Holidays in TEXAS with a 4 year old

Day One:  Laredo to VICTORIA: 295 km = 3 hours 

Fairfield Inn and Suites:  Kepler enjoyed the indoor pool.

     HISTORY:  Victoria was founded in 1824 by 41 Spanish families.   

          

     ATTRACTIONS which we could have visited but we arrived too late:

          Texas Zoo:  animals indigenous to the area

          Nave Museum: displays Royston Nave’s Texas landscapes and portraits

         Children’s Museum

          Riverside Park

          

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Day Two:  Victoria to HOUSTON:  200 km = 2 hours

  

          HOUSTON is “the nation’s fourth-largest city.”

          ATTRACTIONS we went to:  

-          Children’s Museum: open Tues to Sun: the biggest and best we have ever been to:  Kepler's favorite areas:

a huge water section

catapult

ambulance:  Kepler is taking the patient's mouth temperature

police car

    Meanwhile, Bryan and Nicole went to the Museum of Fine Arts which also has a sculpture garden

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Kemah:  The Kemah Boardwalk is “one of the more amazing tourist attractions to pop up in Texas” . . . “a sprawling arrangement of restaurants, rides, landscaping with fountains and palms, and docks . . .”

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Day Three:  Houston to GALVESTON:  drive about one hour

     Hampton Inn & Suites: 6431 Central City Blvd.

          Galveston is an island-city with mansions built in the mid 1800s. 

          ATTRACTIONS we visited:

-        Moody Gardens:  has a dinosaur exhibit

and

a Rainforest Pyramid houses “exotic plants, mammals, birds, butterflies, and fish”.  Also an “amazing bat exhibit” 

    32 miles of beaches:  Stewart Beach and R.A. Apffel Park are in the city area and have concessions.

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Day Four: GALVESTON

          ATTRACTION we visited :

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     Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Waterpark:  “a covered, climate-controlled area” with “multiple areas for small children”

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Day Five:  Galveston to MATAGORDA:  157 km = 2 hours

          Stanley-Fisher House Bed & Breakfast:  built in 1832 by “one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence”:  We stayed in "the Lodge" and Kepler enjoyed climbing the bunk beds.

          ATTRACTIONS:

-         Matagorda Bay Nature Park:  free admission: great kayak tours, birds, playing on the beach

-         Matagorda County Birding Nature Center:  nature trails, butterfly & hummingbird gardens, waterfalls, flower gardens, kayaking

-         The town “still has a vintage feel to it and has a few stores” and restaurants.

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Day Six:  Matagorda to ROCKPORT

Rockport and its twin town, Fulton, “claim to be home to the state’s highest percentage of artists”.  Austin Street is “the main drag of the cute little downtown”.      

          ATTRACTIONS we saw:  

-         Aquarium at Rockport Harbor:  free admission but only Thurs to Mon

-         Rockport Center for the Arts: local arts scene but we missed a sculpture garden 

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Day Seven:  Rockport to Port Aransas

          Beachgate Condo Suites

Port Aransas, on the northern tip of Mustang Island, “is in many ways the most pleasant beach town on the Texas coast” with “lots of activities and nightlife”. 

          ATTRACTIONS we saw:

-         Birding center: free admission: boardwalk over the marshes and a viewing tower

-         Nature preserve at the lagoon end of Port St.  Over 2 miles of trails. 

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Day Eight:  Port Aransas to LAREDO:  279 km = 3 hours

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·         Quotes come from 2 guidebooks:  (a) OFF THE BEATEN PATH TEXAS  (b) LONELY PLANET TEXAS