Things to Do in Pflugerville

With horrifying haunts designed to elicit new shrieks each year, House of Torment Haunted House keeps bones chilled well below room temperature. HauntWorld.com ranked House of Torment in its Top 13 Haunts in 2011, praising it as a "Dynamic and ultra-creative attraction" that is "widely considered to be one of the most innovated haunted houses in the country." Other rave reviewers include the Travel Channel and the Wall Street Journal, who call the haunted house, "20,000 square feet of terror." Though House of Torment's attractions change annually, its wall of shame exists as an immortal photo catalog of all those who have squealed in fright or received bunny ears on its premises.

Aside from a coat of green paint on the outside, Capitol City Crawler’s fleet of eco-friendly buses don’t look like all that different from other buses on the road. Look inside, though, and you’ll find what is essentially a club on wheels. There’s seating for 24 passengers, and the seats are arranged against the walls so there’s plenty of room for dancing, too. Each bus comes equipped with a bar, a thumping sound system, LED lighting, and an inflatable doorman. The buses are popular for bachelor and bachelorette parties, but they’re also suitable for kids’ birthday parties, brewery tours, and wine-tasting tours in the Hill Country.

Local residents and Austin Eats Food Tours founders Andy and Lindsey pluck inspiration from their city’s abundant and encyclopedic assortment of cuisine, sharing their finds with locals and visitors. As they lead participants through the city in search of regional and international bites, they regale them with Austin history, such as how it became the capital city of Texas and why Austin-style pizza is shaped like a guitar.

PaintMe Pottery Studio hosts pottery classes, deals in original creations, and takes orders for custom clayware. Many studios let guests paint prefabricated items, but the staff at PaintMe provide clay and instruction for customers to create their own pieces. They then assist in firing the original artworks in a kiln, before returning them to their creators for painting.

The opened jaws of a great white shark are usually no place for a child. But at Kidz 'n' Play, the shark is just another air-filled component of an inflatable playhouse, where kids can race friends down slides or scamper through a Finding Nemo-themed escape tunnel. Designed for ages 10 and under, Kidz 'n' Play's indoor playground includes giant Legos for building, toy tea sets for pretend snacking, and a reading nook stocked with picture books. Though they can pass the time surfing free Wi-Fi or building a pillow fort around their minivans in the parking lot, parents are encouraged to play with their sock-clad youngsters.

A public extension of The Griffin School, an arts-focused college-prep high school, Studio Griffin immerses students of all ages in multidisciplinary-arts education and art-based events. Expansive studios filled with easels and stacks of storage boxes host classes of children, teenagers, and working adults as they hone skills in painting, sculpting, and tricking still lifes into moving. Art camps instill basic skills in adolescents and teens during a three-week intensive course. The studio also hosts communal Art+Wine Nights, where guests fashion paintings inspired by a historic or famous piece of art and lubricate their creative chops with wine and other libations.