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Houstonia Magazine •

Your Guide to a Quick Houston-Area Nature Fix

While other big cities in Texas are lauded for their proximity to nature, Houston is often dismissed as a freeway-choked concrete jungle, but its sprawl holds much more than suburbs and shopping centers. Inside the city limits, thousands of acres of parkland and green spaces thrive, and within a two-hour drive, about a dozen Texas State Parks showcase ecosystems ranging from bottomland prairie to Post Oak Savannah and wetlands—each offering a glimpse of the region’s natural richness.
Prism •

Texas laws strengthen campus protest rules, open door to foreign actors label

Texas quietly passed two laws this past spring that appear to strengthen the state’s ability to arrest and detain pro-Palestine protesters on U.S. college campuses and name citizens as foreign actors. The 600 bills Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law include a cluster of bills targeting citizens from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, such as HB 127 and SB 1349, which will both take effect on Sept. 1. 


The bills come as immigration authorities detain students for their involvement in anti-gen...
Next Avenue •

Acupuncture Helped Alleviate My Perimenopause Symptoms

The traditional Chinese medicine practice eased my sleep disturbances, weight gain and anxietyMy list of symptoms were mild — nothing overtly concerning. About five pounds that refused to fluctuate back down post ovulation, like they usually did. A bit of sleep disturbance, which manifested as waking up about an hour or two before my body, or my alarm, was ready. A gastrointestinal tract that was working a little less efficiently for my comfort. Unexplained, elevated anxiety and irritability, an...
Prism •

Stalled detention pond in Houston shows what’s wrong with efforts to mitigate flooding

Tucked in the southwest corner of Houston, between the Sam Houston Tollway, I-69, and West Bellfort, sits Ruffino Hills, a former landfill that closed in the 1980s. The property was later redeveloped into a golf course during the 1990s. It currently sits unused despite very public promises from city officials to turn the property into a regional detention pond. 


On Dec. 7, 2022, the Houston City Council voted to approve the purchase of 73.081 acres of Ruffino Hills from West Houston Place, a...
Texas Highways •

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary Offers Chance to Camp with Wolves

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary, which moved to its 15-acre property in Navasota in 2020, is the only USDA licensed wolf sanctuary in Texas. They currently house 11 wolves and wolf dogs (wolf dogs are the product of human-led breeding, creating conflicting instincts in a breed that both cannot be domesticated, nor can be released into the wild). The sanctuary began in 2002, somewhat by happenstance, when the founder Jean LeFevre opened a 3-acre property in Montgomery after taking in a rescued gray...
Texas Monthly •

Stroll the Same Paths Ancient Dwellers Did at Seminole Canyon State Park. Just Don’t Slip.

“It gets in your soul,” Lance Hildreth, a fifth-generation resident of Del Rio, remarked about Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. I understood his sentiment. Like many visitors, I was drawn to the park by the opportunity to see ancient rock art. Once I was there, the vast canyonlands stirred a curiosity about the layers of Texas history seeping through the land like rainwater through warm limestone (a natural phenomenon that forces you to watch each step when you hike the canyon, even...
Next Avenue •

Dance for PD Helps People with Parkinson's Disease Move With Grace and Joy

For more than two decades, innovative program has focused on 'what people with Parkinson's can do, not what they can't do.'"[It] makes you feel different than going into a hospital," Carol Enseki shares, talking about the experience of participating in Dance for PD, a program led by professional dance teachers in prestigious dance studios such as The Juilliard School and Houston Ballet Academy. Enseki was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000 and has been participating with Dance for PD at...
Scary Mommy •

Reading 'Ramona the Brave' To My 6-Year-Old Reminded Me How Confusing Childhood Can Be

"Everyone in the room except Howie laughed. Ramona was startled, then embarrassed."As I read the line from Ramona the Brave aloud to my 6-year-old, unraveling the story of a first grader on the first day of school quickly descending from excitement to embarrassment to rage to subdued quiet, I was reminded how confusing childhood can be. How easily you can be misunderstood by your peers and your teachers. I remembered that childhood version of myself in the character of Ramona, and I saw her in m...
Scary Mommy •

You Need To Keep Your Butthole Oily & Other Tips From A Colorectal Surgeon

"You need to keep your butthole oily," my friend shared in one of those no-longer-TMI conversations women are capable of having about our health in middle age. After a visit with a colorectal surgeon regarding some long-term discomfort in that lower region, she had a lengthy list of corrected misconceptions about anal healthcare to share. Or, more accurately, the knowledge that there was such a thing as anal healthcare.Before chatting with my friend, it would have never occurred to me to seek ou...
Business Insider •

My husband and I put everything in a shared Google Calendar. It's the key to our successful marriage.

