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Summer vacation 2021. This year, as it is Ethen's last with the family we let him choose where we went. He wanted to go to the Beach - naturally San Diego. Given this suggestion, we started looking at San Diego and the logistics of going there. He really wanted to go to the beach and an aquarium. California was still pretty heavy in the COVID-19 lock down, and going to California didn't seem feasible.
With that information, we started to look for an alternative. We settled on Galvastion, Texas. This provides a beach and there is an aquarium in Houston (not far away). It also allows for some of my bucket list items to be crossed off. I wanted to visit the Mission Control Space Center in Houston and siezed on this opportunity to do so.
We stayed in a little blue house on the island not directly on the beach, but within in a 5 minute walk. We were near pier 29 which is an amusement park built on a pier. It wasn't open during our visit, but was under construction. It appeared like they were making some improvements to the park. The water was warm - and the weather was nice. Little rain while we were there, lows in the lower 70s and highs in the mid 80s. We went the last week in May to try to beat the Texas heat and hurricane season. Everytime we went down to the beach, Janelle would make a new "friend". Here she is with one of her many friends she found.
There wasn't many people on the beach, but this could be due to the fact that we went during the week. The waves were nice and the slope to the water was very shallow. This allowed for you to enter the water and basically control how deep you were in it. Serra really enjoyed getting in the water and getting splashed by the waves. What she most enjoyed is chasing the seagulls around. She would take my hand and start walking off toward the birds trying to catch them, and eventually they would fly away, and she would select another target.
This house also had a small pool in the back yard. It was only 3 feet deep and had a large portion that was 1.5 feet deep. Again the younger kids really enjoyed this - Landed and down.
This is Terra and I standing under the amusement park on the pier. The water in the gulf is much warmer than the pacific coast and no one had any issues about the temperature. It was probably in the lower 80s.
Everyone of our kids really enjoy the water. They were probably fish in their former lives.
On the last day at the beach, Serra decided that she would rather wear her life jackeet. This probably comes from her comfort level with it based on her experience at the lake. We brought life vests for the younger kids and Serra was the only one that wanted to wear hers.
I was looking forward to the visit at NASA, and it didn't dissapoint. Here is Kyle standing next to one of the engines that sits at the bottom rocket planned for Mars exploration (seen in the back ground). This is the RS-25 engine made by rocketdyne. There are 4 of them on the bottom of the rocket. Each produces 12 million horsepower, and 512,000 pounds of thrust.
There was a musuem in the space center with many artifiacts used by Nasa. This is a photo of a display of the luner rover on a mock up of the moon's surface. Earth can be seen in the background. The reason there are no stars in this display is that the astronauts always landed on the lunar surface during the 2-week day of the moon. Earth was visable in the sky and moved very slowly toward the horizon.
This is the Saturn V. This was one of the most impressive displays. This is the Apollo 18 mission. There were 17 Apollo misssions flown, and 21 rockets built. This was the next rocket scheduled to visit the moon, prior to the Apollo missions being canceled. This rocket stands 363 feet tall when assembled, but was laying down and each stage seperated for our viewing pleasure.
In the background are the 5 F-1 engines. Each of these engines produces 32 million horsepower and 1,522,000 pounds of thrust at sea level (1,746,000 ponds of thrust in a vacuum). These engines are 12.2 feet in diameter and are 18.5 feet long. These are the most powerful engines ever used in rocketry. Each engine consumes 20 million pounds of fuel per second and the burn time is between 150-163 seconds.
This is the comand module for Apollo 17. This was the last Apollo mission. When this comand module touched back down into the Ocean, it was less than 1 mile away from the USS Enterprise air craft carrier that was planning to pick them up.
Here is the Space-X Falcon 9 rocket. This one had been launced 10 times and was retired. These rockets are significantly smaller than Saturn V.
We also went to the Downtown Houston aquarium. It was very interesting. They had an imaculate decroation theme throughout the facility. What was odd was that they didn't have tons of fish. They had some fish and some tigers. In the background is their newest baby tiger. It was neat to see the tiger. Their shark tank was small. They said that during Hurricane Harvy, the faciltiy was under 28 feet of water and all of their sharks exscaped. The only fish that stayed was their saw fish, and it was the biggest fish they had. They have been looking for their great white with a radio tracker on it, but have yet to find it.
You can see the comand module (different colored) in this photo. I wonder if it was on display somewhere else before coming back to Nasa.
The trip was really fun. The 747 that was used to transport the shuttles across the US was on display with the Space Shuttle Independance replica on its back. You were allowed to tour the plane and the shuttle. It was a really nice display. In the other photo above you can see what the car looked like on the way home. Most of the kids slept for most of the trip, but for some reason Serra doesn't like to sleep. She no longer takes naps unless you take her for a dirve in a car. She won't go to sleep for any other reason.
