Texas Tourists

The Texas Energy Museum was very informative and pleasing to the eye. Piney Woods Winery was small and the wine was unique. The Hilton Hotel had a great pool and the room was nice.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

The only way to get around was by car. Once you get to a certain area it was very easy to walk from place to place.

We booked our reservation through Expedia.com. When we first checked in they didn't have our reservation but I showed them the confirmation number and all was solved very quickly.

The lobby is huge with nice tile flooring. There is a gift shop, bar, large screen TV with 2 sofas, exercise room, ATM machine and bell-hop service. A shuttle bus is available to and from the airport. This location also had several ballrooms which hosted 2 weddings while we were there.

The room we had was a corner room in the Cabanas (3 story with the pool in the middle). We did not have pool-side but the rooms looked nice with a private balcony. Our room had 1 king bed, a small round table, 2 chairs and a 32 inch TV with remote. No HBO or movie channels (for free) but they did have FX so we enjoyed the back to back to back episodes of M*A*S*H! The bathrom was pretty small but it did have a pulsating showerhead and a retractable clothesline to hang wet suits.

Speaking of wet suit...we had a great time at the pool. It had beautiful lush landscaping and the water was refreshing. The deepest end was 5 feet and there was a ledge to sit on all around the pool which the children really enjoyed (not our children but other guests). This pool has full sun for most of the day and if you wanted shade you could sit under a table with an umbrella.

Overall this was a nice hotel, especally for the price.

Let me put this little disclaimer before I begin. Usually we try and find a local establishment to eat at but after 25 minutes of me giving bad directions we just decided to stop and eat wherever we could. With that in mind we had a very nice lunch at Chili's. We started off with drinks, Island Survivor (capt. morgan rum, cointreau mis, pinapple juice, sweet&sour mix) it was a very sweet drink and yummy, my husband had a Tropical Sunburn (capt. morgan, myers rum, cointreau, cranberry juice and pineapple juice) this was also a sweet drink but a great afternoon drink. Our meal came very quickly and the service was excellent (it was 2:00 on a Saturday). I had 1/2 turkey sandwich and chili, both were good and servered with fries. My husband had the Chicken Ranch sandwich with fries, it's a deep fried chicken breast with hot wing sauce and ranch dressing, served on a bun with lettuce and tomato. This was a wonderful lunch.

***Clean restrooms but kind of small.

On our way home we stopped for lunch at Cheddar's Casual Cafe. I was a little aprehensive since I normally don't like cafe style restaurants but this was a welcomed surprise. We sat in the bar since it was pre-game time (11:30 on Sunday). The best part was the huge fish tank that separated the bar from the dining room area. This seemed to be a newer restaurant since everything was clean and new looking. I had the Spasagna($6.29) with alfredo sauce, baked spaghetti with alfredo and cheese served with garlic toast. It's a very large portion but the flavor was a little bland. My husband had the 1/2 rack of ribs($8.99), cole slaw and mashed potatoes. The ribs were cold but fell right off the bone, the cole slaw was spicey and the potatoes were delicious and hot. His favorite were the mashed potatoes. I did order a house glass of wine($4.25) which was served in a chilled glass. The service was excellent and we waited an average amount of time for our meal. They did have some outside seating and the place was filled with many families with children.

**The bathrooms were very clean.

Directions-Going East on I-10 take exit 876, U-Turn, it will be on the right hand side. It is in a small neighboorhood. Most of the wines are fruity; they just started making a red wine. My husband and I really enjoyed all the wines we tasted. There is no cost for tasting (up to 6 wines) and a tour is available for groups only. The owner/winemaker Alfred J. Flies was there to greet us and pour our samples. He had just had cateract surgery so he had problems finding the glasses but he was a joy to visit with. We were the only 2 people there so we had his full attention. I'm not sure if the wines were extra strong or if we drank too much on an empty stomach but I was glad I wasn't driving! Besides the wines they also had champagne and marinades available for sale. Piney Woods Wines are at Old Town Spring or at Specs. I can't wait to try these wines again.

This museum also acts as a Visitors Center so stop here first and pick up a map and sign the guest book. The Babe Didrikson Zaharias museum contains 16 glass pannels which display the life and history of this amazing athlete. Many of her awards, medals and even a pair of her shoes in bronze are displayed in this small but informative museum. There are several photo albums, newspaper articles and donated paintings depicting this athlete. It only took us about 15 minutes to read and enjoy all the information. Make sure to ask all the questions you can think of and the helpful, friendly volunteer will try her best to give you the answers you are looking for.

**There are bathrooms at this location but they are outside and not in the best condition. Also outside you can see a USAF jet on display dedicated to (????).

This is a very interesting and unique museum. It has exibits, documentation, and multimedia displays showcasing the oil industry. There are large, glass etched displays that start in 1900's through the future. Each display showed pictures and information on how oil changed and influenced our lives. There is a working seismograph which you can view through glass...about 1 million earthquakes are recorded each year but most are too small to be felt or cause damage. The highlight for us were the 4 historical figures that talked about the oil industry. They are life size robotic people who gave a little background about themselves and what was happening at that time period. The video played and it looked as though the men were really talking to you. I have never seen this kind of technology before. It's worth a trip to the museum just to see this! The second floor is mostly about the history of Texas oil and the Beaumont's Spindletop gusher. We spent a good hour here.

**The bathrooms are very clean and nice.

There were several museums that were not open on the weekend which looked interesting. The Fire Museum of Texas and Beaumont Police Dept. Museum both are located downtown. We also spent a few hours at Crockett Street Entertainment District on Friday night. This is new area downtown that houses several restaurants (all are not opened yet) and bars. We sat outside on the second level and enjoyed a drink. It looks like this will be a great place as soon as it's finished.

Sunday morning we went to Riverfront park. This is a nice location, close to downtown, that has a walking path including a boardwalk and a look out tower along the Neches River. There are picnic tables and a playground area. It's free to park there.