival was a bit different from something like say Coachella. I mean different in a good way too. To start the festival was inside so that meant it wasn’t going to be too big, so goodbye to running from stage to stage to not miss your favorite band. Every stage was close together so you don’t have to worry about planning your whole day out just so you can see everyone.

Day from Night also has really amazing art installations that you can check out during the shows too. I really had no idea what to expect during this, so I didn’t know that there was art to check out too! One thing that I did not see coming was that this whole building that this festival is in, is completely dark! The art is different lasers and light shows, that’s something I have not seen before. I think my favorite display was seeing these disco balls hanging in a net with lights shining on them causing them to light up all over the place. They had other installments that were pretty cool too! 

The line up was pretty interesting this year, honestly I feel so old haha I only have heard of two of the performers, Cardi B and Nine Inch Nails, everyone else I was like oooh yeahhhh, I think I know them? I would recommend checking out the website here for tickets and information about next year! Even though this was only the 3rd year of this festival it was really popular and I think it will only get bigger in the next coming years!  

I think Houston overall as won my heart and I will be back to see the NASA Space Museum!