12 Best Sights in The Museum District, Rice University, and the Texas Medical Center, Houston and Galveston

This is one of the city's premier cultural treasures. Italian architect Renzo Piano designed the spacious building, with its airy galleries. John and Dominique de Menil collected the eclectic art, which ranges from tribal African sculptures to Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell's soup cans. A separate gallery across the street houses the paintings of American artist Cy Twombly; Richmond Hall, a few blocks away, houses one of only two permanent Dan Flavin installations in America.

Frescoes from a 13th-century votive chapel have been preserved in this jewel in the Menil complex, located one block from the Rothko Chapel. The dome and apse were rescued from thieves and restored under a unique arrangement with the Greek Orthodox Church and the Republic of Cyprus.

Housed in an aluminum-sheathed trapezoid, this non-collecting institution hosts traveling avant-garde art shows. Previous exhibitions have included "Design Life Now: National Design Triennial," showcasing the experimental projects, emerging ideas, major buildings, and new media that were at the center of contemporary culture from 2003–06; firms represented in the show included Apple and Nike. The museum also throws "Steel Lounge," an evening get-together of music, drinks, and mingling masses, on the final Friday of every month.

There's plenty to see and do on this 545-acre oak-shaded urban oasis. Kids love riding the miniature train (just $2.25 a pop) that winds through the trees and taking a pedal boat out on eight-acre McGovern Lake. Duffers can tackle a challenging 18-hole course, and horticulturalists may swoon over the Japanese Garden and the Houston Garden Center, surrounded by 2,500 rose bushes. The park also contains the Houston Zoo, The Museum of Natural Science, and the Miller Outdoor Theater (with a hill that's fun to run—or roll—down).

This memorial and education center to those who died and survived the Holocaust is housed in a stark, cylindrical edifice. Devastating and uplifting, the main exhibit, "Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers," can be viewed individually or by tour. There is also a 1942 German Holocaust–era railcar, the type that was used to carry millions of innocent victims to their deaths.

Located in the Museum District, just a short stroll from Hermann Park, the Children's Museum of Houston offers fun, hands-on exhibits and activities for children of all ages. Your kids can work in a TV station, shop in a supermarket, enter an inventors' competition, and much more.

You've got to hand it to this Houston museum for expanding the definition of traditional science programming with recent blockbuster shows on jeweler Fulco Verdura, life in Imperial Rome, and Diana: A Celebration, which detailed the life and work of the Princess of Wales. The museum's permanent exhibits are a little more traditional and include Wiess Energy Hall, the dazzling Smith Gem Vault, and the Farish Hall of Texas Wildlife. Also housed within the museum are the Burke Baker Planetarium, the Wortham IMAX Theatre, and the Cockrell Butterfly Center, where you can commune with 1,500 live butterflies. If you plan to see everything, buy the combination ticket.

This small but pleasant zoo is home to 4,500 animals, housed in carefully designed ecosystems along shaded trails. Be sure to visit the boardwalks and treehouses of the Wortham World of Primates. If you need a break from the heat, take a spin on the climate-controlled Wildlife Carousel near the Children's Zoo. The zoo is free on certain holidays: Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Remarkable for the completeness of its enormous collection, the MFAH is housed in a complicated series of wings and galleries, many designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. When the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the work of famed Spanish architect Rafael Maneo, it doubled the museum's size. Renaissance and 18th-century art is particularly well represented, and there's a fine selection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works. You'll also find an ample survey of Asian, Pre-Columbian, Oceanic, and African art, and an impressive collection of modernist paintings, prints, and sculpture. The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden displays 19th- and 20th-century sculptures by Rodin, Matisse, Giacometti, and Stella in an outdoor space designed by Isamu Noguchi.

Across the street from Hermann Park is top-ranked Rice University, where 3,000 undergraduates from all over the country (and the world) live in an Oxford-inspired Residential College System. The campus is filled with live oaks, Mediterranean-style architecture, and some extremely hefty squirrels. It's a quiet place to escape from the city, and there are many wonderful places to picnic. Rice also houses the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, named for George H. W. Bush's secretary of state. The Rice Owls play football at Rice Stadium, where in 1962 President John F. Kennedy gave his famous "Moon Speech," in which he reaffirmed his earlier call to Congress and the nation that the United States would put a man on the moon in that decade. The 3-mi-long gravel path rings the campus; it's a popular place to walk or jog; massive trees shade most of the route.

Adjacent to the lawns surrounding the Menil complex, this moody octagonal sanctuary designed by Philip Johnson houses 14 Mark Rothko paintings. Outside the ecumenical chapel is Barnett Newman's sculpture Broken Obelisk, symbolizing the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The world's largest medical center is just a few blocks south of the Museum District. As you drive down Main Street, the soaring glass towers and sprawling campuses of the 1,000-acre complex begin to take shape. About 5.5 million patients are treated in the center each year, and its 46 member institutions include two medical schools, 13 renowned hospitals, 4 nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, and pharmacy.