Vacation, pt. 2

The boys got the rental car picked up, our car to the shop Wednesday morning so we could still participate in some vacation activities and not let the mishap ruin the trip.

Houston Zoo:

We made it to the zoo in early afternoon, so a lot of the animals were resting and taking naps-- lazy things! The zoo did have lots of animals I've never seen before.We did get to see the zookeeper feed the lions though and hear him talk about the different lions in the zoo. That was pretty cool.

What's a Texas breakfast without a Texas waffle??

Visiting NASA was the most anticipated attraction and it did not disappoint. I really can't even explain all of the really cool things that we saw and learned about because it would just sound dumb. So, you should really just plan a trip down to visit it yourself.

NASA's control room until the 1980s with the flag that's been on the moon.

 So they have these full size, fully functional models of the the parts of the space station so that everything can be tested and the astronauts can get lots of practice before they go up to work on the "real deal." This is Grant in front of the space shuttle.

 

 Brad and HanNah in front of the Zarya, which is the Russian part of the International Space Station.

The astronauts lifestyle is definitely not for me. Sleeping in a bag, exercising two hours a day to minimize the damage that living without gravity causes, strapping yourself down just to use the potty... oh just thinking about it makes me cringe!

Derek is taking a look at the largest rocket ever built.

 This is the actual piece that the astronauts came back to earth in from one of the Apollo missions (can't remember which one!) Too cramped for me!

 

We had a great vacation. Granted, with one speeding ticket ($150), two no seat belt tickets ($150 each), and car troubles ($825) it turned out to be a bit more expensive than planned.... but it was so nice to get away and do some really cool things. For all of the places in Houston, we purchased a CityPass and it was a great deal. We'd definitely recommend it!! And kuddos for us for planning the trip before tourist season started-- it was perfect!