Houston bound

I highly recommend taking the wife to a little town near NASA called Kemah. It's right on the bay and it has a lot of shops and restaurants along with a few places to knock back some cold ones. It's not far up the road from Galveston. Now Galveston doesn't have the nicest beaches in the world, but they'll do if you need a one day getaway.

When you go north on I-45 towards Dallas, the scenery is much better. You get into the piney woods of east Texas and it's a lot like Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, etc. Houston itself isn't much to look at, but there are some nice places just a couple of hours away. If you ever venture over to San Antonio, the hill country offers a lot to see and do.