Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Day Trips from Houston. This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive of the Houston metro area. With full trip-planning information, Day Trips from Houston helps make the most of a brief getaway.

Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Day Trips from Houston. This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive of the Houston metro area. With full trip-planning information, Day Trips from Houston helps make the most of a brief getaway. Packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover not far from Houston, TX Complete with full trip-planning information, including information on where to eat, where to shop, and where to stop along the way. Each itinerary includes its own route map.

Enjoy a welcome change of pace and discover a world you may not know exists in your own backyard. Day Trips describes hundreds of fascinating and exciting things to do, many free of charge and most within a two-hour drive of Houston. Book jacket.

Within about seventy-five miles of downtown Houston, some 1,500 miles of rivers, creeks, lakes, bayous, and bays await discovery. Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways, by longtime paddler Natalie Wiest, is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to experience Houston’s well-watered landscape from the seat of a kayak or canoe. Before introducing readers to the quiet, green world that lies within and around the heart of the city, Wiest gives some pointers on water safety (including swimming and boating); on weather, flood stages, and legal access; and on an often unseen but always present paddling companion—alligators. She also provides a gear checklist for a day trip, a brief guide to boats and paddles, and a “sampler” list of easy places to paddle for true beginners. Presented in nine chapters, each organized around a river system or coastal basin and comprising a “suite” of paddling trips, the excursions described by Wiest offer a general description of the destination, directions (both driving and paddling), and details about the paddling conditions and access sites, which are all publicly owned or managed. Each chapter lists mileages, USGS gauging station numbers, and GIS locations when applicable. Also including ninety color photos and more than thirty detailed maps, Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways offers both novice and experienced paddlers a helpful and enjoyable reference for experiencing nature at water level, in and around Houston. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

Richly illustrated with rare period photographs, Houston’s Hermann Park: A Century of Community provides a vivid history of Houston’s oldest and most important urban park. Author and historian Barrie Scardino Bradley sets Hermann Park in both a local and a national context as this grand park celebrates its centennial at the culmination of a remarkable twenty-year rejuvenation. As Bradley shows, Houston’s development as a major American city may be traced in the outlines of the park’s history. During the early nineteenth century, Houston leaders were most interested in commercial development and connecting the city via water and rail to markets beyond its immediate area. They apparently felt no need to set aside public recreational space, nor was there any city-owned property that could be so developed. By 1910, however, Houston leaders were well aware that almost every major American city had an urban park patterned after New York’s Central Park. By the time the City Beautiful Movement and its overarching Progressive Movement reached the consciousness of Houstonians, Central Park’s designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, had died, but his ideals had not. Local advocates of the City Beautiful Movement, like their counterparts elsewhere, hoped to utilize political and economic power to create a beautiful, spacious, and orderly city. Subsequent planning by the renowned landscape architect and planner George Kessler envisioned a park that would anchor a system of open spaces in Houston. From that groundwork, in May 1914, George Hermann publicly announced his donation of 285 acres to the City of Houston for a municipal park. Bradley develops the events leading up to the establishment of Hermann Park, then charts how and why the park developed, including a discussion of institutions within the park such as the Houston Zoo, the Japanese Garden, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The book’s illustrations include plans, maps, and photographs both historic and recent that document the accomplishments of the Hermann Park Conservancy since its founding in 1992. Royalties from sales will go to the Hermann Park Conservancy for stewardship of the park on behalf of the community.

Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Day Trips from Dallas & Fort Worth. This guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive of the Dallas metro area. With full trip-planning information, Day Trips from Dallas & Fort Worth helps makes the most of a brief getaway.