I was having dinner with some relative strangers, discussing managing our overscheduled lives, when I casually said, "I'm still married because of Google Calendar." The woman next to me erupted in peals of laughter. I was not joking.My husband and I have been married for over 18 years. For many of them, the fight behind every fight was over the division of labor or mental load. Then, over time, those fights happened less frequently. Yes, this was in part due to therapy and increased self-awarene...
Mental Floss •

8 Fascinating But Not-So-Jolly Legends About St. Nicholas

It is hard to imagine the cheery, plump version of Santa Claus emerged from Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Bishop of Myra who, as a nursing infant, fasted on holy days and whose bones were stolen after his death. Instead of a “right jolly old elf,” St. Nicholas is the patron saint of everything from brewers to pawnbrokers to murderers. Here are eight often terrifying legends associated with the saint that seem more like a script from Dexter or Game of Thrones. St. Nicholas, best known as the pa...
Texas Highways •

Go Reptilian at Crocodile Encounters in Angleton

Lurching out of the water to snatch the raw chicken dangling overhead, the full girth of Boots’ stout figure emerged, like a live-action version of Tick-Tock the Crocodile from Disney’s Peter Pan. “You never see an alligator that hefty in the wild,” says our 17-year-old guide, Caden Meyer. At 12 feet, 6 inches, Boots is the largest American alligator at Crocodile Encounter, a crocodilian conservation habitat in Angleton.


A rotating cast of enthusiastic guides led us through the lush, 26-acre...
Next Avenue •

Alzheimer's and Immigrants: Language and Culture May Compound Care

My dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis made me wonder how his experience as an Iranian immigrant would impact his medical journeyI have never doubted my dad's capability. He immigrated to the United States from Iran when he was 26, and went on to complete his bachelor's degree and navigate a career as an engineer. His life has in many ways typified the American dream.However, when I first learned of his suspected Alzheimer's diagnosis, one of my immediate concerns was how his experience as an immigrant...
Business Insider •

My husband has been a teacher for 18 years. This is the beginning-of-school motto our family lives by.

My husband is about to start his 19th year of teaching, our eldest is starting 7th grade, and our youngest is starting 1st grade. In our family's collective decades of experience, the one motto we try to embrace at the beginning of each school year is that everything is variable. Most of our parent friends try to control for all the variables — school, teachers, and sometimes even friends or classmates — and we've learned that it rarely works as intended.We are not completely immune to the urge...
Thrillist •

The Texas State Park with Its Own Grand Canyon

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, though it’s tough to compete against the Grand Canyon.Palo Duro Canyon State Park still tries. It's 27,173 acres but still manages to feel like a hidden treasure, even to lifelong Texans like my family. It’s certainly more undervalued (and less overrun) than its national park cousin. Despite being a long drive from most major cities in the Lone Star state, Palo Duro is the kind of place that inspires families in matching T-shirts to pose together at the ent...
Texas Monthly •

Lake Somerville Is the Disneyland of Texas State Parks

“Whatever your outdoor passion, you can pursue it here.” So declares Texas Parks and Wildlife’s enticing web page for Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway. Encircling an almost 12,000-acre man-made lake, the park sits smack-dab between Austin and Houston. This vast hub of open-air amusement comprises two units (Birch Creek at 2,365 acres and Nails Creek at 3,155 acres), the 13-mile Lake Somerville Trailway, and the 350-acre Flag Pond, a habitat for migrating birds.Other parks are more showy, li...
Texas Monthly •

Texas Parents Are Terrified for Another Triple-Digit Summer

“No more than ten minutes!” I yelled after my eleven-year-old daughter as she darted out the back door. It was late on an August evening, and the temperature in Houston continued to hover over 100 degrees, refusing to offer even a brief reprieve. Last summer was less of a breaking point and more of a languishing, as persistent triple digits kept our family of four increasingly confined to our home. The sun was so relentless that I often drew the curtains by noon. Right outside our door was a hug...
Business Insider •

When my 6-year-old asked to get her ears pierced, I took her to a professional piercer. It was much safer than the way I did it.

This year, we took our 6-year-old to get her ears pierced. My husband and I agreed early on ear piercings were an important part of bodily autonomy and would be the determination of our children.If our kids wanted them, we would take them to get their ears pierced. If our kids didn't want them, we wouldn't. Their age was up to them. They just had to be sure. I talked each of our daughters through the reality of the experience, doing my best to explain the pain was similar to a shot. It would hur...
Business Insider •

I've taken my kids​, 6 and 12, on dozens of camping trips. I enjoy them more than traditional vacations.

When it comes to a family vacation, there is nothing I love more than cramming our SUV with various gear, driving away from our house in the middle of the city, pitching a tent, and sleeping on the ground next to my entire family. The sleep is often mediocre, we all end up smelling a bit ripe by the time we leave, but the time away together surpasses any other travel experience.In the fall of 2020, during the height of pandemic hobby acquisition, our family of four set out on our first car campi...
Business Insider •

I never expected to meet my husband while working at a restaurant together post-college. It was surprisingly romantic.

The last thing I expected after graduating from college and moving back home with my parents was to find my soulmate.I took a job waiting tables at a local Tex-Mex restaurant while I killed time applying to the Peace Corps. Despite thinking I could leverage my English major into a job shuffling books at Barnes & Noble, they ignored my application. This restaurant was the only place I found willing to hire a rookie waiter. I intended to put my head down, serve fajitas, and get as far away from my...
Texas Monthly •

Most Dinosaur Tracks Are Hidden on Private Land. At Government Canyon, You Can Stroll Alongside Them.

Driving into Government Canyon State Natural Area is like entering a time portal. In this 12,244-acre preserve on the northwestern fringes of San Antonio, visitors can walk alongside 110-million-year-old dinosaur tracks, an 8,000-year-old rock midden left by ancient Texans, and a 140-year-old cottage built by German settlers—all on the same trail. Hikers wander across forty miles of trails atop the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, which is responsible for providing half the city’s drinking water....
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