At the age of 25, I finally made my first trip to Texas. I met up with my brothers and parents at my cousins’ house just outside Houston for a very fast, weekend-long trip.

It was great to catch up with everyone and enjoy a few days of sunshine after all the recent Ohio snow although I was sorry to have just missed having the boyfriend there as well. He flew back to Ohio from Dallas the day I flew out.

Since we didn’t have much time, we really crammed everything into a day, including a tour of the neighborhood (and a quick glance at the neighborhood across the street where Beyoncé lives!), a couple restaurant stops for some Cajun food and seafood and a visit to Kemah Boardwalk.

Although we really planned the Kemah Boardwalk trip for the kids, I ended up having a great time as well. In addition to watching them ride all the rides, we were able to walk around to a few shops, enjoy the water-front boardwalk, and grab some great food.

One of the highlights was the Aquarium where we were able to feed huge stingrays as they swam about their tank. I dropped a couple of the little fish in as the stingrays approached, but I did manage to get a couple actually into their mouths. Although we didn’t have a good eating experience at the restaurant, the inside was very cool, and we were able to walk from tank to tank looking at different fish, turtles, coral and stingrays. Fun for the whole family and it kept everyone occupied during our long wait for our food.

After dinner we headed back to the rides, which were all lit up at night, and all of us caught a ride on the train. We had fun seeing the entire boardwalk, traveling through tunnels and working up an appetite for the ‘sugar cakes’ (aka funnel cakes) we purchased as an after-dinner snack. The evening flew by and before we knew it we were sitting around watching the Olympics on Sunday packing up and getting ready to head home.

On our trip to and from Kemah Boardwalk, I kept seeing signs for so many other things to do in and around Houston, including the NASA Space Center, the zoo, a drive to the Alamo and more. I look forward to more trips back to see the attractions as well as the family, but I’m ready to hit other Texas cities and sites as well.

Have you been to Houston? Texas? Where do you like to go?