San Antonio Art Museum

I walked up the stairs at the museum and I thought it was cool to look down. The Museum was 5 floors, a different exhibit on each and split into 2 sides so 10 displays. We went up one side all 5 floors then across the sky walk and went down the other side looking at all of those. Such incredible items. Could spend a lot more time there.  

I thought Tyson and Destiny would like the dragons on these. They were very detailed. This was in the Asia section

These were miniatures in the Egyptian section, made me think of moms clay figurines. 

This was outside one of the windows at the museum and I thought it was awesome.

Beautiful painting

NASA Space Center, Houston TX

What an incredible experience. Since I could not take a lot of pics, phone dying and all!, here is a link to the attractions. http://spacecenter.org/attractions/

So we looked around at the items they have, which were incredible. then we took a 90 minute tram tour around some of the 1000 acres of land there. We had a few stops along the way and were able to see such history!  We were in the command center for 9 Gemini missions and all Apollo missions, including the infamous Apollo 13. The feeling in that room cannot be conveyed thru a picture, the plaques from successful missions, the flag that has been in moon soil and brought back by last mission monitored from that room, the tribute to the lost souls from Challenger mission disaster, the technology that was used back then, rotary dial phone on console and such. We saw the Saturn V rocket, I believe there were 5 parts?? This is one building I would take a ton of pics in next time. The size was so massive when you were standing there. And the pics of all of the real astronauts and the dates/mission details/quotes/details were on the wall as you walked along. So humbling to stand next to this. Incredible to think that some of those men stood on the moon after arriving in a rocket...

We saw the training building. When I say building...these are so massive. The door is as big as a football field. Many many stories high, with capsules and stations for the astronauts to train in once they are done with classroom learning. They have each item to scale and actual equipment for them to train in, get familiar with. There is a whole building for them to go to for 5 days after returning from a mission to get used to gravity again. They said there is no way to get 100% accurate on the no gravity feeling or to reverse it but they have "tricks" they said.

The robotics building was one of the most fascinating.    they have robots that can be used as human hands and do intricate things like turn a screw for them. They had row after row of tool boxes/parts and computers, robots, work stations, way cool office! and one of the workers looked like a 16 year old young man. I thought of my grand kids and how amazing they are and how each of them can do things with computers I will probably never be able to do and imagined this young man and what an incredible job/opportunity/responsibility he has...

below I have added a few of the pictures I got before the camera died.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

what an amazing day this was. Monday November 9th, 2015. We spent several hours at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and in no way even scratched the surface. We went to IMax theatre presentation of Secret Ocean 3D, Jean-Michel Cousteaus movie. This in itself was incredible, he is following in his dads footsteps and made a very colorful, informative movie. The IMax theatre just brought it to life like we were sitting right there. (this is only my 2nd time in IMax theatre, 1st was a week ago in San Antonio, blog I have not written yet. We also went to the Planetarium and watched the Starry Night Express. They showed us the current star pattern we see above our heads on that day. They also pointed out the planets and stars that we all see and told us where they were N, S, E, W etc and what they stood for according to Greek mythology. Was fun. All in all it was an absolutely incredible experience. We also have a yearly pass so will return. I did not get to see some of the exhibits so I am very happy about this!! Only thing that would have made this better would have been to have my family with me..                                this is a statue outside the museum

the planets are all on the pavement, I did not take them all but it was very cool

this is depicting the coast line of TX

this shows Galveston island and Houston star

this is view from above looking towards Galveston Island and Houston

above, other side of coast away from Galveston Island and Houston

this was just cool! The bug walks along the outside and each time it steps is a second

Some of the exhibits we were not allowed to take pics in, and some we could without flash and lighting was so low to preserve the exhibit that I only took one in Egyptian exhibit. This mummy of a man was incredible. His hair, beard, teeth etc were all in tact. Amazing. We saw a shawl that was 3500 years old, very thin but mostly in tact...Incredible!! 

this was from the Dinosaur exhibit, fossils etc. Mostly I took pics in this exhibit because of Tyson, and I figured Destiny would like them also. Thanksgiving Point had a great Dinosaur Museum but I took things that they may not have had. There are several pics from this exhibit as it was light.

these were mud puppies or something like that. They found a place where a bunch of them were, like they were all there to hibernate or something and just died...all bunched together. 

this was the butterfly exhibit we went to. They have a great habitat there. When you exit you need to be examined in mirrors so you do not take any out with you. They have guards on either side of the door to ensure you are checked. There were many beautiful butterflies, waterfall, and wonderful area for them to live. One was so black it looked more like a bird, was cool. 

 you can probably read the plaque on the Kugel Ball, if you cannot you can read about it here.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM533W_Houston_Museum_of_Natural_Science_Kugel_Houston_TX

this was across the street from the museum, I believe it is Sam Houston

this is a teepee, I took this one for Tyson and Destiny. They used to build teepees, tents, forts, etc when they were over at the house.