Houston Fun

We spent last weekend kicking around Houston, Texas.  We started out early Saturday morning from Livingston and drove over to PPL, an RV vehicle and parts dealer.  We had no real “needs”, just wanted to browse at a place that we did lots of on-line business with while working on the Airstream.  While there we were told about an RV show going on down at the Reliant Arena, so off we went to check it out.  It was quite a show - lots and lots of new rigs and a few parts dealers were there as well.  Of course we had to stick our noses into the newest and greatest on offer from the big names.  Lo and behold, while looking at one of the Tiffin rigs the salesman on board introduced himself… Bob Tiffin himself!  Glad we’d been saying nice things about his RV!

Having only two days to see the remaining sights, we picked up a Houston City Pass.  This provided a discounted entry into several attractions - we made it to three of the five venues on offer.  The first was the Downtown Aquarium.  While the building is large, the aquarium itself is a rather small place; most of the building is devoted to conference rooms, restaurants and lounges.  But we got some really nice photos while there.

Jellyfish

Moray Eel

Coral

Blue African Frog

After leaving the aquarium we dropped in at the Houston Zoo.  And what a zoo… as in the parking lot - that place was packed!  We spent the next several hours strolling around enjoying the sun and temperatures in the low 60’s.  We had expected a larger and more modern zoo for a city the size of Houston, but we had a good time anyway.  Strangely enough, the zoo’s version of an aquarium was actually better than the downtown one – go figure!  So here are our friends of the day a little earlier than usual in the blog.

Meerkat family portrait

Wishing for a place to run

Who me??

The shy type

Me and my newest best buddy

We spent Saturday night close to Galveston and drove over to the beach bright and early on Sunday morning – checking out the waterfront and the architecture.

Galveston historic district

Following Galveston we headed for the Johnson Space Center on the southeast side of Houston. We got to see the Mission Control Center, Mock Up Training Facility where the astronauts get to train for their missions, and the Saturn V rocket that took the astronauts to the moon, along with lots of static displays, films, and lectures at the Visitors Center.  Heinz even got to try out “landing” the Shuttle on Edwards Air Force Base at one of the simulators.  He didn’t do so well – should probably have worn his trifocals, eh?!

Mission Control Center for the Shuttle missions

Heinz checking out the mock-up training lab

Cool toys in the simulation lab - future rover for future moon and Mars missions

Saturn V rocket that took us to the moon

One of the later stage rockets

One of the Extra Vehicular Activity suits and propulsion units

Heinz “landing” the Shuttle

Our original plan was to visit the Houston Museum District, an area of town that houses around 10 different museums ranging from the Museum of Fine Arts to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum and the Weather Museum.  Unfortunately, there was just too much to see and do at the Johnson Space flight Center, and we got away too late to see the other venues.  So we headed back to our rolling home back in Livingston, and prepared our stuff for the trip out the next day.

For more photos of Houston, please check out our Photobucket album.

We're now in New Orleans with Mardi Gras in full swing, so we'll post on this week later.