Once back at Houston airport we picked up our bags and headed for the car rental shuttle bus. We decided to book a car and Garmin to get to the Space Centre Houston. It is all conveniently located and signed so we had no problems picking up our little Yaris.
We booked into the Holiday Inn not far from the airport. Even though it was close to the airport we did not hear many planes at all.
The next day we got up early and headed south of the city. John had set the Garmin but forgot to set places to avoid and it headed us off on a ring road around the city. However, we arrived about 9.30 wanting to be early in the line when they opened at 10 am to avoid as much of the hot 38C day as we could. There were very few people in the line and we did not need to have a timed ticket to do the tram tour. We got a senior discount and also an extra discount with a promotion pamphlet we picked up at the hotel so it was a reasonable day's outing.
We met two couples from NZ at the Space Centre. One couple lived in Rotorua and had been visiting their family in South Carolina before heading back to NZ. The other couple had parents in our area and had been running in a competition in Chetumal, Mexico. Now that we have direct flights from Houston I am sure it will be more common to catch up with more Kiwis in places like this.
It was fascinating to read how the shuttle and carrier plane were tested as a remote controlled model to see if it would work.
Mission control as we remember it from the 70's
Orion Mars capsule
We visited the Russian Space centre in 1975 and that was also amazing.
The next day we worked out how to make the Garmin more efficient for us and headed off to a shopping mall recommended by Cecilia. John Googled our nearest shopping mall but found that it is in a rough area and a deputy sheriff had been shot there years ago. It is pretty stressful for me being the navigator to make sure I translate the directions early enough for John to react to, when everyone drives so fast.
We got slowed by a two car crash and arrived to see 11 tow trucks lined up along the road shoulder as they raced to deal with the cars. Other than that we had no more incidents.
We shopped for some toys that Kerri and Adam wanted for the children and spent a leisurely time strolling around the store.
On our last day I caught up with our blog entries as we got a late check out from our hotel so we could return our car by 5 pm and be ready to check into our night flight at 6 pm.
This trip has been a great chance to visit places in South America that we hadn't visited previously. It was an opportunity to practise our Spanish and learn more Portuguese. We loved our chances to use the Couchsurfing hospitality club to make new friends and visit US and catch up with old friends.
Our first Caribbean experience has been very interesting and the only thing we couldn't do was to visit Venezuela because of its economic problem,s so maybe another time.
We look forward to getting our garden ready for summer vegetables and our trees ready for summer fruits and to meet our granddaughter Charlotte for the first time and to reacquaint ourselves with our grandson Tyler.
We booked into the Holiday Inn not far from the airport. Even though it was close to the airport we did not hear many planes at all.
The next day we got up early and headed south of the city. John had set the Garmin but forgot to set places to avoid and it headed us off on a ring road around the city. However, we arrived about 9.30 wanting to be early in the line when they opened at 10 am to avoid as much of the hot 38C day as we could. There were very few people in the line and we did not need to have a timed ticket to do the tram tour. We got a senior discount and also an extra discount with a promotion pamphlet we picked up at the hotel so it was a reasonable day's outing.
We met two couples from NZ at the Space Centre. One couple lived in Rotorua and had been visiting their family in South Carolina before heading back to NZ. The other couple had parents in our area and had been running in a competition in Chetumal, Mexico. Now that we have direct flights from Houston I am sure it will be more common to catch up with more Kiwis in places like this.
It was fascinating to read how the shuttle and carrier plane were tested as a remote controlled model to see if it would work.
Mission control as we remember it from the 70's
Orion Mars capsule
We visited the Russian Space centre in 1975 and that was also amazing.
The next day we worked out how to make the Garmin more efficient for us and headed off to a shopping mall recommended by Cecilia. John Googled our nearest shopping mall but found that it is in a rough area and a deputy sheriff had been shot there years ago. It is pretty stressful for me being the navigator to make sure I translate the directions early enough for John to react to, when everyone drives so fast.
We got slowed by a two car crash and arrived to see 11 tow trucks lined up along the road shoulder as they raced to deal with the cars. Other than that we had no more incidents.
We shopped for some toys that Kerri and Adam wanted for the children and spent a leisurely time strolling around the store.
On our last day I caught up with our blog entries as we got a late check out from our hotel so we could return our car by 5 pm and be ready to check into our night flight at 6 pm.
This trip has been a great chance to visit places in South America that we hadn't visited previously. It was an opportunity to practise our Spanish and learn more Portuguese. We loved our chances to use the Couchsurfing hospitality club to make new friends and visit US and catch up with old friends.
Our first Caribbean experience has been very interesting and the only thing we couldn't do was to visit Venezuela because of its economic problem,s so maybe another time.
We look forward to getting our garden ready for summer vegetables and our trees ready for summer fruits and to meet our granddaughter Charlotte for the first time and to reacquaint ourselves with our grandson Tyler.
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