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It's sad how little cowboy culture there is around Houston.

If your mother is going to be here in the first half of February, you can catch one of the trail rides to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The 2011 rides are not scheduled yet.

http://www.hlsr.com/events/trail-rides/index.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You could also attend a cowboy shoot, but none of them are close to Houston.

http://www.sassnet.com/clubs/Clubs_list.php?state=Texas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course, San Antonio and the hill country are not that far and worth a visit in any case.

- Jim

This kind of question always depends upon what the person is interested in. Here are my suggestions:

Take a walk through the downtown tunnel system. Depending upon your tastes, you could spend all day there. I can personally recommend Treebeard's, which is a casual Cajun cafeteria.

Go to the observation deck of the JPMorgan Chase Tower, which is the tallest building in Texas and was for some years the tallest building in the U.S. west of the Mississippi. It's free.

Houston tends to demolish or bury its history, but Market Square contains some of the oldest standing buildings in the city. There's another branch of Treebeard's on Market Square.

Discovery Green can be nice on a weekend day, but maybe if you've seen one park you've seen them all.

- Jim