Venture Up the Valley

Most everyone in south Louisiana has kinfolk in Houston. So, next time you're visiting cousins in the huge Bayou City, consider a fun and informative detour northward, through the nearby Brazos River Valley.

Brenham

From Houston, Brenham will be your first stop—home of Blue Bell Ice Cream. 

The Creamery opened in 1907 to process excess milk from local farmers into butter. More than a century later, it has become the nation’s fourth largest ice cream maker. The headquarters include a spacious museum and ice cream parlor, where classic and new flavors are a dollar a scoop. An observation window overlooks the production line where all manner of cartons and tubs are filled. Complimentary paper soda jerk hats are a hit with the kids. 

But there’s more to Brenham than chocolate chip cookie dough. This little town is on the historic Texas Independence Trail—a 200-mile route featuring sites that played a role in the Texas Revolution in 1835–36. The downtown area is rife with historic architecture, including the circa-1940 Washington County Courthouse, and the circa-1915 former post office, now occupied by the Brenham Heritage Center. 

Next door, Brenham’s fire department goes above and beyond the call of duty, operating an iconic historic firehouse museum. See a rare 1923 American LaFrance Type 38 fire engine and a 1950 American LaFrance engine reminiscent of mid-century toys. 

Brenham is also ground zero for Texas’s famed bluebonnet season—which lasts from  late March to mid-April. The city website has a Wildflower Watch tab, offering a regularly-updated driving map of blooming sites. 

It’s hard to miss BT Longhorn Saloon and Steakhouse, with its historic 1880s storefront. Inside, you’ll find a massive antique bar, and an ample menu of steak and seafood. This is Texas; go for the beef. My chicken fried steak was excellent, with atypical sides of potatoes au gratin and grilled asparagus. 

To stay the night, the imposing two-story Ant Street Inn is a highly recommended boutique hotel and wedding venue right at the center of downtown. Formerly a business center built in 1899, the building once hosted storefronts on the first level and offices upstairs. The inviting long porch overlooking the back yard was once a loading dock. 

Independence

Founded in 1835, Independence is the original site of Baylor University. Texas Revolution hero Sam Houston and his family lived there; he was baptized in a local creek. A bucolic stroll (made all the more magical during wildflower season) in the village will bring you to his house, as well as the remaining, revered columns of Baylor’s first building, historic churches, a cotton gin, a rose garden, and a circa-1939 general store still in operation (designed with a façade inspired by the Alamo).

Your next stop is Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, where the Republic of Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico. Unfortunately, the Star of the Republic Museum there is closed for renovation until 2025. It holds versions of republic and state flags featuring the iconic lone star, one of them very similar to the 1810 Louisiana Republic of West Florida flag that crossed the Sabine River with Louisiana vigilantes in support of the Texans. Still, visitors can explore the 300-acre park, where you enter a rustic replica of Independence Hall where the Convention of 1836 took place.  

Navasota

Leaving the Independence Trail, you’ll switch onto the Brazos Trail at Navasota, a historic railroad town gentrified for Houston day trippers, flush with boutiques, eateries, and a luxury hotel. It’s current charm stands in direct contrast to the city’s raucous past. 

This is where the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (who famously claimed the Mississippi Basin for France in 1682) was killed by his own men. Attempting to relocate the Mississippi River, he’d lost his way—resulting in the fatal mutiny in 1687. His statue stands in a neutral ground at 400 E. Washington Ave.  

Navasota remained a Wild West settlement throughout the 19th century. Law and order arrived in 1908 when Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (famed for tracking down Bonnie and Clyde) became the new sheriff; he is now memorialized via a statue in front of City Hall. 

The Civil War-era P.A. Smith Hotel hosted visitors arriving by train at its Railroad Street location. Out of use for decades, it has now been beautifully restored as a hotel and event center. With Navasota’s proximity to College Station, the hotel sells out during football and commencement weekends. Reserve well ahead if you plan to follow the Tigers to face the Aggies on Kyle Field.

Among the several shops and eateries in old downtown, one appears out of place. Patout’s Wine Shop is linked to a family from Patoutville, Louisiana. Fourth generation Navasota entrepreneur Jay Patout opened his wine shop three years ago. Shop and sip on Washington Avenue, or visit his cleverly named web site napasota.com. 

College Station 

Covering over 5,500 acres divided by a Union Pacific Railroad line, Aggieland is almost 150 years old. East is Main Campus, holding most of the traditional classroom buildings, dorms, Kyle Field stadium and the 2,500 seat Rudder Auditorium featuring university productions as well as famous touring artists (famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma played there last month). The other side is West Campus with other sports facilities, the business school, the medical school, agricultural programs, and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. 

The Presidential Library and Museum has a permanent collection of archives, family items, and gifts given to President and Mrs. Bush during years of service. Items range from a delicate porcelain lattice bowl given by Queen Elizabeth II, to the presidential limousine and a WWII torpedo bomber reminiscent of the one flown by the 41st president. New exhibits include a retired Marine One helicopter and the Bush 4141 locomotive, arriving at the museum in June 2024. Children can engage with the exhibits through Millie’s Dog House Trivia search—which features quiz answers throughout the museum, found in former First Dog Millie’s tiny dog houses at child's eye-level.   