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| Summer vacation 2021. This year, as it is Ethen's last with the family we let him choose where we went. He wanted to go to the Beach - naturally San Diego. Given this suggestion, we started looking at San Diego and the logistics of going there. He really wanted to go to the beach and an aquarium. California was still pretty heavy in the COVID-19 lock down, and going to California didn't seem feasible. |
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|
|
With that information, we started to look for an alternative. We settled on Galvastion, Texas. This provides a beach and there is an aquarium in Houston (not far away). It also allows for some of my bucket list items to be crossed off. I wanted to visit the Mission Control Space Center in Houston and siezed on this opportunity to do so. |
| We stayed in a little blue house on the island not directly on the beach, but within in a 5 minute walk. We were near pier 29 which is an amusement park built on a pier. It wasn't open during our visit, but was under construction. It appeared like they were making some improvements to the park. The water was warm - and the weather was nice. Little rain while we were there, lows in the lower 70s and highs in the mid 80s. We went the last week in May to try to beat the Texas heat and hurricane season. Everytime we went down to the beach, Janelle would make a new "friend". Here she is with one of her many friends she found. |
|
|
|
There wasn't many people on the beach, but this could be due to the fact that we went during the week. The waves were nice and the slope to the water was very shallow. This allowed for you to enter the water and basically control how deep you were in it. Serra really enjoyed getting in the water and getting splashed by the waves. What she most enjoyed is chasing the seagulls around. She would take my hand and start walking off toward the birds trying to catch them, and eventually they would fly away, and she would select another target. |
| This house also had a small pool in the back yard. It was only 3 feet deep and had a large portion that was 1.5 feet deep. Again the younger kids really enjoyed this - Landed and down. |
|
|
|
This is Terra and I standing under the amusement park on the pier. The water in the gulf is much warmer than the pacific coast and no one had any issues about the temperature. It was probably in the lower 80s. |
| Everyone of our kids really enjoy the water. They were probably fish in their former lives. |
| |
|
|
On the last day at the beach, Serra decided that she would rather wear her life jackeet. This probably comes from her comfort level with it based on her experience at the lake. We brought life vests for the younger kids and Serra was the only one that wanted to wear hers. |
| I was looking forward to the visit at NASA, and it didn't dissapoint. Here is Kyle standing next to one of the engines that sits at the bottom rocket planned for Mars exploration (seen in the back ground). This is the RS-25 engine made by rocketdyne. There are 4 of them on the bottom of the rocket. Each produces 12 million horsepower, and 512,000 pounds of thrust. |
|
|
|
There was a musuem in the space center with many artifiacts used by Nasa. This is a photo of a display of the luner rover on a mock up of the moon's surface. Earth can be seen in the background. The reason there are no stars in this display is that the astronauts always landed on the lunar surface during the 2-week day of the moon. Earth was visable in the sky and moved very slowly toward the horizon.
|
| This is the Saturn V. This was one of the most impressive displays. This is the Apollo 18 mission. There were 17 Apollo misssions flown, and 21 rockets built. This was the next rocket scheduled to visit the moon, prior to the Apollo missions being canceled. This rocket stands 363 feet tall when assembled, but was laying down and each stage seperated for our viewing pleasure. |
|
|
|
In the background are the 5 F-1 engines. Each of these engines produces 32 million horsepower and 1,522,000 pounds of thrust at sea level (1,746,000 ponds of thrust in a vacuum). These engines are 12.2 feet in diameter and are 18.5 feet long. These are the most powerful engines ever used in rocketry. Each engine consumes 20 million pounds of fuel per second and the burn time is between 150-163 seconds. |
| This is the comand module for Apollo 17. This was the last Apollo mission. When this comand module touched back down into the Ocean, it was less than 1 mile away from the USS Enterprise air craft carrier that was planning to pick them up. |
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|
|
Here is the Space-X Falcon 9 rocket. This one had been launced 10 times and was retired. These rockets are significantly smaller than Saturn V. |
| We also went to the Downtown Houston aquarium. It was very interesting. They had an imaculate decroation theme throughout the facility. What was odd was that they didn't have tons of fish. They had some fish and some tigers. In the background is their newest baby tiger. It was neat to see the tiger. Their shark tank was small. They said that during Hurricane Harvy, the faciltiy was under 28 feet of water and all of their sharks exscaped. The only fish that stayed was their saw fish, and it was the biggest fish they had. They have been looking for their great white with a radio tracker on it, but have yet to find it. |
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|
|
You can see the comand module (different colored) in this photo. I wonder if it was on display somewhere else before coming back to Nasa. |
|
|
|
| The trip was really fun. The 747 that was used to transport the shuttles across the US was on display with the Space Shuttle Independance replica on its back. You were allowed to tour the plane and the shuttle. It was a really nice display. In the other photo above you can see what the car looked like on the way home. Most of the kids slept for most of the trip, but for some reason Serra doesn't like to sleep. She no longer takes naps unless you take her for a dirve in a car. She won't go to sleep for any other reason. |
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