NASA

This trip was a little different from others because the SC and TX spring breaks did not line up. Spring Break in TX was actually the week before, so Monday found our family with nothing to do while everyone had to go to school. Thanks to Andrea, I had a plan. We went to the Johnson Space Center. James was SO excited. This is him being excited in the parking lot.



Most of the pictures are of James, because he was really into it.

The Space Center was unbelievably cool, but I don't think we had as good of a time as Andrea did. It is hard for me to believe, but we had Poor Time Managament. The Space Center is set up with lots of different shows. These shows are at certain time according to a schedule. With two small boys, it is hard to be on a schedule and we lost an hour waiting for the tram tour. (We thought we were going to be on the 10:30 tour, but we didn't leave until 11, so I guess we didn't make it.) Thank goodness for my ipod touch...Best Gift Ever. The boys watched Backyardagains while we waited and waited. They were into it once we left:



The tour took us around NASA. You got to see everyone who worked there just going about their lives. Can you imagine the jokes if you worked there? One of the driers in the bathroom didn't work, and if I worked there I would say, "man, we are freaking NASA. We can put a man on the moon, but we can't fix the drier?" I think I would have really enjoyed the tour if it wasn't for the kids, but really, they weren't that bad. Here is the building were the Saturn Rocket lives:



Rockets out front:



And the HUGE rocket inside. Yes, I know that Andrea's pictures are better!



The kids tolerated the tour, they tolerated the picnic lunch outside, but once we walked it, they saw this, and that was all they could talk about:



This was a huge 4 story play structue. It was really cool. It was so big, they had cameras outside so maybe you could see your kids playing. This is James and Andy on the 4th floor shooting something:



I think this is James, again on the 4th floor:



They also had lots of hands on exhibits, like a children's museum. Mark asked me to put shoes on the kids feet and he would see if a flight simulator was open. Um, sure.



Other exhbits:





James said his favorite part was when he got to try helmets on. This kid does love to dress up:



The Space Center really got me thinking, and like a lot of things this time in my life, I can't help but thing How Much These Things Must Cost. And to use a term coined by others, Is This A Waste Of Taxpayer Money? I don't really know the answer to that, not sure how I feel, but all of the conviences we enjoy now, my running watch, GSP, cell phones, these things are really not Very Expensive, but it all is related to satillites and space. How many millions of dollars did it take to put the satillite up in the sky so you don't get lost? Is it worth it? Is it not? Should we cut the program? Should we go to Mars?