(Sarah and Jack have been to Florida beaches and Rockport, but Caroline has legitimately never set foot in an ocean--or gulf.)
So we decided to start the kids off at the ugly beaches of Galveston. :)
I don't mean to be offensive if you're a Galveston lover. But seriously. Once you've seen clear water and white sand, Galveston PALES in comparison. Our kids don't know the difference yet so now's the time to jump on the Texas beaches.
...........
Backing up... Approximately 10 days ago, we missed school because of a snow day.
Then Friday it was slushy, ugly yuck.
Then Saturday (March 7) it was BEAUTIFUL. That's the last day the McGlamerys have seen the sun.
You'll see.
...........
Monday we headed to Galveston. It literally, no joke, rained the E.N.T.I.R.E. way there. It was cRaZy. I've never driven 250+ miles with rain the entire time. Horrible.
But once we got on the island the rain didn't bother us as much. We were out of the car. Our condo was great. We were set to have fun.
Even if it's raining and 55 degrees. (And it was!)
That night we had dinner at a place called Board Game Island. It's a restaurant that has shelves FULL of games. You eat and play. It was a fun night.
...........
Tuesday we went to Pleasure Pier (note the fleece shirts, it was COLD), played on the beach, ate some more.
This was taken right before Jack turned gray. He did a lot of spinny rides in a row. This is the look right before the regret.
............
Wednesday we played mini golf, toured a boat in the rain, rode the ferry to Port Bolivar, had the best seafood we had the whole time at Stingarees, and swam.
...........
Thursday we beached it one more time then packed up to head home.
The plan was to stop at the Johnson Space Center and tour NASA on our way home. This is where the bad decisions began. ;)
I remember touring NASA as a kid and thinking it was neat. Admittedly, I'm a nerd, but it's not like Jason or the kids are cool (HA!) ....so in theory, we should love it.
We decided to do the tram tour. "See behind-the-scenes at NASA", the brochure said.
This is where the bad decisions continued.
We stood in line for over an hour to take an open air tram ride. "Open air" is a really important descriptor.
Some time in the 90 minutes we were in line, it started to rain. But by then, we weren't backing out of the tour.... We had invested an hour and a half of our time standing in line. The "point of no return" had been passed 45 minutes ago.
When you're in line for a RIDICULOUSLY long time to take a tour of NASA-- home to rocket scientists and engineers-- you start to become quite critical of everything that is inefficient.
Disney Imagineers can get 100 times as many people off and on trams/tours/rides in about 10 minutes. And they're not in charge of sending people to the moon.
We got on the tram, driven by a high school senior, I'm sure of it.
The tour guide was not any older... and could not be bothered to move his lips... or enunciate.... or move the microphone farther than 2 centimeters away from his mouth.
He sounded like a bad flight attendant. The same cadence and intonation.
A mumbled, garbled speech that started high pitched and ended in a low, monotonous, slow voice.
We stopped and got out at the astronaut training center. I was picturing scenes from the movie "Space Camp". I wanted to see people spinning around and floating or something.
But no. I got to see a black filing cabinet with Twizzlers stuck to it in the shape of a smiley face and phones manufactured in the 1970s.
(I tried to draw a red rectangle where the Twizzlers is. You can't see it well in this pic. Also find the 70s phone on top of the other filing cabinet.)
The scientists we saw were in jeans and t-shirts. For some reason, I want to think that the smartest among us don't have "casual Friday".
Wear a suit. Or a labcoat. Throw on a pair of glasses. Look smart. A stained "Hard Rock: Cancun" shirt doesn't inspire confidence in your intellect.
After the training facility, we got back on the tram and headed to Rocket Park. On the way, we passed a sign that read:
Safety does not happen by accident.
__ days since our last mishap
__ Johnson Space Center Record
And with wooden numbers, the first blank said "61".
The second was "193".
Maybe because we were so bored and wet and cold, Jason and I couldn't stop laughing at that sign.
What is defined as a mishap? How are these space engineers getting injured all the time? Why keep a public record of "days since our last mishap"?
Can you imagine when Frank loses the tip of his finger??... The collective sigh. "Dammit, Frank, we have to go change the sign now! Back to zero. Booo!"
At Rocket Park, we got off the tram and walked through ankle-deep puddles. At this point, we were not the only tourists being irreverent.
You could hear more than one person say, "You've put people on the moon, but you can't figure out drainage issues for your landscape."
Look at Caroline's bangs in these pics. We all look like wet dogs. But her saturated bangs show just how much rain we experienced. This also shows that you smile when a camera is pointed at you just because it's a habit. It doesn't necessarily reflect "fun" or "happiness". I appreciate Sarah's honesty here. ;)
Again, we were cold, wet, tired, and understood NOTHING the guide was saying. We were all critical and ready to get off the tour for which we had waited in line over an hour!
By the time we finally got back to the main Space Center, Jason and I realized it was after 3:00. And we're south of downtown Houston.
NOT GOOD.
It took a good 6 hours to get home.
When we pulled up to the house in Plano, I don't think any of us were speaking to each other. We were sick of being in the van together. I think it hit us all at once that we had had A LOT of togetherness during the week and the prior weeks because of snow days. We love each other, but everyone has limits. ;)
............
Friday I was ready to see the sun!! YES!!!
Nope, Friday it rained all day in Plano.
I checked the weather in Galveston. It was 71 and clear skies.
Of. Course.
..........
Saturday... clouds.
Today... clouds.
I need some sunshine. Vitamin D. New freckles. GIMME THE SUN!!
Fingers crossed that the sun'll come out tomorrow!
I asked Jason if I should bet my bottom dollar on that.
He said, "Please don't. We're almost down to our bottom dollar after vacationing."
Fantastic!! :) :(
Happy Spring Break!! :) :)