Find dozens of chain hotels nearby. For luxury, choose The George, a sleek luxury hotel adjacent to the campus. 

Campus nightlife centers around a Northgate Entertainment District overflowing with Texana: rough hewn back porches, rusty gasoline and feed store signs with neon beer logos. The venues are wide-ranged: Mama Sake, Rough Draught House, Hookah Station, Shiner Park, Dixie Chicken, and such. Dixie Chicken is the oldest bar at Northgate; my chicken strip dinner was a winner-winner. If nothing else, down some suds here as Dixie Chicken claims to serve more beer per square foot than any other joint in the nation.  

Waco

Waco is best known as the hometown of Baylor University, the oldest university in Texas, chartered not by the state but the Republic of Texas in 1845. Baylor Stadium is dramatically perched on the Brazos River northern bank overlooking the campus and downtown—offering the rare opportunity for “sail-gating” at home games. Fans can rent a canoe, sailboat, or party barge and learn the proper way to hold your “Sic ‘Em’” bear claw hand from fellow boaters. 

Later city fame arrived with home improvement stars and Baylor alums Chip and Joanna Gaines and their Magnolia Empire retail complex, iconically anchored by former cotton seed silos. The complex is located at Webster and 8th Streets, bursting with gifts and décor shops, a bakery, a coffee shop, food trucks, and a Magnolia Table satellite (the main restaurant is a short drive south at the old traffic circle).

The Gaines’ “Magnolia Effect” has spawned dozens of unrelated dining, retail, and hospitality offerings in Waco. Some of the best include Twisted Root Burger Company, Ninfa’s Mexican, Hey Sugar Candy Store, and Portofino’s Italian.

My favorite dining spot, however, remains George’s, a circa 1930s hangout abuzz most every evening. With nachos or chicken fried steak, order a “Big-O”—old code spoken by otherwise-abstaining Baylor Baptist coeds for the signature draft beer in a frosted fishbowl goblet. 

Waco has no shortage of chain hotels. When on the cheap, I prefer the Bellmead Econolodge north of the river, minutes from the stadium. Extremely opposite is the ultimate fixer upper, the Gaines’ luxury Hotel 1928, formerly a Shrine Temple building. My go-to hotel downtown is Hotel Indigo and its Brazos Bar and Bistro. The amiable bartender and sommelier Blake Seidler is a wealth of inside info.  

Beyond (and within) the university and the silos, Waco offers a plethora of museums making it a worthwhile destination for lovers of literature, history, and science—in addition to the sports fans, nostalgic alumni, and the “fixer-upper” crowd. 

Baylor’s Armstrong-Browning Library is august in stunning beauty, with sixty-two stained glass windows believed to be the largest collection of secular stained glass in the world. Peruse the world’s largest collection of works and memorabilia of 19th century British poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The research hall is British old school and the Treasure Room is that of a grand castle. The Foyer of Meditation is one of the loveliest rooms I’ve ever encountered, with a two-ton bronze chandelier hanging from a 23-karat gold dome, framed by deep maroon Italian marble columns. In the alcove are the sculpted poets’ clasped hands below Elizabeth Browning’s “How do I love Thee” sonnet inscribed on a burled wood wall. Many Baylor couples have gotten engaged or married in this nook.   

The university’s Mayborn Museum Complex—focusing on the natural science and cultural history of the Central Texas region—is a must see for anyone, but especially for families with children. Hands-on science activities, natural and cultural history exhibits, a journey to space experience, and a pioneer village will entertain for hours.  

Sports fanatics will find a who’s who of the state’s lively sports history at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Museum, where professional, college, and high school athletes are honored. Separately, an extensive display recalls the glory days of the Southwest Conference. 

The history of Texas’s unique structure of law enforcement is also memorialized here, at the Texas Ranger Museum, which is housed in a replica of a ranger outpost. History and artifacts start from 1823 when the rangers were first organized by Stephen F. Austin, to their role in current law enforcement as a division of the Texas Department of Safety.

Northwest of town, visitors will also find the Waco Mammoth National Monument—an excavation site where a remarkable collection of fossil specimens from over twenty Pleistocene-era (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago) Columbian mammoths was discovered from the 1970s through the 2000s. Elevated catwalks allow visitors to see the fossils below, observing ongoing restoration work.

Other notable sites and museums include an old bottling plant dedicated to the history of the Waco-born soft drink Dr Pepper. Sign up for Make-A-Soda, Taste-a-Soda or a paranormal tour in the recesses of the early 1900s building.

The 1870-built Waco Suspension Bridge on the Chisholm Trail is a crucial piece of American westward expansion. The bridge served cattle drives and stagecoaches, then autos until 1971, and is today a footbridge. If you feel déjà vu walking its expanse, it might be because it was built by the same engineer responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge thirteen years later, John A. Roebling.