How to Do Houston in 32 Hours

1) Drive to Houston late in the evening. Stay at a nice hotel for free, thanks to an aunt who won a stay, forgot about it and rushed to give it to someone before it expired. Walk around to see what's near the hotel, and get ideas for things to do the next day.

a) A Greek restaurant we would have liked to try if we'd had a couple more days in town. (We haven't had Greek food since our honeymoon.)  b) "Trees" that were made entirely of lights all over the neighborhood.

2) The next morning, wake up, get ready for the day, enjoy the free breakfast that came with the free room. Life is good.

3) Decide that you can walk to the Galleria mall, a mile away. Do it. Get there. Walk the entire mall. Stop for a snack in the food court, since the huge breakfast means you weren't hungry for a real lunch.

This entire floor of the mall was all designer shops. And there were three floors. HUGE mall.

4) You've only walked about four miles so far. Decide to go ice skating! Avoid the little kids that are showing off and flying around the rink, and keep your arms out like an airplane so people know you have no clue what you're doing and they shouldn't mess with you.

In front of the beautiful multi-story tree in the middle of the rink/mall.

5) Walk back to the hotel. Complain the whole way. Step in mud. Complain about the mud.

6) Crash for a couple hours to read and nap. Try to move legs as little as possible. Look up ideas for places to go to dinner and things to do afterward.

7) Go to this New York-style deli. Choose your meal from the world's most ginormous menu. Get really delicious and really huge sandwiches. Watch self-proclaimed food-dominator husband fail to conquer his sandwich in one sitting. Take the leftovers home to snack on later.

Sometimes Matt doesn't appreciate my documentation.

I wasn't exaggerating. That sandwich was probably bigger than Matt's head.

8) Don't try to go to the Water Wall park, which was supposed to be this multi-story waterfall area; it might have been under construction, or it might be gone, but it was not where it should have been. Drive around aimlessly until you find pretty Christmas lights. Park to walk amongst them (if your legs feel better), or sit on a bench and watch the little kids run around instead.

All this was smack in the middle of a business plaza. I think I would have liked to work in those offices.

9) Get back to the hotel to put the leftovers away. Find out the hotel is hosting both a wedding and an office Christmas party; try to crash the wedding. Get thwarted by a security guard. Decide that hanging out in the hotel bar is the next best option, since you can hear the music from the Christmas party from there. Chill with some beers, and sing to all the songs.

10) Realize it's already almost 10:30 and you have to get up ridiculously early in the morning to drive back home. Go back up to the room. Read a little. Snack on your leftovers. Decide to fall asleep during Saturday Night Live.

11) Remember that there were other things we wanted to do (St. Arnold's Brewery! the beer can house!), but didn't get to since they were only open for certain hours, and we didn't think about them in time. Decide to come to Houston again another time to do more things, and to plan better next time.

Where do you go for quick weekend getaways?