Johnson Space Center and Galveston

I forgot to mention that Wednesday night in Houston we went to a Japanese restaurant that was right across the street from our hotel. It looked really expensive from the outside, however the prices weren't any different than what they are at home. One side was regular sit down restaurant and the other side was hibachi cooking. That seems to be a big thing in these parts. We both had sushi which was pretty good.



Yesterday morning, Thursday, we went to the Johnson Space Center/NASA. Our hotel was about a mile or so from the center. We took the tram ride which takes you onto the grounds of the space center. We made 3 stops, the first one was to view the first Mission Control room that was used when the space program was started. We had to walk up stairs 4 or 5 stories. I thought I would be okay, however I barely made the last set of stairs. The group on our tram was so huge and we were at the back of the group. We got on the tram first and they load from the back forward. I should have asked to use the elevator. We took the elevator down.



The next stop was to view a mock up of a space station so the astronauts could train being at the space station. That was very interesting. It was a long galley like viewing area. We could actually see people working. It was lunch time so it wasn't completely staffed.



The last place we stopped at was to see the Saturn V launch vehicle. It is the launch vehicle that put the Apollo in orbit and put an astronaut on the moon. From 1962 to 1970, Gerry worked on the Saturn II project and the Apollo project at North American Aviation in Downey, Compton and Seal Beach. From here we had to wait for another tram to take us back to the welcome center. There is a circle of oak trees that have been planted to honor those astronauts who have lost their lives which the tram stopped at for a few minutes.



From there we stopped to eat at a restaurant called Peppers and then drove to Galveston. There is still numerous homes/buildings that were destroyed when Hurricane Ike came ashore last year. We drove the entire length of Sea Wall Blvd until we got to a toll road and turned around there. We saw a sign for a ferry so decided to go see where it would take us. It is a free ferry and runs from Galveston over to Bolivar Peninsula which is out in the Galveston Channel. It was funny, because after we got over to the other side there was really nothing over there. We drove down the highway a few miles, turned around and got back in the long line of cars waiting to get back on the ferry. We saw some buildings that were destroyed by Hurricane Ike there too.

Hi again! It's Saturday afternoon and we are in Sonora, TX staying at a nice Comfort Inn. It looks fairly new and the entire hotel is smoke free!! I'm doing laundry! :))

Back to Thursday. It was after 8 before we got back to Galveston and we still needed to find some dinner. We stopped at a restaurant along the highway on the way back to our hotel. It was called "Kelley's" and they served "home-style cooking". We got the senior meals and for being a senior meal, mine was huge. I got roast beef which was like pot roast, rice w/gravy, carrots which were thick slices of carrot like you'd put in a pot roast and green beans. They were canned which had bacon and onion mixed in. It was all good, I just couldn't finish my dinner. Gerry had liver and onion, mashed potatoes, carrot/raisin salad and cole slaw. It was 10 by the time we got to the hotel.