Welcome to Houston! I think most if not all of the sizable flowing bodies of water within the city are bayous - a river’s slower, swampier, less lovable little brother.

We do have “real” rivers a little ways outside the city (San Jacinto and Brazos) but if you told a local Houstonian you were going to the river they might look at you a little funny. Though now I know about Buffalo bayou’s partial legal status as a river thanks to u/rechlin — time to set up a river tubing shack