Things to Do in West University Place

Presented by the Strictly Street Salsa dance studio, El Festival de la Salsa brings Houston’s annual spring of salsa to a celebratory close with hours of performances by live salsa bands, including the Houston All Stars, Salsa Orchestra, and the Latin Jazz Ensemble. As many as 5,000 fans and dancers gather to swish and sway to the music, or gatherers can pause to take in tributes to famed salsa great such as Celia Cruz and Ruben Blades. While performers coax sensual beats from their instruments on the main stage, a kid-friendly zone provides structured fun and play for tykes whose attention might escape the rhythm’s hold every now and then.

Auto Exotic Rental’s storeroom of high-end vehicles makes dreams of luxury-car ownership possible on the short-term scale. Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and Porsches tickle cruising fantasies with plush amenities and powerful engines, and a selection of spacious Rolls-Royces classes up a Sunday drive. The slew of roadsters also includes Cadillacs, which carry multiple passengers or cardboard-cutout families in style.

As mall patrons pass bearing shopping bags and food court treats, skaters sail across a blanket of ice in a rink that has rested on the ground level of the Galleria for more than 30 years. Olympian ice skater Evan Lysacek noted in his 2011 article, 10 Great Places to Ice Skate in the USA, the awe-inducing sights granted by the towering atrium above the rink, a feature that gives the confines a spacious feel. The frozen pond offers skaters weekend jam sessions with a live DJ, and enables nonskaters to watch the twirling action from platforms located on the second story.

1960 Beads stocks a plethora of glamorous beads and baubles including Swarovski crystals, pearls, and semiprecious gemstones. Shoppers can peruse racks of beaded strands arranged by color and size. 1960 Beads’ workshops guide students and to create personalized accessories, from macramé to stone-pendant wire wrapping, that can ornament twin Chia pets in order tell them apart.

Friendly hostesses welcome in parties of little princesses or grown-up empresses for enchanting themed celebrations within Posh Tea Parties' frill-filled pink-and-white tearoom. Parties for young ones begin with girls sifting through the theme-specific outfit finery that turns them into princesses, 19th-century ladies, or world travelers replete with pink passports stamped for every country's tea they taste. Once dressed, girls can practice their manners or check for homework-completing genies while topping off compatriots' cups of tea and snacking on an array of artfully presented sandwiches, cupcakes, and chips.

Parties can be upgraded with a slew of exciting extras, which can augment parties with a dessert-filled snack bar, extra themed activities, and sashes or tiaras that let the birthday girl flaunt her special status without ordering all the kingdom's dragons to light her birthday candles. Meanwhile, adults can put on their own lace-lined shindigs, which eschew the dressing up and playtime activities for each attendee's own fanciful attire and a bevy of more mature amusement.

As founder and lead trainer of Elite Sporthorse, Stephanie Tropia heads a decorated team that specializes in equestrian sales, breeding, boarding, and lessons. Horse and rider alike feel the wind in their manes while training in the 85'x200' lighted indoor arena or the 125'x225' outdoor arena, or while picking out dinner on the large, grass riding field. Trainers customize lessons to each individual rider no matter his or her level of expertise, and teach students to foster a trusting relationship with their horses. As a result of its pedagogical prowess, Elite Sporthorse has produced a number of accomplished riders who have competed in "AA" competitions and defeated police horses in staring competitions.