Earth Rider said:

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halibut sinclair said:

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You should take her to Chicken Oil instead of the Chicken. Also, check out downtown Bryan. It's changed a lot since '99.

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I laughed about downtown Bryan, back in the day I worked at CompuView Microsystems my freshman or sophmore year. I can't imagine how it must have changeed.

I think part of the appeal about the Chicken is the Domino game 42, plus the rattlesnake, and lots of memories. I've been trying to introduce her to 42, just hard to get two other players that are interested.

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The kitchen area of Chicken Oil burned in 2022, and it re-opened last year. It's worth checking out if you ever went there back in the day. Same vibe but modernized somewhat. Dining areas are pretty much the same.

Downtown Bryan:

Earth Rider said:

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doubledog said:

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Take her to the original Freebirds in northgate or Blue baker on Dominik.

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I went to that Freebirds so many times, like at least 50, probably over a 100. I don't remember Blue Baker though. I will look into it.

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Blue Baker just celebrated its 25th anniversary. If you haven't been back since 1999, then you definitely didn't visit there.

I think Blue Baker is kind of mid but can't deny that it is very popular.

Earth Rider said:

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halibut sinclair said:

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Earth Rider said:

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halibut sinclair said:

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You should take her to Chicken Oil instead of the Chicken. Also, check out downtown Bryan. It's changed a lot since '99.

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I laughed about downtown Bryan, back in the day I worked at CompuView Microsystems my freshman or sophmore year. I can't imagine how it must have changeed.

I think part of the appeal about the Chicken is the Domino game 42, plus the rattlesnake, and lots of memories. I've been trying to introduce her to 42, just hard to get two other players that are interested.

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The kitchen area of Chicken Oil burned in 2022, and it re-opened last year. It's worth checking out if you ever went there back in the day. Same vibe but modernized somewhat. Dining areas are pretty much the same.

Downtown Bryan:

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Wow!!! That looks closer to some wealthy coastal city on the east coast than what I remember of Bryan.

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In fairness, it doesn't usually look like that.

AggiePhil said:

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Earth Rider said:

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halibut sinclair said:

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Earth Rider said:

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halibut sinclair said:

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You should take her to Chicken Oil instead of the Chicken. Also, check out downtown Bryan. It's changed a lot since '99.

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I laughed about downtown Bryan, back in the day I worked at CompuView Microsystems my freshman or sophmore year. I can't imagine how it must have changeed.

I think part of the appeal about the Chicken is the Domino game 42, plus the rattlesnake, and lots of memories. I've been trying to introduce her to 42, just hard to get two other players that are interested.

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The kitchen area of Chicken Oil burned in 2022, and it re-opened last year. It's worth checking out if you ever went there back in the day. Same vibe but modernized somewhat. Dining areas are pretty much the same.

Downtown Bryan:

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Wow!!! That looks closer to some wealthy coastal city on the east coast than what I remember of Bryan.

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In fairness, it doesn't usually look like that.

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Other than the christmas lights, yes, it does.

Nab85ag said:

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Campus is beautiful right now (grass green, flowers blooming…) so fun to stroll the interior and see Sully, Century Tree, etc. The MSC has changed a lot since you last visited and both of you should enjoy touring. Piano still there. You may be able to arrange a tour of Kyle Field, which would be fun. Hope y'all have a blast!

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The campus really is beautiful right now. I was blown away by all of the modifications to the buildings. You are right, the MSC is a lot different, I recognized it as we walked up but it was more of a guess if that's it. We had a great time thank you!

doubledog said:

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Take her to the original Freebirds in northgate or Blue baker on Dominik.

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That was the plan, we ended up going to Bryan around dinner time and ended up going to Sodolak's for some steak.

Sodolaks prepares a great steak, one of the best I have had in some time. Their steak is awesome. Cobbler was good too.

Tailgate88 said:

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If you take her to the MSC take the short walk through Aggie Park to the creamery for some ice cream. It's right across the street from the dorms at the south end of the quad. And Aggie Park is beautiful and especially right now. Classes just started today so there should be students around.

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Actually, I don't think classes had started. There were so few students walking around, I assumed it had not started yet.

We walked through Aggie Park, and it is beautiful. I can only imagine in another 20 years, when those trees get some height, it will be unreal. We tried to go to the creamery, but it was closed on the Saturday we were there.

Captn_Ag05 said:

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Century Square area would good for lunch.

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My daughter loved Century Square. But she is a big fan of Lululemon and Kendra Scott. We had breakfast on Sunday at Sweet Paris. She really loved that place, and it was a lot more filling than I imagined for a French restaurant.

maroon barchetta said:

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Take your kid to Fuego.

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I gave her the choice between Fuego and Sweet Paris, it was clear she wanted to go to Sweet Paris for breakfast Sunday morning.

Psychag said:

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I think there's a free concert at Wolf Pen Creek Saturday night. Journey tribute band. Not sure how much shed enjoy it but it is free andbyou can bring a cooler.

