Tour de Texas 2020
2020 ended with a sweet surprise which had something to do with Texas and meeting friends.
As we were desperately looking forward to the long break in the end of December, we managed to squeeze in our grand road trip to Texas to spend the holidays with our friends in Houston. This trip took us to the places that we didn’t intended to go but every little detour got us to a beautiful spot worth a check-in!
We love our road trips as a family and yet again we are so thankful for a successful adventure that we embarked on.
But, how did we get so crazy?? We started to toy with the idea of doing a 21 hour drive days before our trip. We roughly planned out our stopovers, which really helped us in preparing our minds to be on road for 2 full days. But we focused mainly on the excitement of exploring new places rather than the exhaustion of the drive, which kept us fresh and going.
Driving to Texas was fun because we were exploring an unknown territory but I least expected that we will it do in such style.
We drove to Nashville TN and made our first stop. The idea was to dig into some ribs and country food, drive down the downtown strip and catch a glimpse of Honky Tonks. We didn’t get to experience Nashville’s nightlife for obvious (2020 Pandemic ...cmon now!) reasons, but the place looked extremely fun for a girl’s trip or a short couples getaway.
Just before we left for the rest of our journey, I got my wings at this famous spot of Nashville!
Spots covered: Country BBQ, Nashville Downtown Honky Tonks, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, John Seigenthaler Bridge & The Legendary Milkshake bar!
Continuing our road trip, towards Houston, our first stop was to take an insta-worthy shot at the famous Memphis sign en route and we took a swift walk through the Mud Island Park on a gorgeous day.
This park was a delight cause it has a scaled model built for Mississippi https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g55197-d144592-Reviews-Mud_Island_River_Park-Memphis_Tennessee.html
The next stop was to swing by the Arkansas capital - little Rock and grab some really good and famous fried chicken at Gus and take a picture of the Little Rock. For vegetarian like me, they had fried okra, green tomatoes and pickles served with a cool ranch dip 😊
While we were heading towards our destination, we ended up meeting a very old friend whom we haven’t met in a decade as we were crossing Louisiana. Though we did not intend to splitting the drive into 2 nights, this meeting was a blessing to share the holiday cheer and talk about old times through the entire night.
With our 4 hours of drive to our destination - Houston we hit the road again to after enjoying a yummy homemade breakfast.
What was ahead of us was - 10 days of family time, laughter and holiday cheer. We covered other cities in Texas including – Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
Houston has a huge city like vibe with a beautiful downtown and is a home to HQs of many companies. The weather was fantastic. While we stayed in the burbs (So unfortunately do not have any recommendations on where to stay …)we still went ahead and did all the touristy stuff or at least got some nice pics clicked around some famous spot!
1. Houston Is Inspired Wall
There might be a ton of murals all over the city but it was funny because this one was just a parking lot.🤷♀️
2. Smither Park
A cool park which had a modern art built with sculptures embedded in the wall depicting beautiful and vibrant scenery. Worth a visit.
3. Gerald D Hines Water wall Park
Houston’s most photographed site, this dramatic 64-foot U-shaped fountain has water rushing down its interior and exterior walls. It was an absolute delight to watch and experience the enormous water wall. You may feel dizzy if you look straight up.
4. NASA
For all the space enthusiasts, NASA is a must visit to check the off the box. NASA Johnson Space Center, which they also call JSC is located on 1,600 acres in Houston. JSC is the training base and home to American astronauts. It is also the home of Mission Control, hence “Houston we have a problem.” It was a fun day spent where we saw the decommissioned space vehicles and plenty of other things associated with space.
5. Food
Houston has a variety of cuisines to offer from and one of my favorites was Torchy Tacos – that truly won my heart and taste buds.
Besides all of this Houston was very special because of the quality time we spent and the laughter we shared.
Another Texas city we covered was Austin.
Austin was a day trip since its about 2 hours from Houston. It’s a beautiful metro city which offers a balance of fun and regular life. Austin is the state capital of Texas and is known for its eclectic live-music scene centered around country, blues and rock.
Spots covered in Austin:
1. Austin Mural
Trust me there was a long queue to get a picture clicked here (:P)
2. Taquero Mucho
This was a one-of-a-kind restaurant where everything was pink and served pink. A huge flower wall and pink tacos… what else can I ask for ?😊
By the way – Taquero Mucho roughly means “ I love you so much”
Seems like a perfect place for a brunch with the girls or a nice date.
3. Voodoo doughnuts – One place that I always wanted to try because I remember watching it on the travel channel many years ago.
4. Austin State Capital – A beautiful magnificent building and the grounds were absolutely fantastic to take a stroll admiring the amazing architecture of this huge historical site. Touring the Texas State Capitol is a great, hassle-free way to spend an afternoon in downtown Austin. Whether you are a tourist or a local, it’s a must see!
San Antonio – THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SURPRISE!!
This pretty city was a complete surprise to us since we didn’t expect this place to be a one-stop-shop for historical sites, amazing food, picturesque locations and what not! About 4 hours from Houston and packed with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the perfect tourist tricks.
My personal favorite was the Riverwalk and the most romantic walk around the river with cute bridges.
At night, the city looked even more prettier with colorful lights hanging from the overlooking trees. The Torch of Friendship and the speciality restaurants were some of the remarkable things about this beautiful city. Look at the glimpses for reference 😉
I also got my wings one more time at this beautiful place. It was right inside the compound of he Space Needle now called as the Tower of the Americas. This 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas provides guests with the most spectacular view of the Alamo City.
When you think of Texas, San Antonio is the most underrated city all over the country. The city is often overshadowed by the newer, hipper capital and its startup community. But the kind of history it presents through landmarks like the Alamo blows one's mind.
Fun Fact: The city of San Antonio is actually older than the United States.
There are five official missions: The Alamo, Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan, and Espada.
The Alamo was an 18th century Franciscan Mission in San Antonio, Texas, which was the location of an important battle for Texans fighting for independence from Mexico. In 1836, a small group of Texans was defeated by Mexican General Santa Anna. Hence the cry “Remember the Alamo”
Though all the historical places are worth a visit but if your time is limited, visit Mission Concepcion and Mission San Jose.
Totally mesmerizing San Jose Mission!
Last beautiful place that we visited before we left San Antonio was Market Square- absolutely colorful marketplace with a local market. This called for buying me a souvenir cowboy hat! Howdy!!!!
Our journey way back!!
As our vacation was coming to an end we planned our itinerary to get back home and get back to reality. Since our drive to Texas took us through so many detours giving us plenty of opportunities to stop we didn’t want to have opportunities to cover cities in this order.
Baton Rouge Louisiana – The special landmark and crab wings ..lol
New Orleans – The famous Jacksons Square.
and some more sweet memories from Nola.
Birmingham Alabama - <3
Now that we are back with our beautiful memories of a fun trip, we realize it was a perfect way to nurture our passion and dream. Travel brings me closer to life. As they say - "We travel not to escape life... but for life not to escape us."
Till my next story !!
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