Space Center Houston

One of the sight seeing activities that we explored during our recent vacation was Space Center Houston! I lived in the Houston area for more than half my life and I never was able to go and visit this attraction. My children had also asked many times to go and see this place, so we finally did. Grandma, Mike, and I bravely tackled six children down to the south Houston area and arrived at our destination without anyone saying, "Houston, we have a problem." Two of the the cousins were not able to go with us because of camps they were attending.

We were amazed at all the activities that were available. I didn't think though that all the activities were necesarily space oriented. They loved the middle section which was all kinds of ropes courses, trapeze swings, bungee jumping, etc. This is the section they wanted to spend most of their time on and so did all the other kids who attended this day and the lines were way long. The first stop was a playstation but the three older ones were too tall for this feature and I broke off with them to go behind it and explore. Amazingly so, they were the three that were able to get their picture shot with the Storm Trooper (they had a Star Wars exhibit there) as they were at the right place at the right time. We made it all the way through the exploration and over to the middle area and that is where we exited to go eat lunch. After lunch we took a tram that took us over to Johnson Space Center. We listened to a prerecorded explanation of the buildings and different space accomplishments and such as we rode the tram. Our group was able to sit in on Mission Control as they were in a "mock" setting of the shuttle to go off and training the men and women who are in there. It was humbling to see these men and women who truly have dedicated their lives to make space travel happen.

The coolest sight by far was the Saturn V rocket. They have it displayed in a building easily two football fields in length and I can't describe how high, but other than walking space for us, the rocket took up almost all the area in that building. The pictures don't do it justice. It's huge!!! We took in a couple of more sights to see, raided the souveneir shop and started home through Houston traffic at 4:30 pm. Yes, we made it home in a little over an hour and we were amazed, tired, worn out, and yet we had a memory now of space travel and the men and women who attempt to make it all happen.