What are your favorite family outings?

I'm seeking out the knowledge and advice of my fellow Texas friends, and anyone else that has been in Texas. My two kids are finally at a manageable age, where I can take them out on day outings all by myself and not feel too crazy by the time it is done.

I love to explore and go new places, so we've tried a few local outings. We also have family visiting for most of the month of December, and we'd like to take them to some new places.

So my question to you is what are some of your favorite places to go and play, eat, and do things out of the ordinary?

Here are a couple of pictures from some of the things we've found to do lately. (As you can tell we are easily entertained.)

Our most recent adventure was to the city of Houston. Yes, we've lived here for almost 3 1/2 years and this was the first time I actually took the time to get out and just walk around the city. I fell so in love with Boston when we were there, that the times I've driven through Houston I have just been disappointed. But I finally gave it a chance. It still doesn't even come close to Boston, but it was fun for something new to do.

The kids loved walking through the tunnels of Houston and down the side walks surrounded by tall buildings. We found a balcony off of one of the tall buildings and had a picnic. The kids liked watching the cars below drive by and the workers across the street working on the ledges of the building across from us.
We do love going to the parks in the Woodlands. To mix it up a bit we brought a bunch of bread to Alden Bridge park to feed the turtles, fish, and ducks. It was a little cooler, so I was worried the turtles wouldn't be out. But as soon as the bread started hitting the water the turtles and fish came. We fed them for a while. We were a little disappointed because the ducks didn't come.

We ventured over to the picnic table on the other side of the park. The kids were throwing more bread in for the fish and wouldn't you know it the ducks came. We discovered these are no ordinary ducks at the park. They are CRAZY FEARLESS DUCKS!! They saw the bread in the kids' hands and went right for their hands. As calm as I could I said, "Hurry, throw the bread to the ducks as fast as you can." The kids did a good job and threw it as far and as fast as they could. The ducks gobbled up all the bread and came to us looking for more. They looked like they were going to eat us. So I hurried and put the kids on top of the picnic table, and promptly joined them. The ducks surrounded us with their wings flapping, but they finally left. My neighbor (Michelle) used to have geese and this incident brought back memories of those aggressive birds. As soon as the memories passed, we climbed down from the table and decided to go play in the sand at the volleyball pit and run on the soccer field. I had bonded with nature enough for the day.

One of our favorite places to go is Market Square. We prefer the new area of fountains across from the theatre. The kids like to play in the water there. I like to go there at night where every 15 minutes they play a song that is synchronized to the big water fountain. The fountain has different colors of light that light up the water as it sprays to the beat of the music.

It recently has been a little to cool for swim suits, so we have discovered the trolley. The kids love to pack a lunch and ride the trolley around the Market Street area. We find a nice spot along the route and get off for a picnic. Then we get back on for a couple more trips around Market Street. It's easy and fun. We are looking forward to seeing all the Christmas decorations there and going ice skating.

Some of our other favorite spots are Sea World, the Houston Zoo, the Houston Rodeo, and the Oil Ranch.

Please let us know some of your favorite things to do and places to visit. We would love to try them out.