Spring Break 2013, Day 1

First full day of vacation!  The main event planned for today was the Johnson Space Center.  But first, I insisted on a drive by of Schlumberger, Dan's second home.  He's been traveling to the Smith/Schlumberger facility for 16 years, and I've never traveled with his to Houston before.  Schlumberger is unimpressive- a complex of brown stucco buildings surrounded by a guarded chain link fence topped with razor wire. Sweet, innocent me wants to know who wants into Schlumberger so bad that it may be easier to break into the Utah penitentiary than to get into Schlumberger uninvited.

We drove to South Houston to get to Johnson Space Center.

What a cool place!  The museum is co-devoted to Space exploration and to hands-on science discovery.  There was also a huge "Angry Birds Space" play structure for the kids that Miles thought was the best.  While the boys were off exploring science and space, I spent most of the time trying to keep track of Miles in the playplace.  He loved the two-story high curly slide.  He loved the "balls" section of the playplace.  This area was loaded with foam balls and pneumatic tubes.  Miles would fill the collection container attached to the pneumatic tube with balls, then push the button and the balls were sucked up into a holding vat up in the ceiling.  After a while, the vat would tip and balls would rain from the ceiling.  Miles played in this area for hours.

Eventually we coaxed Miles out of the ball area and we took a tour of the Johnson Space Center.  We visited the astronaut training area which is filled with true size replicas of the various space craft they will work in- the Souyez, the International Space Center, and the Orion.  It really looks like a big junkyard, and would have been cooler if we'd been able to visit it during working hours.

Then we went and visited a Saturn V rocket and other rocket parts and pieces..

Studying the letters of a new word- "Moon"

After the Space Center, we drove to Brazos Bend State Park.  Two of Dan's colleagues recommended this park because it has alligators!  We went on a walk around 5 Acre Lake and saw lots of alligators... some were swimming; some were hanging out on the bank.  Dan and Miles were walking ahead of me; Miles was collecting rocks and stepping of the trail to throw into the water opposite the lake.  I looked ahead of them and saw a baby gator lurking about as deep off the trail as Miles was walking.  I pointed the gator out to Dan who pointed it out to Miles who started walking over towards the gator.  My child who is afraid of cats and dogs is, evidently, neither afraid nor intimidated by alligators.  Well, baby gator (who was probably 3 feet long) decided to change his location and walked across the trail to the lake bank and it appeared that Miles was going to to visit the alligator.  We had to deter him from having that adventure.

Dinner was at a restaurant that I've been hearing about for 16 years- Pappacitios, Mexican food.  We were so hungry that we overate on the chips and salsa alone.  We'll be having leftover Pappacitos for lunch on Day 2.

Fajitas!  But since "Meat is King" in Texas, the onions and peppers were essentially missing.

Eating a bowl of ketchup in a Mexican restaurant.