Out-of-This-World Vacation

Howdy, y'all!!! Despite living in Texas most of my life, I had never been to the Gulf of Mexico. So, Monday and Tuesday we went to Galveston and Houston to pass the time. (Don't worry: Julie had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, and Jesse took vacation time, so no one was ditching. We'll ditch at Christmas.) We saw the Houston skyline, ate fabulous Texas BBQ, swam in the Gulf, and dreamt about visiting space. Did you know that Julie and David are just old enough to go on the next missions to the moon, or even Mars?

Everything we did was off the I-45, so we didn't have to worry about navigating around Houston (such a relief!). Once we arrived in Houston, we drove to downtown, where we marveled at the skyline. There was a funky, sewer-like smell while we were there, but we had a brief sniff of barbecue, which helped us choose our lunching location. I am not a big meat-eater, but my beef po'-boy was fantastic: tender and tasty!

After lunch (and paying $12 to park for an hour!) we pressed on to Galveston. We have a state parks pass, so we went to the Galveston State Park, sparing us any expenses for that visit. Of course, the kids were so excited to see the ocean, they ran straight for it as soon as we let them out of the car. The afternoon was quite foggy, so visibility was limited, and the ocean was quite grey, but that did not stop the kids from enjoying their romp in the water. While the kids played in the water and collected seashells, Jesse and I watched a pelican dive and eat the snack he caught. Amazing!!! After drying off, we chose a walking trail around some of the bayous and experienced amazing first sights: fish jumping out of the water to catch bugs, egrets nesting in the sea grass, crabs walking sideways in the water.

Our hotel was right on the shore, or seawall, as it is called in Galveston. We ate pizza and wings in our room, then headed downstairs to the indoor pool. Julie and David could actually stand in the shallow end, so Jesse and I held onto Josh and James as we circled the pool. After a pleasant day full of new kinds of fun, we went to bed hoping the fog would clear so we could see the ocean all the way to the edge of the world.

We were not disappointed! Despite having to be out of bed at 6:30am, we watched the sun rise over of the ocean with great delight. No fog obscured our view, and we could even see a platform of some kind in the distance, behind which was a ship. After the sun shone golden on the water's surface, we put on our swimsuits and headed for the beach. The kids collected more seashells and built "castles" in the sand. Jesse tried to teach Julie and me to body surf, but the waves weren't quite right for us to be successful. All the same, it was fun to try! Satisfied with our beach experience, we left to check out of the hotel and return to Houston.

As we pulled up to the Space Center at Houston, the museurm part of NASA's Johnson Space Center, David complained, "The space center doesn't look very spacey." But inside, he found great wonders to behold! Near the end of the day, we went into a special theater where we "experienced" blast off in the space shuttle. We heard the noises of the boosters as we rocketed into space. Smoke filled the room as we lifted off the launch pad. Amazed, David asked, "How did the smoke come out of the movie?"

Just before liftoff in the space shuttle, we took a tram tour of the facilities on Johnson Space Center. Now, if you have ever seen the movie Apollo 13, do you remember the scene when Jim Lovell's family goes into a room with red chairs behind Mission Control to watch the astronauts broadcast from space? The tour's first stop was to go into that room!!! We saw Mission Control for the Apollo missions and early shuttle missions. The gentleman recounting the wonderous story of landing on the moon shared with us that Mission Control was powered by two mainframe computers that filled a room a few flights below. The two mainframes together provided 400 KB of power; math whizzes and ham radio experts sent us to the moon!!!

Jesse throroughly enjoyed the tram tour, an engineer's dream. We saw a warehouse that holds mockups (full-scale models) of the space shuttle and various components of the International Space Station, used to train astronauts for their missions in space and to aid engineers in designing equipment that can interact with existing space vehicles. But, by far, Jesse's favorite site was the building that houses the Saturn V rocket, the rocket that shot the Apollo missions to the moon. He said the rocket made the missile he works on look puny (my word) and simple. He was impressed at the engineering of the rocket, an incredible feat without the aid of 3D CAD (computer-aided design) programs. He was inspired: engineers are an indredible breed!

We found a brief article in the newspaper about a space walk at the International Space Station that we were informed would occur this week to prepare for the arrival of a European laboratory in early December. Here is the link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/5327026.html

Remember to watch for the space shuttle launch on December 6th!

We were so happy to take a brief break from life's busyness, but also grateful to return home safely to prepare for Thanksgiving spent with beloved family. Happy Thanksgiving, our dear loved ones!