Thursday, January 29, 2009

Houston!! Loved being in a big city again! We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn in Kemah, TX right off the boardwalk overlooking Galveston Bay. This by far was the best hotel yet! It has fabulous restaurants, shops and an amusement park all located on the boardwalk. Last night we ate at the Aquarium Restaurant which has a gigantic 50,000 gallon cylindrical aquarium which transports to an underwater world as you dine. It was really neat watching sharks and fish swim while your eating!

Today we visited the NASA Johnson Space Center. We saw the story of America's manned space flight program through historic artifacts, hands on exhibits, live presentations and behind the scenes tours. We actually viewed the actual mission control room! We were able to touch a moon rock and see Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules, Skylab and Lunar Module Trainers and a full size space shuttle replica. It was fascinating and we enjoyed the day!

Later that night we had dinner at The Charter House overlooking Galveston Bay....great food and yes I had my lobster!!
The only thing that would have been nicer was for it to be warmer....only got up to the 50's today and back down to the 30's tonight'

As you all know, Hurricane Ike had a direct hit here in Sept, 2008 and there is still alot of devastation, The Boardwalk is slowly becoming alive again.

Friday we are headed for New Orleans...its about a five and a half hour drive! Looking forward to it since I have never been!

We toured Houston Mission Control that was in service until the 1990's. The Apollo 11 rescue was managed from here. It is now a National Historic Site.

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon. It was also the second all-veteran crew in manned spaceflight history. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.

Man driving on the Moon.

One of many great displays at the NASA Johnson Space Center outside Houston.

Hard to believe we have come all this way from Pasadena CA to arrive at Pasadena TX! Right outside Kemah TX.

Jeff with the Kemah police car.