Category: Things to do with kids in Texas

Houston Maritime Museum

Historic ship models, the Luykx Navigation Instrument Collection, and numerous other nautical items at the Houston Maritime Museum offer insight into how maritime history has shaped our world. Exhibits include maritime artifacts, navigational instruments, and over 150 ship models. Lectures on oceans, explorers, cargo ships, and fishing vessels provide new learning experiences for visitors of all ages.

Contact number: (713) 666-1910

Location: 2204 Dorrington Street, Houston, TX 77030

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Military Museum of Texas

The Military Museum provides a large area for displays of military vehicles, artillery field pieces, field equipment, and other military support equipment. The Museum collects, restores, and preserves military memorabilia from all the wars and military engagements from World War II forward.

Contact number: (713) 673-1234

Location: 8611 Wallisville Road, Houston, TX 77029

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Houston Fire Museum

The Houston Fire Museum aims to capture the rich history of the Houston Fire Department. For kids who like fire trucks, this museum has a “Junior Firehouse Educational Interactive Area,” which consists of miniature bunker coats and helmets, an E-1 Cab to simulate the feel of a real fire truck, a 1938 REO antique fire truck, and a video educational library.

Contact number: (713) 524-2526

Location: 2403 Milam Street, Houston, TX 77006

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Bayou Bend

 

Run by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Bayou Bend has one of the nation’s foremost assemblages of American decorative arts dating from 1620 through 1870. The house itself was built in 1928, and opened to the public as a museum in 1966. MFAH Members can receive discounted admission to Bayou Bend home tours.

The gardens are lush and beautiful, originally created as outdoor rooms for living and entertaining, not just views to be admired from within the house.

Contact number: (713) 639-7750

Location: 1 Westcott Street, Houston, TX 77007

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Orange Show Center for Visionary Art

The Orange Show is not so much a museum as a whole folk-art environment nestled into the space of a snug residential lot on a quiet side street. The outdoor, maze-like space – a work of handmade architecture built by one man from 1956 to 1979 – features an array of colorfully painted ironwork, tiles, mosaics, and found objects such as gears, wagon wheels, mannequins, tractor seats, and statuettes.

Contact number: (713) 926-6368

Location: 2402 Munger Street, Houston, TX 77023

Learn more here.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Founded in 1948, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents regional, national, and international art from the past 40 years. The Museum also hosts events and educational programs for adults, teens, and kids.

Contact number: (713) 284-8250

Location: 5216 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, TX 77006

Learn more here.

Williams Tower Water Wall

Take a refreshing break from shopping at the Galleria by walking outside to the Water Wall behind Williams Tower. To call it a fountain would not do it justice. This 3-acre urban greenspace is lined with trees, walkways, and benches, and is anchored by a two-sided, 64-foot-high, concave wall of cascading water. The splash at the bottom of the fountain creates a thunderous roar, and the visual effect of 11,000 gallons per minute spilling down is mesmerizing.

Location: 2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston, TX 77056

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Downtown Tunnel

Houston’s Downtown Tunnel is a series of underground passageways connecting street-level office buildings, hotels, restaurants, and the entertainment venues throughout the Theater District. The Tunnel also leads walkers to several underground food courts, gift shops, boutiques, and the Shops at Houston Center shopping mall.

Location:  Houston, TX

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Katz’s Deli & Bar

Anytime of day or night, Katz’s serves up breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kids’ menus come with crayons, and the service is very friendly. In additon to the usual favorites, kids meals include challah French toast, pot roast, spaghetti with meatballs, and knockwurst – priced reasonably.

Contact number: (713) 521-3838

Location: 616 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77006

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Sam Houston Boat Tour

See the Ship Channel from a whole new perspective. The Port of Houston Authority’s public tour boat takes visitors on a spectacular waterborne tour of one of the busiest ports in the world. Sightseers can enjoy passing views of international cargo vessels and operations at the port’s Turning Basin Terminal, from air-conditioned lounge seating or standing room on the boat’s rear deck.

Contact number: (713) 670-2416

Location: 7300 Clinton Drive, Gate 8, Houston, TX 77029

Learn more here.