Houston Space Center

We got up at 7am to rain, thunder, and lightning. This area of Houston is prone to flooding and there was another flood only a few weeks after we left. Despite the noise outside, the dogs pounded on our door when I sat up in bed.

Amanda and I set out to explore the area, starting our journey with a trip to Shipleys. We had breakfast from this donut shop almost every day of our stay in Texas. The donuts were fine (though Dave, an ex-cop, and therefore uniquely qualified to know, said there was no comparison) but we also usually purchased kolaches. Kolaches are a type of pastry brought in by Czech immigrants in the 1880s. When I looked it up, Kolaches usually refer to a sweet cake, but we exclusively used the term for a savory sausage in a jacket of fried dough. Apparently it's a regional thing:

In some parts of the US, especially in Houston, Texas, klobásník (or klobasnek), which contains sausage or other meat, is also called kolach, because the same kind of dough is used.[3] This pastry is more closely related to a pig in a blanket, however.[4] In contrast, a Czech koláč is always sweet.[5][better source needed] Unlike kolache, which came to the United States with Czech immigrants, klobásníky were first made by Czechs who settled in Texas.[6][7] In Texas, kolaches are often known among people not of Czech origin as "sweet kolaches", while klobasneks are called kolaches.[3]

In the Shipleys parking lot Amanda was excited to see laughing gulls milling around the dumpster. We learned they were very common along the gulf. After donuts, we decided to visit a park before driving out to the Houston space center and we nearly rear-ended a guy that raced up to pass us on our right and then slammed on his braked to pull into a driveway.

The mitigation pond Amanda selected had several bird viewing platforms and signs telling us to watch out for alligators. We immediately spotted an ibis in the grassy field followed by whistling ducks and various egrets. We spent far too long at the ancillary pond before deciding to circle the whole lake.

Though I wasn't enthralled by the birding, there were blackberries growing along the side of the path and I filled my pockets and filled my hands with thorns collecting them.

On the long path around the back side of the pond, we met two birders. It was obvious they were birders from the way they were dressed. I wish I'd asked to take their picture because all the equipment they were carrying, their beige rain gear, wide brimmed hats, expensive binoculars, and mud boots were unmistakable. You can just barely see how one was dressed in this picture Amanda took of their phone. They were sisters, and they quickly filled us in on all the things they'd seen around the pond and places we should go to see some of the more rare warblers. One mentioned seeing an alligator just a short ways down the path. We watched a water snake pick its way through the reeds down below.

The pond grew much more interesting and swampy as we followed the path around the back. We could have spent more time here, but we had to hurry to catch the 12:00 tour at the Houston space center.

The space center was packed with nerds drawn to the area by the rare total solar eclipse. The crowds made me a little grumpy, and it didn't help that many of the exhibits were patriotic fluff. Still, I got to see the LEM, Gemini, Apollo, and Mercury capsules and a variety of rocket engines. They had three tours to choose from, and we decided to check out the Saturn V along with, apparently, a thousand other visitors. The line stretched all the way across the entire building, and outside through a serpentine queue. Amanda waited in line while I walked around the exhibits, steering clear of the movie theater showing rocket company CEOs over American flag backgrounds and patriotic music.

The line took us to a tram that drove us over to another building with the Saturn V painted on the side. Amanda spotted an alligator (our first one) in the canal beside the road, but I missed it.

Outside the building was collection of sounding rockets and engines. Stepping through the normal-sized door in this enormous building, the sight was a thing to behold. I knew the Saturn V was big but to see it on its side is pretty amazing. The rocket was assembled and ready to launch when congress cut funding for the project. After taking the tram back we did a quick tour of the museum to check out the lunar exhibits and the Falcon 9, but I decided to skip the space shuttle cockpit because the line was too long.

We stopped briefly for more birding and then returned to the house to pick up Joy and drive back to the coast to have dinner with Joy's brother Tim, his partner Teresa, their son, and his partner (Travis and Sylvia), and Joy's sister Janet and her partner Clifford. I ordered pineapple shrimp tacos and a margarita. I should have tried the crawdad bowl, but I wasn't happy with sides of potatoes and corn.

Over dinner, I learned that Amanda's cousins were involved in tech. Both looked a little worried when I mentioned I was a programmer. Sylvia integrated software packages and Travis was a Windows server admin for a company of 350 people. Tim's wife Teresa works at NASA for a contracting company but when I asked her what her company did she couldn't tell me.

After dinner, Tim led us back to his beach house just across the street, we met their mellow dachshunds, and heard stories how when the last hurricane flooded the town, they rescued their cars by parking them in the middle of the bridge that runs through town.

It was nearly midnight when returned to Dave and Mary's place.