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    Summer vacation

    8 family-friendly resorts worth a road trip from Houston this summer

    Celestina Blok
    Jun 13, 2024 | 4:00 pm

    Airfare is through the roof these days, but don’t sweat it: A family-friendly summer getaway is just a road trip away. Here are eight unique resorts worth a visit this season — seven in Texas and one just across the border in Oklahoma. Some boast elaborate amenities like on-site waterparks and floating obstacle courses, and some are completely off the grid amid wildlife and starry skies. All are kid-friendly and ready to welcome families this summer.

    Isla Grand Beach Resort - South Padre Island
    Open since 1959, the island resort is located on 10 beachfront acres featuring lush foliage that provides a truly tropical vibe. There are two resort-style pools, hot tubs, tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, multiple restaurants including a beachfront burger shack, and daily live entertainment during the summer, including fireworks every Thursday night. Also during the summer are daily kids’ activities, including water games, arts and crafts, kids’ night out, sandcastle building, and movie nights. Rates start at $212 through July.

    Omni Barton Creek - Austin
    The Central Texas resort, spa, and golf club has a new emphasis on family amenities, recently debuting its 6,000-square-foot Longhorn Lawn. The greenspace is home to inflatables, lawn games, foam parties, and several scheduled activities. There’s also mini golf (including nightly “glow golf”), family-friendly pools, a splash pad, and nightly complimentary s’mores by the firepit. Make plans for Barton Fest on June 15 featuring animal encounters, face painters, balloon artists, live music, live music, and local cuisine. (Free to attend with $5 parking, open to non-hotel guests.) There’ll also be Independence Day activities July 4-7 with fireworks, live music, pool parties with a DJ, and kids’ activities. Rates start at $399 with promos for longer stays starting from $319.

    Kalahari Resort - Round Rock
    Not only is this African-themed resort home to America’s largest indoor waterpark but it also features multiple outdoor pools and slides, several signature restaurants, a massive arcade, bowling, escape rooms, laser tag, a mirror maze, and more. Grown-ups can plan ahead for Kalahari’s third annual Food & (Not Just) Wine Festival on Sunday, September 22 from 12-4 pm featuring more than 100 food and drink samples along with chef demos and live entertainment. Tickets start at $149 per person. Overnight rates through September 2 start at $195.

    Horseshoe Bay Resort - Horseshoe Bay
    The expansive Hill Country resort, on Lake LBJ near Marble Falls, just debuted its 2,850-square-foot floating pool, touted as the only one in North America and inspired by the Grand Hotel Tremezzo’s floating pool on Lake Como in Italy. Horseshoe Bay Resort is also home to Splash Safari Aqua Park, a floating obstacle course with climbing walls, slides, and balance beams on the lake open to those six and up; and the country's first Mouratoglou Tennis Center. Peruse the resort’s Summer Guide for dozens of daily kids’ activities, from sand bottle art sessions to tortoise and meet-and-greets. Make plans for Breakfast with the Birds on July 6 and September 1. Overnight rates start at $239.

    Villages Resort at Lake Palestine - Flint
    Located just outside Tyler in East Texas is this Holiday Inn Club Vacations resort on Lake Palestine, home to lake activities, 18-hole mini golf, and a year-round indoor waterpark right on-site. Other amenities include sports courts, an arcade, three pools, a splash pad, hot tubs, and a marina restaurant right on the water that provides sunset views. Rates start at $135.

    Oak Ranch Resort - Graham
    For those wanting to get off the grid and avoid big crowds, this ranch-style resort is perfect for a quiet retreat. Located on 57 acres just north of Possum Kingdom Lake, the secluded setting is full of Texas wildlife (turkey, deer, armadillos, and songbirds to name a few) and crystal-clear starry skies. There’s also an on-site pool and fully stocked fishing pond, and the Brazos River is located just minutes away. Options for overnight accommodations include three casitas that sleep from two to eight people and the four-bedroom La Casa Tierra that sleeps up to 12. Make it a family reunion and host dinner catered by the resort’s on-site chef at the newly completed poolside Social House. Rates start at $457, including taxes and fees.

    Great Escapes RV Resorts North Texas - Perrin
    Located about five hours northwest of Houston in the town of Perrin, this family-friendly RV park boasts a water obstacle course, fishing lake, multiple pools, a multi-level splash pad, 18-hole mini golf, laser tag, playgrounds, basketball and volleyball courts, on-site restaurant, ice cream shop, snack bar, and more. There are also themed weekly events, like “Santa’s Summer Surprise” and “Messy Chocolate Craze.” Don’t own an RV? No problem. There are a dozen on-site cabins and cottages, including a swanky barndominium that sleeps up to six. Rates start at $149.

    Omni Barton Creek

    Omni Barton Creek/Facebook

    Omni Barton Creek offers complimentary s'mores during the summer.

    Choctaw Landing - Hochatown, Oklahoma
    Tucked in the woods amid nearby trout streams in Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park and Broken Bow Lake, the hotly anticipated 100-room lodge-style resort and casino opened in April. While it is a casino, there are kid-friendly amenities that fall right in line with the Broken Bow area’s identity as a family destination. The resort pool is open to all ages and features a splash pad, cabanas, loungers, and fire pits for evening s’mores. The Cypress Lawn features an amphitheater for live music and events. The hotel also offers an Art Hike highlighting Choctaw culture and history guided by an AI-generated digital version of Choctaw Chief Gary Batton. Make plans for a fireworks show on July 3. Rates start at $169.

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    Preservation efforts

    South Texas mission makes list of America’s most endangered historic places

    Associated Press
    May 21, 2026 | 4:00 pm
    Ruidosa Church
    Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church
    El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, Texas is considered an endangered place.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic South Texas mission joins the Stonewall National Monument, the President's House Site, and the Women's Rights National Historic Park among 11 sites on this year's annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

    The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, May 20, marks America's 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

    “We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places ... that not all Americans routinely think about," Quillen told The Associated Press.

    The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

    At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas, and President's House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

    “We want to save these places," Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important."

    For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

    The 11 sites are:

    Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus
    The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property. (The nonprofit has posted an official statement and more information about the border wall here.) Ruidosa is in far west Texas, roughly 35 miles northwest of Presidio and 46 miles southwest of Marfa, near the rugged Chinati Mountains.

    El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus A historic photograph of El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus.Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

    Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel
    The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

    Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center
    Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

    California: Angel Island Immigration Station
    It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

    Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House
    Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

    Michigan: Detroit Association of Women's Clubs
    Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

    New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape
    The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

    Seneca Falls, New York: Women's Rights National Historical Park
    The park tells the story of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women's rights.

    New York: Stonewall National Monument
    The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag's removal at the Manhattan site.

    After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

    Philadelphia: The President's House Site
    The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

    Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield
    The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.

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