Jet lag got the better of me and I barely slept. We had planned to get up early and head back to the Space Center to do the tram tours we missed out on yesterday.
I slept poorly, so it was an effort to drank myself to breakfast. We chose a place around the corner that does breakfast tacos and it was a freezing and foggy morning. Taco a Go Go Midtown was fabulous and the bright and bustling lady at the counter asked me too many difficult questions having just rolled out of bed, but in the end we managed to order one serve of breakfast tacos and one egg plate, which we ended up turning into tacos too! I made a delightful fool of myself trying to get a cup of water, not realising after many instructions that on the sofa machine there’s a tiny little silver flap that serves water through the lemonade dispenser. Of course. But she was lovely and just laughed! When the food arrived we thought it would be too much, but ended up just about right.
A bit about our accom. Fairly dodgy looking from the outside, there must be hundreds of apartments in this complex, all at jaunty angles and with right orange doors. The lifts on our level do not open from level five, so we walk down the stairs. They do go up tho, so that’s a relief.
Our apartment has a small lounge off to the left of the front door (where we have dumped our luggage) and a big open plan full kitchen and living room with couch and TV. It constantly smells like weed. Like there’s weed stashed somewhere. I’ve been seeing if I can find it. It’s mostly in one corner but obvious when you first enter the apartment.
Off to the left is the bedroom, with a very low double bed that is comfy but rolls inwards. From the bedroom are two more rooms - a spacious bathroom and a laundry with washing machine and dryer. Out the window we have a direct view to the pool which is lovely, but lit at night so the room is washed with light.
Today the drive was a bit easier having done it before, with me navigating and trying to join a tram tour. To join the virtual queue, one has to book through the app. However the queue either didn’t open until 10 to 10, or it was proximity based, but in any effect I managed to get through at 9.51am. We were around the corner, so skidded inside at 9.55.
Upon the bag check, the security guard spotted my selfie stick and told me it had to go back in the car. I was incredulous, as I witnessed the following exchange the night before:
Security guard “any weapons?”
Woman fiddles with bag. “I have a knife.”
Security guard “no problem go on through.”
Anywho, Dan dashed back to the car to deposit the selfie stick, and then we raced to the counter inside. We talked to a lovely British lady who found our name on the guest return list and let us inside, with 3 minutes to spare before the tour started. We joined the back of the queue and selected the seats that were the dryest, the “tram” being an open top buggy and trailer system.
Normally three tours, it turns out they had smushed together the red and the blue tours. We trundled across the road past some giant horned cows and into the NASA complex, being waved at by important researchers like we were five years old kids. One of the things that struck me was that most of the buildings did not have windows. At all. That would drive me insane! And then we saw some deer, which really confused me but we decided they were real because they were missing when we returned.
The first stop was the astronaut training Center. We were allowed to walk along a huge gangway at the edge of the enormous hangar, and I remarked to Dan “mustn’t be anything confidential in here!” The space was a massive jumble and assortment of space bits and shuttles and shuttle bits and robots and robot bits. I’ve asked Dan what some of the things we saw were:
* ISS mock up for training
* Soyuz capsule trainer
* Boeing star liner trainer
* Orion capsule trainer
* Alpaca Luna lander trainer
Amongst many other things. I was fascinated by the robots and hanging suits, and we watched as someone used VR to move a lifeless dangling robot.
Back on the tram, we trundled back over to Rocket Park, where there were three rockets on display. This is normally the Red tour, but our tram deposited us here and said “take your time, just pop out here and catch the next available shuttle when you’re ready”.
Outside were the yellow Little Joe 2 and Mercury Redstone. The people ahead of us were very slow sowhile we waited i took some fun photos of the rockets reflected in a puddle.
Then we went inside the enormous hanger to view Saturn V Rocket.
It big.
I believe tours are normally raced through here but we had the place largely to ourselves for a while and took our time taking photos, posing with the 5 giant rocket engines. I offered to take a video for Dan walking the length of the Rocket. Didn’t realise it would take me a minute and a half, which is long in filming terms!
All the while we tried to join the queue for the white tour to mission control. Both of us got through but we’re bumped out. Once back at the main centre we asked at the info desk and our 12:30 had been accepted. To avoid confusion they gave us a physical card so we didn’t have to rely on the app when showing proof of registration.
We had a brief wander, watched most of a show before deciding to head early to the white tour. We were requested to queue in a single file, and a family next to us looked expectedly at the queue, I assume they were expecting it to part for them like the Red Sea and for them to join. Eventually they mumbled that they had better go to the back of the line I shook my head.
This time when we trundled back over to NASA, I saw an egret it flight which was quite cool. They look like a skinny pelican. This tour was to the Apollo Mission Control Room. The room had been restored to look exactly as it did that fateful day on 20 July 1969. On arrival, we had to hand over our backpacks and were given strict instructions not to touch anything as the room we were going to be seated was the original VIP seats for families of space crew to watch the proceedings.
They had recreated what was going on on all of the screens and monitors and projectors I. Those few minutes before the eagle landed. It was a little kitch but cool to be there all the same. We were allowed to single file stand and take a few photos being single file filing out.
By now I was totally spaced out. It was time to farewell the Space Center - we had never intended to spend so much time there but we wrung every ounce out of it possible. On my list was to visit a restaurant called Ninfa’s Original on Navigation, so we plotted a course there.
It was pretty fiddly and difficult to navigate our way to Ninfa’s on the unfamiliar roads, and Dan remarked that the poor quality of the roads is reminiscent of something rom Eastern Europe and not first world America. As we walked in, we spotted a big fat squirrel and probably confused passersby when we stopped to photo it.
Ninfa’s was quite huge and once inside we were shown to a table on the far right. Service was almost immediate - I was sanitising my hands and didn’t know what I wanted to drink. Our waiter said “margaritas?” He then asked about twenty other questions about the margaritas, to which I. Ended up responding “however you recommend!” We received a very strong but very smooth margarita on the rocks, and it was delicious. We were also given complimentary nachos with delicious salsa and verde dipping sauces.
I also a confirmed that the speciality was the beef fajitas. He pointed out another plate I had t spotted on the menu - beef fajitas, enchilada and a taco. Perfect - a little bit of everything! Dan and I decided to get one each, but we chose different beans.
Very soon the meal arrived, and it was enormous. We both managed to get through the majority, and it being about 3pm and many hours since we had breakfast - I had been quite hungry. In the background played Christmas in Spanish which was a wonderful touch!
I was surprised when we had only been there about half an hour and we were all done. I embarrassed myself trying to find the bathroom, not knowing banos means bathroom. Good thing I found out now and not when I landed in Buenos Aires!
From here, we navigated our way to POST Houston. It gave me sort of Plant 4 at Bowden vibes, but as we had already eaten we made our way straight to the spiral staircase to check out the roof top view. With the sun setting, the view from the winter garden on the roof was quite lovely. We found a community vegetable garden up there; cauliflower, spinach, and much more.
By now we were spent so made our way back to the apartment. Combination jetlag, general tiredness and food coma saw me pass out for a little while, before we made our way back to The Brass Tap for a cheeky pint. I was interested in the Fairweathers Smell the Van gin inspired cider but was recommended against it (complete with taster and yes- wasn’t for me). Instead we had the Austin Eastciders Pineapple cider, 8th wonder high grade AIPA and finished with the festive Saint Arnold Pumpkinator.
Now it’s time to pack. Because Houston airport was such a ballache last time we are going to give ourselves PLENTY of time, so it’s a surprisingly early start in the morning. Wednesday is almost entirely written off, and next adventure will be Thursday in Buenos Aires!!
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