I’m leaving for the US (Houston, Texas) with my father next week for cancer treatment (I am the patient). Don’t know how long the stay is going to be. To keep optimistic I like thinking about doing fun things - motivates me to think I have to be well in order to do them.
San Jacinto museum. Hard to get to but important to Texas history.
Museums in H town are really good.
Walk around Memorial Park to get some headspace when needed.
NASA. Expensive but worth it.
I’ll add some restaurants. It’s a great melting pot of food and cultures.
Thank you! You’re from Houston? My dad rented a house in River Oaks for our stay, he says it’s quite close to the hospital and nice. Wonder if you know more things about that area.
Go to Meow Wolf in Houston!!! It’s immersive art- so think art museum that you can touch the walls and interact with the artwork. Their experience in Houston is called Radio Tave. Give yourself a good amount of time to explore an wear comfortable clothing/shoes. Meow Wolf does attempt to make their art installations accessible for all sizes, ages, and abilities- so if you visit while on crutches, on a walker, or in a wheelchair, both you and your dad should still have an enjoyable time! Hope it all goes well!
Not American, so can’t comment on fun things to do there. Just wanted to say good luck with your cancer treatments!
Homelessness
The shows in Vegas are definitely worth a trip. I just saw Penn and Teller and the Blue Man Group.
Plus Vegas is really just so over the top. Walking around seeing the lights and sights, it’s pretty cool.
Aye it’s only a 22 hour drive OP, on you go 😂
If you like Museums:
- Museum of Fine Arts (1001 Bissonnet St)
- Houston Museum of Natural Science (5555 Hermann Park Dr)
- The Menil (1533 Sul Ross St)
Space Center Houston (the tourist wing of NASA’s Johnson Space Center) is a great place to visit.
If you like big spectacle places, see if you can take a tour of Minute Maid Park (Astros baseball stadium) or NRG Stadium (Texans football stadium).
If you enjoy live theater, options include:
- The Hobby Center (800 Bagby St)
- The Alley Theater (615 Texas Ave)
- Stages (800 Rosine St)
If you think you’ll have the appetite for it, there are lots of good dining options at every price point from a wide variety of culinary traditions. Try some bbq (if you’re from Saudi there are at least some halal bbq options, we have a pretty sizeable halal crowd). Try some Texmex restaurants. Try a pho restaurant. Try a taco truck.
Take a tour of the Hermann Park Zoo (6200 Hermann Park Dr). It’s a big damn zoo with a lot to see. You could also head down to Galveston and visit the Moody Gardens (1 Hope Blvd in Galveston). They have a giant rainforest pyramid and a giant aquarium pyramid. There are a lot of good dining options in Galveston but I don’t know offhand whether any of them are explicitly halal.
Good luck with your visit. The Texas Medical Center has some of the best medical care in the world. I hope you kick cancer’s ass.
The Texas Medical Center Thanks. I’m going to MD Anderson. My doctors here recommended it saying it’s the best in the world, with the most clinical trials available and stuff.
MD Anderson is S tier. Kick cancer’s ass.
Fun free and quick unique thing at the airport to have fun with while you’re already there:
When you are at the airport in Terminal C. There are two places where four walkways cross. I guess the architects thought it would be fun if they created an echo chamber. So if you stop in the dead center and speak it echoes and scares everyone around you. It’s a lot of fun so try it when you are passing through the airport. They are located near C14 and C45. If you don’t know they are there, you will walk right past them.
Open: As long as the airport is open. Location: Intersection near gates C14 and C45
Nobody’s mentioned the sensory overload that is Buc-ee’s yet?
I got sent to Texas for work one year and I asked someone about souvenirs because I try to collect a magnet from each state I visit. The lady talked for 20 minutes about how I need to go to buccees and how it’s the absolute best place. So I drove 45 minutes through Houston traffic to end up at a gas station that only had their own merch with a beaver on it.
My colleagues from Europe are always fascinated by Wal-Mart. They walk the aisles and usually buy an insane printed t-shirt or blanket as a souvenir. They also like to stock up on “American snacks,” so that accomplishes a few things with one trip. Pop tarts, corn chips, maple syrup - just things with a different flavor profile or philosophy of what counts as “food.” And Pork Rinds (aka chicharrones) are fried pig skins. Somehow I can never quite persuade them to get those.
Tex-Mex and BBQ are the two biggest food recommendations for Texas. BBQ may include beef brisket or chicken. If you’re keeping a halal diet, just be aware that these restaurants may incorporate pork into seemingly vegetarian choices, like collard greens or beans.
One tip: you can usually ask a restaurant to make a substitution to a meal and they will be happy to oblige unless it’s integral to the cooking process. For example, you can ask for a bacon cheeseburger with no bacon, but you can’t ask for beans without pork because it’s more like a soup. (Sorry if this seems obvious, but my coworkers from EU are super reluctant or shy to ask for modifications. In the US it’s considered perfectly normal to make this type of request.)
Since Houston is reasonably close to Louisiana, you may be able to find a decent Cajun style restaurant. Very regional and very delicious.
I’ve heard that you can find shark teeth on some of the local beaches, but they also just sell them at Murdoch’s, which is a gift shop in/near Galveston.
If you want to outdo Walmart, there is also Buc-ee’s.
T.J. Birria y Mas in the Sugarland/Stafford/Missouri City area (SW Houston). Fucking best taco in the world. Discovered it last time I was there.
Also, Johnson Space Center. Be sure to reserve a lot of time for it.
She’s being worked on still so I’m not sure of her state but USS Texas is in Galveston. A WWI dreadnought battleship that is pretty awesome to go see. Only one left in the world.
You should be asking for Houston things, not American. Though you can fly to other cities, but the US is big. Texas is 695,660 km2, France is 543,941. Different states do have very different cultures - even in Texas you will find several different cultures. You cannot do it all, and I suspect your treatment will limit how far you can travel. Fortunately Houston is a big city with plenty to do and the public transit isn’t impossible to use. search for your city and tour and you will find plenty of interesting things - https://www.visithoustontexas.com/ is what I came up with though I don’t know if it is good.
I’d recommend going over to see the grand canyon… It’s the kind of thing you have to see in person to understand, pictures can never do it justice.
Walking while black.
Keep a hand in your pocket and wear a hoodie for the full experience!
Depending on where you’re from, go shoot some guns. Nothing more American than shooting guns in Texas. Maybe get some cowboy hats and rent a big truck to go off roading.
Do it in a school for the real authentic experience.
