Carpet Villa

Enjoy your time at the Fun Plex Amusement Park, an indoor carnival featuring a towering facility that managed to put fun under one roof. Wander around and check out the playtime oasis that includes go-karts, carnival rides, a carousel, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, movie theaters, a miniature golf course, a bowling alley, a roller skating rink, modern arcade games, a pool hall, and a play port. Concession stands with food and drink provide plenty of fuel to go all day.

Bask in the sweet sounds of jazz music at the Houston International Jazz Festival, which makes its annual return by celebrating a remarkable run of music, artists, education, and history. The festival, benefitting Jazz Education, Inc., a nonprofit organization, starts the summer with live music and a host of musicians and bands worldwide. The focus of the festival always seeks to honor the legends, the music, and the standards of tradition, shaping young minds and educating them for the future.

Tour one of the busiest ports in the world aboard the Port of Houston Authority's free public tour boat. The 45-minute Sam Houston Boat Tour requires reservations, which are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at least 24 hours in advance.

The Holocaust Museum Houston begins with a look at life before the Holocaust and the beginning of Nazism. The exhibit then shows its insidious progression from segregation to imprisonment to extermination. Artifacts, film reels, photographs, and text panels tell the story and set the backdrop for personal accounts from local survivors. Among the many items on display is a World War II Holocaust railcar that carried millions of Jews to concentration camps and a Danish rescue boat that saved thousands of Jews from the hands of Nazi Germany. The museum is an ever-evolving, living museum that includes a permanent exhibit and temporary exhibits on loan from other Holocaust Museums around the country. Many who have visited here, survivors, adults, and schoolchildren, have left notes, poems, artwork, and gifts to express their feelings upon seeing the exhibits.