Houston - Texas - Nasa Space Centre

  Houston, Texas, United States
Saturday, June 30, 2007

The next Pit Stop was Houston, the largest city within the state of Texas.  To get there, we traveled 300km on Interstate 10 East.  The journey was gloomy as the sky was overcast and treatened to rain but fortunately, never did.  As if that was a harbinger of an unfortunate event to come, the moment we turn off the turnpike into Houston, disaster struck.  Our car's tyre rolled over a curb and blew. "HOUSTON! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"
Thanks to the dextrous hands of Ling, we managed to replace the spare from the trunk of May's car and hunted down a car workshop to get it permanently fixed.  Thanks to the providence of May.

Energy Bar

Gloomy Day

Mechanic Ling

Another quick detour took us to the impressive Williams Water Wall, a shimmering man-made feature that sends thousands of gallons of water hypnotically cascading down its slick rock surface into a pool below.  Took some stunning pictures there.

Water Wall

Water Wall

Water Wall

  

During the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center - the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions - and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located, and that's where we were headed next.  The whole idea of that visit to NASA was to pay homage to human achievement in space exploration.  It's amazing to get up close and personal to the Lunar Module and the Saturn 'V' Rockets that was responsible for landing a man on the moon, on the first manned space mission to the moon, the Apollo 11.  The historic date was 24th July, 1969.  We took a tour to the space shuttle training facilities.  The shuttle seemed much smaller that I expected.  With another feather in our cap, we left NASA 4hrs later feeling inspired.

Calling Houston

Futuristic Car

Space Shuttle

 

Space Suits

I come in peace

Saturn V

 

Tram Tour

Saturn V

Lunar Module

As the day winds down, we sat down to indulged in the world's deadliest task - the eating of the world's deadliest catch - the Alaskan King Crab at Red Lobster.  Those fresh oysters were humongous and tantalizing.  The flesh of the fame crustacean was juicy and succulent.  No wonder they risked their lives to acquire this bounty of the sea.  We were completely sated when we walked out of Red Lobster, US$70 poorer, but a small price to pay for such an exquisite meal.  Red Roof Inn was a welcoming sight after a long day, and we immediately hit the sack after shower.

Red Lobster

Oysters

Speechless

Yummy!

Here's the King!

Red Roof Inn