Johnson Space Center is fronted by a commercial operation called "Space Center Houston".  Space Center Houston is lots more like Disneyland with a space theme than it is like a real space center; however, a tram tour of Johnson Space Center is included as part of the price of admission.  On our tour, we saw the X-38 assembly and test area.  The X-38 is the Space Station Alpha emergency escape vehicle (otherwise known as a life boat) capable of carrying 7 passengers back to Earth.  As of this writing, funding for the X-38 is in doubt.  Below is a pic of a prototype X-38.  And boy, is NASA hyping this thing. Without this, three people is the maximum the Space Station can have at any one time. We also got to see Mission Control for both the Shuttle launches and the Space Station. On March 8th, a Shuttle launch is happening to exchange astronauts and take up some sort of additional component for the Space Station.

This is a shot of the Apollo 17 (I think) rocket, which was never launched.

The girls really got a kick out of a small communication -station where one could conduct picture-and-voice conversations with other kids at Space Center Houston.  Of course, the chatted with each other, but also with other visitors.

Doug, Joya and Jordan made it safely to the moon, where they were followed by a huge astronaut who was hounding them for their autographs.

When we left JSC, we had thought we might drive all the way to Louisiana; however, evening was approaching fast, and Galveston was beckoning, so we headed to Galveston State Park.  Galveston Island sits on the Gulf of Mexico, and is mostly very picturesque.  The state park was nearly full, so we were off in the overflow area, furiously setting up the trailer before full dark.

This was Doug's birthday.  Jody and Jordan baked a fabulous apple pie, pictured below.  If you have good eyes, you can pick out the "Happy B-day!" baked into the pie, courtesy of Jordan.

We had a fabulous birthday dinner, followed by some cribbage.  A grand birthday.