Birthday Adventures

For birthdays, we like to go to a movie, go out to eat, and go on an adventure. Last Saturday we went to see Rango, so that we would have enough time today for Taylor's adventure and restaurant ... Space Center Houston (i.e. NASA) followed by Red Robin.

We got the tickets 1/2 off ... sweet ... but I knew that awesome deal would bring the crowds along with the fact that it's also spring break. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and left the house around 8:30 and got to NASA about 15 minutes before opening. We were not the only ones, so we quickly jumped into line and waited.

Our kids LOVE looking at the maps to places we go, so they quickly fought over the map and then started avidly looking it over.

Finally it was time. Right when we got in, we saw the Kids' Space Place ... a cool HUGE playground area. We headed there first in hopes to avoid the crowd that I knew would be there later. The girls headed up together to explore and slide down the slides, making friends along the way. Meanwhile I headed into the ball pit with Declan.

He loved sitting there and shoving the balls into the holes and pushing to button. We found out later through Shelby that the balls would shoot up the tubes and land in a room up high in the playground where the big kids could then shoot the balls back down into the ball area. After playing for a bit, we decided to find the next thing to do. Again, in hopes of beating the crowds we headed to the tram tours. We picked the one that went to Mission Control and Rocket Park. The cool thing is that we got to go see the actual Mission Control. In fact, a few weeks ago it was in use as they oversaw the last mission of Discovery.

As we looked, the tour guide pointed out the mission badges on the left wall, showing every completed mission made by NASA. In front, we saw cameras and monitors, showing what the crew was doing on the International Space Station (sleeping), monitoring the shuttle Endeavor on the launch pad in Florida, mapping the exact location of the International Space Station, and other things. We could also see all the seating areas of the different personnel ... Flight Director, Capcom (Capsule Communicator), Flight Activities Officer (FAO), and so forth.

On the right wall, rests the badge of the current mission(s) as well as 4 badges for missions that will never be completed ... the Challenger, Columbia, and 2 others.

Next we headed back onto the tram to ride over to Rocket Park. I snapped a shot of Tom and the girls sitting in front of me, and Declan got a bit jealous and told me, "Me. Declan turn." Cute boy, so he got his turn getting his picture taken as well.

As we drove through complex, we drove by this flag pole. Apparently it sits directly in the middle of the NASA complex. They fly the flag as long as they have an astronaut in outer space. I loved learning about their traditions as well as seeing the pride and honor they have in what they do. It was very touching.

After reaching Rocket Park, we were dropped off and left to fend for ourselves. We headed to the 2 outside rockets first. First we checked out Little Joe II, which was from the '60s and never flown.

Then we checked out the Mercury-Redstone, which is a rocket similar to the one the flew the first men into space. Next to this rocket was an F-1 engine.

While the tram ride had been cloudy, breezy, and cool, the sun started warming things up, and we were eager to get out of the sun as well as see the big space ship inside the hangar, the Saturn V. Apparently, the government was in the process of making a fleet of these, but then some political something or other happened and funding was cut. This space ship was only 95% complete.

Now when I said big, what I really meant was GINORMOUS. We started at the tail end and worked our way up. Here are the five F-1 engines that were used to power the first stage of flight.

It's hard to fathom the blast that would have come out of those HUGE engines. This section of the rocket was hard to get a full picture of, but I guess the crazy thing is that this section was only to power the first stage of flight and would eventually fall off the rocket once the fuel was used up.

Declan was extremely interested in the rocket, and he would not accept any other substitute for that word ... not space ship, only rocket.

Then we moved on to the next section, whose only purpose, again, was to propel the space ship into outer space. It was powered by the smaller J-2 engines and would eventually fall back to earth.

Then we came to the 3rd section, which again was just to power the space ship; I'm guessing the rocket would have passed through our atmosphere because there was just one tiny little engine on this section.

Here was yet another section whose purpose I don't remember, but still we hadn't made it to the section which held the astronauts.

Taylor was very anti-picture taking today, so I held her down, so Tom could get a quick shot of us.

Finally, we made it to the tip where we found the Apollo spacecraft. Taylor was blown away when I told her that the astronauts got to stay in just that teeny tiny little cone. It was TINY.

It was amazing to see this. It's amazing to think of what we can do, what we can accomplish.

Finally it was time to head back to Space Center Houston. At least time around we got to sit together. Again, Taylor tried her best to get out of the picture.

As we drove off, the tour guide mentioned this field of longhorns ... yeah, it was kind of weird since were in the middle of NASA. Apparently, a school district donated the land, and so they are allowed to keep their students' competition animals here. The brown and white longhorn is a two time champion of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and worth about $500K. It was also a good shot of the many NASA buildings.

We crossed a creek on our way, and I got a picture of this neat looking bird ... can you find him?

As we pulled up, the tram lines were PACKED. We had definitely come at the perfect time. We walked in and there were people everywhere. We grabbed a few souvenirs ... patches of 4 different mission badges ... and then headed to the water exhibit. We went to the interactive station that showed how water goes from outside to a water treatment plant to our homes back to a water treatment plant and back outside again. The kids got to pump water to each section and thoroughly enjoyed doing that.

We went to another station that had us answer questions about our water usage. After each question, the appropriate amount of water would be pumped into a clear tube in front of us, so we could actually see how much water we use each day. We then made it to the front of the water exhibit. At this point, between the crowds and our rumbling tummies, we decided it was time to go.

We got stamped on the way out, and the stamp lady decided to make Declan's day by giving him a million stars on his arm ... he loved it.

When then headed over to Red Robin. Taylor was dying to get her free ice cream. I told her she had to eat lunch first. When the servers finally started singing to her, she just froze. She didn't smile, but rather looked like she didn't want to be the center of attention. Of course after they finished and walked off, she suddenly burst into a huge grin and said thank you. It was too cute. It is hard to have an entire restaurant looking at you, but she did love it.

After we all enjoyed Taylor's ice cream, we headed home for naps. We had a fun time on our adventure.