UPDATE:
I’ve posted my 2011 UPDATED Houston Bucket List! Click here to see what I’ve accomplished (and what I thought about these places.)
My blog-friend Carmen is from Houston, but is currently living in Toronto. She has settled in nicely – almost too nicely.
Admittedly, for the last year or so, I’ve not been thinking about the “things I need to do in Toronto” as it very much started to feel like my home, and we all know that you rarely go sightseeing when you’re “home”. There are still a bevy of things I want to do before leaving this glorious city, though, and have set the goal of having my list completed by May 30, 2010.
I realized: I’ve been back in Houston over a year, and there are still a gazillion things I need to do and see and eat and experience here. Moving back home after a decade in Austin opened my eyes to how much amazing stuff we have here in the Bayou City, and then …poof… I was comfortable and cozy at home.
So, I’m shamelessly stealing Carmen’s idea starting a list of things I plan to accomplish, and will be updating it with new challenges as they come. My goal is to complete 50 items by 12/31/10, and hopefully keep it going. (Maybe an Austin bucket list after that… yikes!)
Things to see and do:
1. Monica Pope’s farmer’s market
2. Rice University football game
3. watch a Dynamo game
4. visit the Holocaust Museum
5. visit the Contemporary Arts Museum
6. visit the Printing History Museum
7. go to the George Ranch (as an adult)
8. go to Washington-on-the-Brazos
9. see a movie at the Angelika
10. see a movie at the old River Oaks
11. ice skate at the Galleria (as an adult)
12. visit the Cockrell Butterfly Center
13. visit the Planetarium
14. see a show at Miller Outdoor Theater
15. visit the 1940s Air Terminal Museum
16. visit the Art Car Museum
17. visit Bayou Bend Museum
18. Find Howard Hughes grave at Glenwood Cemetary
19. visit all the old houses at the Heritage Society site in Downtown
20. make a retablo for Lawndale’s Day of the Dead event
21. visit the Menil Collection (as an adult)
22. visit Rienzi
23. visit the Officer Lucy Dog Park
24. visit the Danny Jackson Dog Park
25. walk all the way around Memorial Park
26. watch the Houston Marathon
27. Opera in the Heights
28. stay at the Magnolia
29. visit the Jade Temple
30. visit the Forbidden Gardens
31. kayak the Buffalo Bayou
32. Arboretum
33. Explore the Downtown tunnel system
34. ride in the Moonlight Ramble
Places to eat:
1. Reef
2. Shade
3. Vic and Anthony’s
4. the breakfast klub
5. Kim Son
6. Tiny Boxwoods
7. Hobbit Cafe (as an adult)
8. Mark’s
9. Black Lab pub
10. Glass Wall
11. Candelari’s
12. Ocean Palace dim sum
13. Mucky Duck
14. Daniel Wong’s Kitchen
15. Fogo de Chao
16. Brennan’s
17. Coco’s Crepes and Coffee
18. Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen
19. Bar Annie/RDG
20. Himalaya
Courtney Hoyt 
When you hit the Menil, make sure you see the Byzantine Chapel… it is, in my opinion, one of the most glorious and peaceful places in Houston.
I’d also add:
-visit the Beer Can House
-visit the Orange Show and see a good concert there
-(not quite in Houston) drive out to Sengelman Hall and go 2-steppin
-specifically watch the Shakespeare Festival this summer at Miller Outdoor Theatre
-visit the Japanese gardens in Hermann Park
-visit NASA and get the tour hook-up from our NASA friends
-picnic out at Brazos Bend state park
-go to an Aurora Picture Show event
-see a Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre show
-go to an art opening at the Station Museum (they are wild and SO much fun!)
-take a yoga class at Discovery Green
-check out Boo Town’s Grown-Up Story Time at Rudyard’s
-visit the Chinese Community Center during one of their festivals/celebrations
-attend the Bayou City Art Festival
-eat lunch at Phoenicia Foods
-have dinner at the Blue Nile (Ethiopian food)
And I will keep thinking… there’s so much good stuff!
Make an Art Car.
Run with Baker 13.
Eat a free hot dog at West Alabama Ice House on Friday afternoon.
Drive the entire Loop 610.
Have all 100 drinks at Anvil (have your card stamped).
Buy a cowboy hat at Fiesta on Bellaire Blvd.
Walk-of-Shame breakfast at Cafe Brasil.
Smoke a cigarette on the roof of Winter Street Studios (Downtown view).
Sneak into a gala at Wortham.
Wrap a house in River Oaks with the help of a ROPO.
Play Bingo with The El Orbits.
Buffalo Bayou boat tour.
Smooch upstairs at Marfreless.
Poe Carnival.
Run around the outside of Rice.
Write a blog about Houston.
I’d love to do 9, 18, and 19 with you…and eat at Tiny Boxwood’s. So many things I want to do as well. Guess I should start making my list too!