Day 16

Remember the Alamo! We headed to the Alamo in the morning before driving on to Houston. The story of the Alamo is a remarkable one that is filled with themes of heroism, bravery, tragedy, stupidity, and a true David vs. Goliath tale. The Texans held out for days barricaded inside the Alamo with thousands of Mexican troops surrounding them. We walked around the grounds seeing old buildings, memorials, artifacts, and profiles. I eavesdropped on a tour guide giving an abundance of information about the event. I learned a ton as I had not really studied the Alamo very much.

We drove to the Houston area and began our journey there at the NASA Johnson Space Center. We paid our admission and headed into the park. This place seemed like a heavenly area for kids to play as they had huge playground structures inside the museum. We did some space shuttle simulations, saw the cockpit of a shuttle, and walked around a bit. I was disappointed at the fact that certain areas required more money than the 18 dollar admission fee we paid! We decided to do one of the space center tram tours that departed every few minutes. We chose the “Blue” tour which allowed us to see the original Missile Control Center from all of the Apollo missions. It was great to see the old- school monitors, rotary phones and other outdated technology that they successfully used to guide humans to the moon! We also got to see a Saturn V rocket which was the type they used in most of the Apollo Missions. The one we saw was inside a huge hanger and I was completely blown away by the size of this thing! By the time we returned to the main museum area the other exhibits were closed so we did not get to see all that we wanted to despite it only being 4 o'clock. We perused the gift shop and I bought some astronaut freeze-dried ice cream before we left and headed back to Houston. We met up with Emily's good friend and old roommate, Jen, at her favorite restaurant in Houston called El Tiempo. It was great to see Jen as she was so enthusiastic about showing us a good time in Houston! This place was very lively and packed when we arrived so we waited a bit for a table. The Mexican fare was delicious and consisted of yummy nachos, a gigantic beef taco, and a tasty margarita. Jen then took us to her favorite bar where we hung out outside with a packed crowed for a Thursday night. I couldn't help but do more people-watching as it was interesting to see how well-dressed everyone was here despite the fact that we were just at a bar in the outskirts of Houston. It was a different scene then what you might see in Boston where people seem more casual.