sprignaturemoves

After recovering from the self-inflicted late night, we headed to Johnson Space Center. It was just down the street from our hotel.

The plan was to spend the whole day there. That’s what we did. We pretty much saw and did everything we could.

A few highlights:

Mission Status Center

This started with the Blast-Off Theatre and then moved into an impressive array of screens, monitors and live feeds. The guide in this area was very knowledgeable about what exactly was going on with NASA, like, right then. Since there were astronauts actually in space when we were there, it was especially interesting. She talked in certain terms about returning to space and the upcoming goals and timelines for NASA expeditions. It was fascinating.

Historic Mission Control Center

This was the mission control center that was used from 1964 until 1998. The Apollo missions, including the Apollo 7 and 13, and several Shuttle missions were all controlled here.

Saturn V Complex

This is particular building held the Saturn V rocket used in many of the Apollo missions. Huge is an understatement. The rocket itself was nearly as long as a football field. Toward the top you can walk in-between the last booster stage. It was amazingly complex for being so old.

Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory

This particular facility was a 15 minute charter bus trip away. It’s as close as the astronauts get to the extended weightlessness of space. It’s a pool that’s 202 feet wide, 102 feet across and 40 feet deep. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get down closer and see inside. You can see the viewing area on the other side of the pool from this Wikipedia panorama shot.

Here’s the other pictures I took.

After a long day at Seaworld, we turned in for the night. The next morning we got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed for what we missed in the Riverwalk area — mainly the Alamo.

The plan was to go to the Alamo, eat lunch at the Buckhorn Saloon (for which we had a really good coupon) and head to Houston.

I thought the Alamo was very interesting. I’m not saying I didn’t pay attention in history class, but I really had no idea about the history of Texas or the battle for it’s independence. I spent a lot of time reading the chronologies in various places around the main building. The famous picture of the Alamo was just a small part of the huge fort area. You can see more from my pictures here.

We walked down the street to the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum for lunch. It was crammed with stuffed animals and little creepy according to my daughter. Reminded me of Frank Phillip’s lodge at Woolaroc in Bartlesville, OK. I ate a pretty darn good bacon cheeseburger. We didn’t pay to go see the museum upstairs. It looked pretty interesting. I snapped some pictures inside. They’re along with the Alamo pictures if you follow the photo link above.

After lunch we headed east toward Houston. That was one dull drive. We finally made it to the Comfort Suites in Webster, TX. Very nice hotel. I would recommend it highly.

We checked in, lugged all of our luggage up to our room, jumped back in the car and headed toward the downtown Houston to the Toyota Center.

The Houston Rockets vs the Charlotte Bobcats at the Toyota Center was one of the highlights of the trip for me. First of all, it was an NBA game, which I always enjoy. Second, Rachel found us $10 tickets.  (BTW, despite what people say, nosebleed tickets at an NBA game aren’t really that far up. )  We were on the top row at one end.  Third, it was Clutch’s (the Rocket’s mascot) birthday and he invited mascots from around the league to celebrate — one of which was Bango, the Bucks mascot. Rachel, being the cool wife that she is, snagged an autograph from him on the back of our Rockets program. “Go Bucks Go — Bango” looks real nice framed on the wall next to my computer. She also took the cool picture you see here. Finally, the Rockets set a franchise record for the most consecutive wins — 21 when they beat the Bobcats. The crowd was absolutely crazy. What a fun atmosphere.  Here’s the rest of the pictures I took at the game.

On the way home, I somehow missed an exit and we ended up stuck in traffic right next to Reliant Park.  Don’t ask me how we ended up there after being at the Toyota Center.  Guess a Clay Walker concert had just let out — whoever the heck that is.   He must be popular based on the amount of traffic.   Rachel gave up on helping me with directions at this point — for the entire rest of the trip!  I was on my own.  Sniff, sniff.

We made it back to the hotel eventually.

We planned to spend the whole day at Seaworld and that’s what we did. Everything about Seaworld was great. It exceeded my expectations.

We got there early and they let us in anyway. Since it was a weekday before spring break, it wasn’t very crowded. The weather was really nice, too. Overcast and temperatures in the 70s.

We visited the dolphin pool first thing. Rebecca was over-the-top giddy/excited. Rachel even (briefly) overcame her irrational animals-are-gross complex and touched one. (Baby steps, baby steps.)

Caleb liked the Texas Splashdown ride and the “giant octopus” (in the shark exhibit).

The Shamu show was so cool we watched it twice.

I was a little surprised that Seaworld had a lot of amusement park rides. That wasn’t what I had pictured in my mind. Everything was way better than Worlds of Fun, that’s for sure.

Anyway, here are the 200+ pictures from Seaworld.

We ate a so-so meal at TGI-Friday’s on the way back to the hotel. What is it with TGI Friday’s wait staff? Ours was completely annoying. This is our second such experience there.