The summer edition of our My Top 5 series continues, highlighting Houston’s creators, storytellers, and tastemakers—this week with a mind towards summer reading—while asking them to plot out their very own favorite ways to enjoy life in Greater Houston, when they’re not racing towards their next deadline.
This week, delighted to share the local H-Town insights of bestselling romance author Melanie Sweeney, who shares how she and her family enjoy their free time in the Houston metro—including an oft-missed outdoor space that helped inspire her brand new book, which just hits the shelves today.
You can also join Sweeney on Monday, July 14 to celebrate that book, Where You’re Planted, at a free launch event at Village Books in The Woodlands.
RSVP for free, or place an order to pick up the book that day for signing.
My Top 5 Things to Do in Houston
by Melanie Sweeney
The Houston Zoo – Is this a pretty obvious choice? Maybe. But this has been a family favorite from the days when I just needed to get my toddlers out of the house, through our homeschooling years, and into my kids’ adolescence. The Houston Zoo is clean, large enough to spend a full day exploring, and well-shaded for hotter summer days. Our favorite extra perks are the zookeeper talks and feeding the giraffes.
Mercer Botanic Gardens – Northeast of the city, but well worth the drive, these county botanic gardens showcase a variety of beautiful plant species, and they’re totally free and open to the public! (It’s so lovely, in fact, that I set my new book in a fictional version of the park.) Mercer offers group classes like birding, guided hikes, and outdoor Tai Chi as well as regular tours and educational talks, most of which are free. If you have gardening questions, they are the perfect people to ask. This is my favorite place to enjoy a few restorative hours in nature.
Aerodrome Ice Skating Complex – What better way to beat the summer heat than to go ice skating? While there are a few rinks closer to the city, this one is my favorite for the friendly community of skaters, the quality of the ice, and the excellent Learn to Skate program. Inspired by the last winter Olympics, my daughters and I started figure skating lessons there three years ago and never looked back—we’ve gone full Ice Princess! But there’s something for everyone: public skating, hockey camps and recreational league games, Learn to Skate classes for all ages and levels, figure skating competitions, ice shows, a theatre on ice team, an adaptive therapy skating program, and more. Go try a public session this summer—maybe I’ll see you there!
Houston Museum of Natural Sciences – Y’all, the Cockrell Butterfly Center alone is worth a trip to this museum! I defy you to visit and not have your mood instantly lifted. But there’s so much more to explore there, too, and because it’s air-conditioned (are you sensing a theme?), it’s a great summer activity for the whole family. My kids enjoy the permanent Ancient Egypt and Paleontology exhibits, but we’ve also got our eyes on temporary exhibits this summer—Extreme Animals Alive and Death by Natural Causes. I’m always looking for ways to encourage curiosity and learning that doesn’t feel like capital-E education to my kids, and this museum never fails to hold their attention—and mine!
White Oak Music Hall – I’ve been to a few concerts at this venue, and my favorite thing about it is how intimate shows there feel. It’s primarily standing room only, so wear your comfy shoes, but the trade-off (for an elder millennial with backaches like me) is a close spot to the stage, even at the back of the room. Some of my most memorable shows—and best concert photos—were at White Oak Music Hall.
About Melanie Sweeney
Melanie Sweeney is the author of the USA Today bestseller, Take Me Home, and the just released romance, Where You’re Planted, in which a Houston children’s librarian must save her hurricane-damaged public library by moving it into the county botanic gardens, where the grumpy director happens to be the jerk who saved her during the storm. Sweeney writes realistic and uplifting romance about ordinary people finding extraordinary love. She has lived in the Houston area for 13 years with her husband, three kids, and too many cats. When she’s not writing, she’s ice skating, embroidering, or learning old One Direction songs on her ukulele. You can keep up with her at melaniesweeney.com, by subscribing to her newsletter Melanie Sweeney’s Swoon Report, and on Instagram.
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