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That was a really good idea. My Spurs were on, so we went to Target to buy a board game, ended up playing the game and watching the Spurs.

bobinator said:

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With more info here's some more detailed information:

There's a really cool book store in South College Station (https://hyperbolebookstore.com/about-us) and if she likes to read I'd take her to at least one of the local coffee places, particularly Polite Coffee in the Kyle House near downtown Bryan. (https://politecoffee.com/pages/the-kyle-house) - During the school year it's always packed with students reading/studying/just hanging out. Polite is a roastery as well as a coffee shop so grab you a bag of beans to take home (I love their coffee, we have a subscription.) This is going to sound like a dumb idea but if she really likes reading, the College Station library is really nice and/or the Evans library could be cool to check out. Those could be cool stops if she's like some teens/pre-teens these days that are back into actual physical books as opposed to Kindles.

I would check out the directory of Century Square first and see if there's some places that are up y'alls alley before committing there. I'd say there's two "walk/eat/shop" areas here, Century Square and Downtown Bryan. Century Square is definitely more modern, high end shops, etc. Downtown Bryan is a little more classic Texas downtown but they've done a great job with it over the last couple of decades. Lots of interesting shops and stuff. It's too bad it's not next week for First Friday where there's street vendors and performances and that sort of thing.

We have a TON of breakfast/brunch options, but stick with the local ones for a first visit. Stella Southern Cafe (near Hwy 6 and Rock Prairie), the students love Mess Waffles (Century Square), Wild Grain Cafe is relatively new and I haven't been but everyone says it's great (Texas Ave. towards Bryan.) There's even more that I'm sure people would recommend. I love Jesse's Tacos (And La Familia in South College Station) but I'd think a middle schooler would prefer a nicer place.

I would actually recommend against Aggie Alley for the regional, it's going to be packed and absolutely nuts out there, standing only, and it'll be hot. My recommendation would be to find some GA tickets and sit in the grass in right field. If we win the Friday afternoon game though the Saturday game doesn't start until 8 so that's going to be a pretty wild and rowdy scene at Olsen. The kind of environment where's she's either going to fall in love with this place or completely write it off as a possibility. High risk/high reward environment there.

This isn't local to College Station either because there's a few of them around the state now, but we have a PopStroke putt putt golf place which is a really fun way to just hang out (also at Century Square) depending on your schedule.

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Lot of great ideas. the weekend flew by. She loved Century Square. Next trip we will do more of the things you suggested. She enjoyed the trip, was a bit intimidated by the size of the campus, but in the end she loved Aggieland.

Earth Rider said:

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what to do in College Station

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Tons of stuff! Late-night Pitch 'n' Putt. We could go to the livestock auction and cruise the 4-H babes. Throw stuff off the bridge. What do you feel like doing?

Lots of courses online in summer since Covid.

Campus will be plenty busy with camps and new student conferences.

Yeah. My son took a summer class a few years ago. It was only offered online. He had to pay the Distance Education fee of $800 or so.

Even though we live in town and he worked right on campus.

Carneys in the evening, sit out back and watch the jumbo iron. Great place to relax. Wonderful servers.

metroid_84 said:

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Earth Rider said:

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Tailgate88 said:

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Classes just started today so there should be students around.

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Actually, I don't think classes had started. There were so few students walking around, I assumed it had not started yet.

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We are actually in the first summer semester, but summers have become increasingly unpopular over the last few years in terms of enrollments. Seems like a lot of students who need credits over the summer are generally preferring to get those credits from community colleges and transfer the credits in, if they can, such that I know several departments have cut what courses they offer over the summer significantly. (I wonder if Blinn has seen an increase in their summer enrollments?) Campus will look empty basically between now and a week before Fall semester starts in August.

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That is very interesting regarding the summers and how they have been increasingly unpopular. Kind of hard to believe classes had started. There were a few students walking around, like in the MSC, but like you said it was basically empty. I saw almost as many groundskeepers as I saw students.

What a contrast to when I was there. I never left College Station for a semester other than internships. The summers were not as busy as fall/spring, but it wasn't that much of a difference.

It was kind of surreal to see the amount of changes to buildings and the changes to the campus in a span of just 30 years. There had to have been some serious money injected into A&M the past couple of decades. More like I took a time machine forward a 100 years.

What a mind trip Zachary was. No way in H I would think that was the same building 30 years ago. I don't know how they modified a building like that so much with the student traffic through that building. It would ahve been easier to tear it down and rebuild.

It was not quite a tear down but it was heavily gutted.

Tailgate88 said:

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Both of my kids needed to take summer school classes over the past few years and I'll tell you why kids aren't doing in person at A&M - money. One can do online classes at any number of community colleges for a fraction of the cost. Easy, cheap, and they transfer right in.

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Right on. CCs are much cheaper and counselors will make sure students get the right courses to transfer. It really is the way to go. I was speaking with a young lady the other day who lived at home and went to Houston CC two years before transferring to A&M. She expects to graduate with only $30k in student debt then pay that off asap.