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Your weekly guide to Houston: Five (plus) don't-miss events — food festivals included

On tap this week is a frisky fruit festival, a Budapest-style anniversary dinner with Yankee flair, a celebration of cruelty-free living, a hilarious play that takes on a serious subject and films with powerful music screened alongside the city's premier classical ensemble.

25th Annual Hempstead Watermelon Festival

Here's something you didn't know about watermelon: Eat a bunch and you get the same effect as taking everyone's favorite perky blue pill. Makes me wonder if that's why Hempstead adopted the fruit, the city christening itself as the Watermelon Capital of Texas.

From downtown Houston, the drive to Hempstead isn't terribly long — about one hour away straight on U.S. Route 290.

Along the charming parks and main streets during the festival you'll find happy activities such as a barbecue cook-off, pet parade, carnival, wine tastings, street dance parties, live melon auctions, watermelon eating and seed spitting contests and on and on. Check out a complete schedule here.

The skinny: Friday and Saturday; Hempstead Gazebo Park and surrounding areas; free event.

Mimi and Ziggy's First Wedding Anniversary Dinner

Rule No. 1 about eating at Kenny and Ziggy's: Always wear your eating pants. Because restaurateur Ziggy Gruber doesn't shy away from the kind of satisfying portions that make you say, "oy vavoy" (loosely translated as "Holy mother of Moses").

This one-night-only multi-course feast — special dinners aren't offered often at this New York-style deli — recreates the meal that this mensch and his wife, Mimi McCaughey, enjoyed at their lavish wedding in Budapest. On the menu are goose soup with Hungarian ginger matzo balls, whole panko-crusted fried egg, filet mignon of Hungarian grey cattle and, for dessert, a Gundel pancake tower with chocolate rum sauce.

The skinny: Friday, 7 p.m.; Kenny and Ziggy's Deli; $75 per person plus tax and gratuity.

VegFest Houston 2014 Vegan Community Festival

Whether you go all the way or prefer to be a part-time veg lover, there's much to learn at this fourth annual event that displays how easy it is to find alternatives for animal-derived foods and products. The indoor gathering brings together a myriad speakers and chefs for educational sessions and cooking demonstrations, alongside a market that includes food vendors, animal welfare organizations and home and body product specialists.

Music, arts and crafts, yoga, fitness and film screenings round out this event that's organized by the Vegan Society of Peace.

The skinny: Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Pershing Middle School; free event.

Horse Head Theatre Company presents Spaghetti Code by Abby Koenig

I balled when I heard, "I just totally fucked this guy in my office," "It's not like you can white out jizz stains" and "I would trust him with my penis, in the most un-homosexual way ever." In tackling her second play, written for Horse Head Theatre Company, wordsmith Abby Koenig abandons finesse for commonplace language to examine a serious topic, infertility, through the lens of hilarity and realism.

How far would you go to get what you want? One woman thought it would be OK to ask her hubby to copulate with her best friend to conceive a child. The ramifications are amusing and catastrophic (watch preview video here) — a tad like life itself.

The skinny: Runs through July 28; PJ's Sports Bar; $20 general admission, $10 students.

Houston Symphony presents "Films with Live Orchestra: Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness"

Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness are among films that depend on a musical score for much of their excitement. Take away the music and there goes the magic of the final frontier. So consider this: What would happen if instead you beefed up the music's emotional prowess?

You can find out on Friday and Saturday when the Houston Symphony and chorus perform the score of these two films, one per night, while the movies are projected on a giant screen above the 100-plus musicians.

The skinny: Friday and Saturday; Jones Hall; tickets start at $29.

The Houston Symphony and chorus perform the score of two Star Trek films while the movies are projected on a giant screen.

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Texas cruises to the middle of America's best states for drivers 2026

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Texas residents love to debate which cities have the best — and worst — drivers in our own state, but which states boast the best conditions for drivers overall? As it turns out, Texas is only average.

SmartAsset's new study "Best and Worst States for Drivers" ranked states based on auto insurance premiums as a share of annual household income, the price of a 15-gallon tank of gas as a share of weekly household income, traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, and the share of interstate highway pavement rated "good."

Texas ties with Colorado as the 26th best state for drivers. Massachusetts tops the list.

According to the report's findings, 65 percent of Texas' interstate highways are in "good condition," and there are about 1.2 auto fatalities per 100 million miles traveled in the state.

Additionally, the cost of a 15-gallon tank of gas in Texas represents 3.47 percent of a resident's median weekly income, and insurance premiums eat up 2.05 percent of earnings, the study calculated.

Considering how much gas prices have soared over the last several months, commuting to work or driving around town is taking a bigger chunk out of Texas residents' wallets than it was before. At least Houstonians have the metro rail to get around downtown, and shuttle services like Shutto or Vonlane for easy traveling to other Texas cities.

"Between loan payments, maintenance, fuel and auto insurance, the cost of owning and operating a vehicle now averages more than $11,000 per year," the report said. "Even as U.S. cities and counties increase investment in public transportation, more than 90% of American households own or lease at least one vehicle."

For comparison, South Dakota has better quality interstate highways than the rest of the nation – at 84 percent – while only 15 percent of Hawaii's highways are in good condition. Rhode Island has the lowest auto fatality rate in the U.S. at 0.5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, and West Virginia has the highest auto fatality rate at 1.6 deaths.

After Massachusetts, the remaining top 10 best states for drivers are Minnesota (No. 2); New Jersey and North Dakota (tied for No. 3); Utah (No. 5); Connecticut (No. 6); New Hampshire (No. 7); Wisconsin (No. 8); and Indiana and South Dakota (tied for No. 9).

You might want to pump the brakes in the 10 worst states for drivers: Louisiana (No. 50); Mississippi (No. 49); Hawaii and West Virginia (tied for No. 47); Montana (No. 46); Arizona and Oregon (tied for No. 44); Maine (No. 43); New Mexico (No. 42); and Arkansas (No. 41).

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