NASA

On the tram at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The building in the background is where....

Mission Control is! I was surprised to find they'd put this area on the tour. Like many other things we've seen on TV this is a lot smaller than it looks. The room is on the third room of the building, the first and second floor containing the computer used to run the operation. That was a 2 megabyte computer.

The following photos are from the Research and Development area.

Can you see the figure above on the right side of the photo? Behind the low black wall with a gold helmet and white shoulder? It's a robot! This one is a torso with arms mounted on a four wheel cart.

If you click on the above photo you may be able to see the workers. These are the fittings between a space shuttle and a docking station. It seems a good idea to make sure they'll fit before you actually have to use them.

The rocket display building. As we arrived our guide suggested we look at the rockets outside first.

  

These things are amazingly small. The capsule on top is barely large enough to hold an adult.

This rocket larger but still not really impressive.

Then we went in the building..........

OH MY GOD!!!

The entire building holds one rocket - the Saturn V

About halfway down the rocket.

Finally, the top of the rocket and the nose.

Coen checks out the cockpit of the space shuttle.

And right next to the Saturn V exhibit?

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That's right!

The Longhorn exhibit!

It might be NASA

but it's still Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Spot at Galveston Island

Our daughter Amber, son-in-law Jeff and grandson Coen arrived Dec 10th for a week's stay.

They had read about a local eatery call The Spot and we went for lunch.

A view of the gulf from our table. Coen has everyone's attention.

This was taken at Moody Gardens in the aquarium pyramid.

Remember the name Moody. It'll come up later!

Coen really enjoyed the penguin and seal pools, and of course the sharks made a hit. 

There's also a rain forest pyramid we toured and a museum and a 3-D theater and ............

To see the penguin exhibit live go to www.galveston.com/penguincam/

Coen is quite the photographer. He took the following shots.

Dad

Mom

Grandpa

A rare shot of John smiling for the camera (but I think it was a smile for the cameraman)

Galveston Island

 The sun coming up Sunday December 2nd.

The beach joins our RV park.

Don't expect a lot of sunrise shots from me.

 Bella insisted she needed a quick walk so I grabbed the camera.

The view from Seawall Blvd. The beach is miles long with public access to almost all of it.

Fishermen on one of the jetties.

The waves are really pretty high. We've seen surfers out but not today.

Most important in Bella's opinion - it's a dog friendly beach!

This is Pleasure Pier.

  This pier was was a big tourist draw until a hurricane in the 1960s destroyed it. A hotel was built in it's place and enjoyed success, then Hurricane Ike came through.

Today it's got shops, food and rides; and I bet Coen is gonna love this place.

The other side of the street is non-stop restaurants, hotels and bars. There are some elegant places; old hotels that made it through many storms; and cheesy Poop Deck bars with pirate themes.

The following two restaurants are side-by-side.

The houses here are remarkable.

There are several homes built in the 1800s that we plan to tour.

Double clock to see the details in the home and gardens.

O K - I don't know what to call this!

Our friends Joe and Barb are here with us, and Joe suggested it might be half of a water tower.

It's located far down on the south-west end of the island, and one of the modest houses near it boasted a sale price of $225,750.00 by owner.

I'll stay in the fifth wheel, thank you.

Spring, Texas

We're in a beautiful RV resort in Spring, Texas; a suburb on the north side of Houston.

The trip down has been eventful this year. 

We'd planned to stop at the home of our friends Jake and Candy. This May they bought a ranch close to McKinney, Texas. The ranch has two parking spaces for Rvs, a very attractive option in our opinion. It would be a fun stay with our friends who would later meet us in the Rio Grande Valley for the month of January. We were saddened to learn  early in November that Jake had a heart attack. We spent an afternoon with Candy touring their ranch and the home they are redesigning, and had such a nice visit. Complications have lengthened Jake's stay in the hospital but he will be on his way to a rehabilitation facility soon. We'll stop at their home in March and see Jake when he's back up to speed.

We are staying at Rayford Crossing RV Resort, a place reccommended by friends Joe and Barb Stackman. We often go to places that friends have stayed in and enjoyed.

The entry

The office and general store

The pool is very nice

We're in an end lot, my favorite because the yard is larger.

Check out the Christmas decor on our street lamp!

There's a dog park here and of course Bella wants to visit every 20 minutes or so.

Just off the path I noticed a tree down with some unusual markings.

I was surprised to see evidence of beavers at Jake and Candy's ranch, and then found the same thing here! What's this about Texas and beavers?

Hallowe'en 2012

Mister Pumpkin Head

Mom had to pre-punch the holes in for Coen.

"The pirate's eye patch is upside down" says Mom.

One of the finished pumpkins.

My daughter certainly has a lot of my characteristics.

The Burkes are known in the neighborhood for their carved pumpkins.

One more from Jeff and Amber's house.

And one a friend brought over. 

Amber and Jeff live in wonderful area for Hallowe'en. The homes in their neighborhood are largely owned by young adults with children, and the streets fill with kids shortly before dark. Coen's girlfriend Zoey brings her parents over too.

Every year they hand out candy to 600 - 800 kids.

YEEEEHAWWW -Cowboy Coen!

Be sure to notice the lasso. It was a very important part of the costume in Coen's opinion.

Coen's "mean" look

He and Zoey had a great night and scored lots of candy, but they had more fun handing out treats after they got back to the house.

Just starting out for the evening.
I'm in the background, waiting to hand out treats for roaming goblins.

Coen and his cowgirl Zoey.

'Til next year!

Protecting the Plants

We're in Kansas, and it froze last night!

YES! FROZE!!

I don't remember the last time we experienced freezing weather but it may have been spring of 2010, when we left Texas too early.

It was clear I'd have to bring the plants in or suffer the lack of fresh mint for my mojitos. Well, of course I brought the plants in - we don't live like savages you know!!!

I watered the plants outside and waited half an hour. I then tilted the pots to let the excess water drain out. I got a plastic tablecloth, folded it to the right size and placed it carefully over the carpet. We didn't want to make a mess, did we?

My mint plants had a tough time with the heat this summer but have recovered nicely. I do take good care of them as I do love me those mojitos! As you can see they're in good shape.

Now let's zoom out a little so you can get a better look.

The little planter on the right shaped like a cat is filled with rose moss.

A pleasant plant but not important to mojitos.

That's a good thing!

Turns out the cats love rose moss. There was some interest early in the evening that we found entertaining. After we went to bed the carnage began. It must have been a glorious time, because the damage was extreme.

The forecast tonight is below freezing again. The plants will spend the night inside. 

Yes, the cats will too.