Episode#38: A Chopper, A Battle Ship And Rockets With Jacob

-

 In June of 2008 I took Jacob on the first of two dad and son solo trips when we drove to Houston then to San Antonio to spend a few days together. He was 15 years old and had just finished his freshman year in high school. Our first stop was NASA and the Johnson Space Center. We start our self guided walking tour with the historic rockets that were used in the early years of the space program that were displayed on the grounds outside the Space Center in an area known as the George Abby Rocket Park. The assortment and variety of historical space program equipment is amazing and a really good display of this equipment.




After spending quite a bit of time checking out these outside full size rocket engines and the full size Saturn series, we go inside the museum and it was just as interesting though some of the displays were replica models created for museum display like the Space Shuttle Endeavor Jacob is standing next beside in the photo below.



While we are here we see there is an opportunity to take a helicopter tour of the area around the Johnson Space Center but the line that day was a lot longer than what we were willing to wait so we decide to try again the next day. Instead we head over to the San Jacinto Monument which is a memorial to the battle of San Jacinto. As you may know the final battle at the Alamo concluded with the fall of the mission on March 6, 1836 as Texas was fighting for independence from Mexico and its Army led by Santa Anna. The next month on April 21, General Sam Houston led the Texas Army in a surprise attack and defeated the Mexican Army and captured Santa Anna in a battle that reportedly lasted less than 20 minutes along the banks of the San Jacinto River. 

The first picture below is the monument from outside at ground level looking up. The following picture is from the observation room at the top. You can see the massive crude oil storage tank farm that lines the edges of the river today. An interesting fact is this San Jacinto Monument which was built from 1936 to 1939 is 15' taller than the similar looking Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington D.C.



The next picture is the US Navy Battleship Texas and was donated to the state of Texas and has been  a museum ship since 1948. The construction of this ship began in April 1911 and was launched into service a year later. Since this picture was taken the ship has been moved and currently is in dry dock for repairs in Galveston and will not be returned to the San Jacinto Park. It will be placed in a location that will allow easier access by a greater number of people to see. The following random pictures are of us clowning around as we walked through the ship.





After a spending an hour or two here we leave and drive to downtown Houston to the Aquarium. It was much more than a collection of fish and aquatic life. There were also other animals including these tigers. They are magnificent and huge animals.


Outside of the building there was a carnival set up and we decided a ride on the Ferris wheel would be in order to get some better views of the area.





The next morning after breakfast we head back to the area near NASA early to check on our chances for the helicopter ride and aerial tour, fortunately we were able to get one pretty quick. The following are a few random pictures of what we were able to see.







Below is Johnson Space Center


The next day we head west to see some of the sights that San Antonio has to offer including the Alamo, The Tower of the Americas, etc. The Tower of the Americas was built for the 1968 World's Fair and was initially named Hemisfair Tower. It was later changed to The Tower of the Americas. This tower stands 750' tall and has an observation deck providing 360 degree views of the city and an enclosed restaurant.



Across the highway sits the Alamo Dome

Inside the tower restaurant


The water gardens feature at the base of the tower





We walked around the area formerly known as Hemisphere Park which now includes statues and features that accent the history of the city.



Yes that is my favorite phone of all, the Blackberry


You cannot visit San Antonio without a walk by of the historic mission known as the Alamo regardless of how many times you visit. By the time we made it over here it was almost dark but I thought the lighting made for a really good picture here.



This trip was a lot of fun and gave us both an opportunity to spend a lot of one on one time together which was my goal. I had planned on doing this earlier as I am seeing how the years are really beginning to fly by faster and faster. We don't get the opportunity for our next dad and son solo trip for another nine years which is to Las Vegas in the summer of 2017. That story will be in an upcoming post. 
 By the time I get the opportunity to take Brad on his first of two dad and son solo trips another year will go by because of work and schedule conflicts as told in Episode #35.


Tips on how to search for previous or missed posts of my blog-


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Episode #23: A Good Wife Is A Gracious Gift From God ... Proverbs 19:14

-
Image
This post won't mean as much to those who do not know Carol Ann, but those that do know her, I know you love her and this is my story about a young teenaged girl that captured my heart so many decades ago. I know my family will enjoy this episode and the look back. Carol Ann defines the term love at first sight for me. She was 16 years old in this picture and we met a year later when we were both seniors attending different high schools. We met one cool January afternoon in 1975 while making "the drag" you know, the practice of driving through town to the Safeway parking lot then back through town to the Sonic drive-in then repeat, repeat to ad nauseam. I had a couple of buddies riding with me and we would honk and wave at the town girls, (remember, I was a 17 year old boy who lived in a small very and rural community about 15 miles away).  She was riding around with one of her friends and when they waved back that was all I needed to turn around and follow. We caught up ...
Read more

Episode#49: Watch The Babies As They Grow Up

-
Image
  The main objective for creating this blog in the first place was to document stories of my life that my children may have forgotten or maybe never knew and for their children and their children's children. I never knew my great-grandparents and have only met met one of them, my great grandmother who died when I was 13 years old and I knew little to nothing about her. I did not want this to be the case for my downline. Among the travels and adventures I have shared here in the previous 48 stories of this blog, I have not included very many stories of my childhood yet, however I did dedicate a couple of posts about when we moved to the country when I was a kid and when I met Carol Ann in high school. For some time I thought it would be fun for me and entertaining for them to see a pictorial account of me and Carol Ann as we grew up. So for that purpose, I have found as many school pictures that I can find and have matched them up to show what each of us looked like as the years pas...
Read more

Episode #46: Ruth Evelyn Wilson Black My Grandma

-
Image
This story is more for historical purposes for those of my family, particularly for my sons and grandkids but is a story of my childhood and family. For story context, Grandma Black was born almost 113 years ago, on June 26,1912. She was born a couple of months after the Titanic left England then two days later strike an iceberg and sank just two and a half hours later. In birth order of her grandchildren, I was the sixth. Her oldest son had two daughters older than me, Sherri and Brenda. Her younger son had a son named Kenny, and my mother had two children before me, Mike and Patty. Grandma was 45 years old when I was born in August 1957. Her father, Fred Walter Wilson was born in 1881 and died in 1949 at the age of 68. Her mother, Nancy Jane Monroe Wilson was born in 1880 and died in 1970 when she was 90 years old. I do have a few memories of my great grandmother but I was only 13 years old when she died and we did not see her very often when we went to OKC. The photo below is the ea...
Read more