Bob and I began the morning of Monday, March 31, 2008, quite leisurely. Although our motel, the Guesthouse Inn & Suites on the northern outskirts of Houston, still had no internet service, I guess they make up for it with an amazing continental breakfast that actually included eggs. Mom would have been proud. Our first stop of the day was at the Minute Maid Ballpark (formerly Enron field), home of the Houston Astros. The first scheduled tour of the day didn’t begin until 10am.
This was my first time touring a ballpark and I quite enjoyed it. Although opening day for the Astros was actually that very day, they were opening in San Diego against the Padres. Our tour guide showed us all around the ballpark – starting off in the entrance to the park, the former train depot Union Station. The cool thing about this park was that it had baseball’s first retractable dome to shield players and spectators from inclement weather. We got to hear our guide answer this and other questions (“what are they doing with the Astrodome?”) multiple times as we had a numbskull family from Boston touring with us.
Outside Minute Maid Park
Bob and I check out the retractable roof
We were able to see the owner’s box and suite, the broadcast booth, both bullpens and dugouts, behind the scoreboard, and the George Bush Presidential seats. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the locker rooms and we were not actually permitted to enter the bullpen…or stand in the grass as I am lampooning in the photo at the top of the page.
Inside the owner’s suite
In George and Barbara Bush’s seats
As far into the Astros’ dugout as I was permitted to go
Visiting team bullpen antics
From there we travelled west a bit to try and catch a glimpse of George Bush. We drove through his Tanglewood neighborhood and stopped by the St. Martin’s Episcopal church only to find that he had in fact attended services the day before.
Me in front of George Bush’s church St. Martin’s Episcopal
Judy Garmin then instructed us to our next destination The Museum of Funeral History. This was an intersting look at all things morbid when it came to funerals: interesting news articles on the deaths of the Presidents, celebrity funeral pamphlets, more caskets that a cemetery would hold (including some very, very odd ones), an array of hearses, mourning attire and jewelry, and the history of embalming.
The area devoted to Presidential funerals
I got a kick out of this ad for the latest and greatest casket
The original eternal flame torch from JFK’s grave – not so eternal as it was eventually replaced
As we left, we realized that we were just one exit up from the Guesthouse Inn & Suites, so we could have easily started off with this activity instead of driving a half-hour into Houston first. Since we were relying on Judy Garmin, it wasn’t always feasible to see the best route to take. We still loved her.
On our way to Space Center Houston, while I chatted with Jackie on the phone, Bob nearly screeched to a halt to turn the car around and head on over to Pappa’s BBQ. It was a nice joint, but we later found out was merely a BBQ chain. The meat was good, but the BBQ sauce was more bitter and vinegary that we were used to. I’d later learn that this was typical Texas BBQ and our Yankee sweet BBQ was more indigenous to the north.
Glee from Bob as we come to Pappa’s
Space Center Houston was a bit of a letdown. First of all, it was nearly impossible to get to with the ridiculous construction and traffic in Houston (in fact, Houston was the least user-friendly city we visited). It was set up more like a family attraction with little stupid rides and presentations simulating a poor-man’s Disney World. Of only historical note was our tram trip to the Johnson Space Center where we saw the Saturn V rocket. This was massive and very cool.
Proudly displaying my tram boarding pass
The training fuselage
The incredible Saturn V rocket was too big for words. It carried orbital and lunar spacecraft into space from 1967-1973
One of five F-1 engines that propelled the Saturn V into space
As you may have guessed, this isn’t actually the moon
We were also able to see the Memorial Gardens for fallen astronauts, and the astronaut training area including the giant Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT). Bob noted that during his last visit, they were able to see Mission Control, but this was axed from our tour for whatever reason. Back at Space Center Houston, we checked out the limited number of interesting displays they had including some astronaut space suites. I got a magnet, a t-shirt for Jackie, and some space ice-cream for Yaht.
The type of fun to be had at Space Center Houston
At the controls of some old spacecraft or other
Wresting a space anaconda
Our intention was then to head through San Antonio to Uvalde to spend the night. Unfortunatly between my turning off Judy Garmin and sleeping, we ended up on the wrong highway and veered off north on the 10. Had we kept driving, it would have taken us to Bob’s hometown of San Bernardino, California. Fortunately we realized our mistake and stopped for the night in Kerrville – about two hours out of the way from Uvalde – at the Whitten Inn. We had eaten dinner at a nice little place around San Antonio (about where we started to go wrong) called the R&B Steakhouse. They had an excellent and HUGE club sandwich. Everything was bigger in Texas – sandwiches and wrong turns!
Our trip will continue with our new plan of action…
So….uhhh what are they doing with the Astrodome?
Lee
April 28th, 2008
Space Center…COOL!
Jackie
April 29th, 2008
Next time, I’ll stick to steaks in Texas as the rest of the south has better BBQ!
Bob
April 30th, 2008