From Camping to Glamping: Houston Space Center and San Jacinto Monument

March 31, 2017
The Houston Space Center and
The San Jacinto Monument
Houston, TX

I thought the bark on this tree was interesting, I wonder what kind of tree it is. It was growing at our RV site.

Houston Space Center
At the entrance

We entered the museum and realized it was spring break for a lot of kids. A good deal of the museum is dedicated to interactive displays that kids would love. We couldn't get close to many of the displays. There were various space craft hanging from the ceiling and that was interesting.
We have now been to so many museums and found this one a bit lacking in organization. Maybe that was because we lived the years of space exploration and just expected more, I'm not sure. We found it hard to follow the chronology of the space program.
There are a number of facts that may have clouded our judgement here. Here's the layout, we found it confusing. (maybe we're just old). It was also extremely crowded the day we were there.(it's hard to walk in a straight line with so many people, and kids running to see the next thing). And finally, spring break is not the time to visit.

The National Space Trophy was won by Dr. Charles Elanchi in 2016.
www.rnasa.org/trophy_winners.html

The Mars Mission brought back rocks.

Next Time.

The international space station.

Docking mechanism??? Can't remember.

The Curiosity Rover.

SkyLab

Time to go outside, it's crowded in here. "Independence Plaza"
It is exciting to actually walk inside the 747 and the shuttle and truly realize just what an amazing and challenging feat these men and women accomplished.
The 747 that shuttled the shuttle.

The cargo bay of the shuttle

A reproduction of the shuttle mounted on the 747.

The Challenger Crew lost in 1986

The Columbia Crew lost in 2003

History in the making.

Necessity is really the mother of invention.

Who is the face in the shuttle window? I think I know her.

The underside of the Shuttle

Close-up of the tiles on the underside of the Shuttle.

What's next?

The walkway to the shuttle.

Across the fence is the Johnson Space Center. Where the real action is.

Back inside the museum.

The Lunar Soil Lab.

Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon.

The original Gemini and Apollo Mission control center, at the Johnson Space Center, as it looked from 1965 to 1969. It was revamped and used for the shuttle missions from 1982 to 1992. Later it was restored and was designated a National Historic Landmark. Our tour took us into the room where the media watched and reported.
This was the coolest part of the space center and museum.

San Jacinto Monument
http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/

We were told by a true Texan, that we had to go here.

The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high (172.92-meter) column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States, near the city of Houston. The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. The monument, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest masonry column and is part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 554.612 feet (169.046 m) tall, but remains the tallest stone monument in the world. The column is an octagonal shaft topped with a 34-foot (10 m) Lone Star – the symbol of Texas. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston and the Battleship Texas (see USS Texas).

The San Jacinto Museum of History is located inside the base of the monument, and focuses on the history of the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas culture and heritage.

The San Jacinto Battlefield, of which the monument is a part, was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960, and is therefore also automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1992. (Taken from Wikipedia)

Engraved story of the Texas Revolution
Here's what wikipedia has to say.

Inscription

An inscription on the monument tells the story of the birth of Texas:

The early policies of Mexico toward her Texas colonists had been extremely liberal. Large grants of land were made to them, and no taxes or duties imposed. The relationship between the Anglo-Americans and Mexicans was cordial. But, following a series of revolutions begun in 1829, unscrupulous rulers successively seized power in Mexico. Their unjust acts and despotic decrees led to the revolution in Texas.

In June, 1832, the colonists forced the Mexican authorities at Anahuac to release Wm. B. Travis and others from unjust imprisonment. The Battle of Velasco, June 26, and the Battle of Nacogdoches, August 2, followed; in both the Texans were victorious. Stephen Fuller Austin, "Father of Texas," was arrested January 3, 1834, and held in Mexico without trial until July, 1835. The Texans formed an army, and on November 12, 1835, established a provisional government.

The first shot of the Revolution of 1835-36 was fired by the Texans at Gonzales, October 2, 1835, in resistance to a demand by Mexican soldiers for a small cannon held by the colonists. The Mexican garrison at Goliad fell October 9; the Battle of Concepcion was won by the Texans, October 28. San Antonio was captured December 10, 1835 after five days of fighting in which the indomitable Benjamin R. Milam died a hero, and the Mexican Army evacuated Texas.

Texas declared her independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos March 2. For nearly two months her armies met disaster and defeat: Dr. James Grant's men were killed on the Aguadulce March 2; William Barret Travis and his men sacrificed their lives at the Alamo, March 6; William Ward was defeated at Refugio, March 14; Amos B. King's men were executed near Refugio, March 16; and James Walker Fannin and his army were put to death near Goliad March 27, 1836.

On this field on April 21, 1836 the Army of Texas commanded by General Sam Houston, and accompanied by the Secretary of War, Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the larger invading army of Mexicans under General Santa Anna. The battle line from left to right was formed by Sidney Sherman's regiment, Edward Burleson's regiment, the artillery commanded by George W. Hockley, Henry Millard's infantry and the cavalry under Mirabeau B. Lamar. Sam Houston led the infantry charge.

With the battle cry, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" the Texans charged. The enemy taken by surprise, rallied for a few minutes then fled in disorder. The Texans had asked no quarter and gave none. The slaughter was appalling, victory complete, and Texas free! On the following day General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna, self-styled "Napoleon of the West," received from a generous foe the mercy he had denied Travis at the Alamo and Fannin at Goliad.

Citizens of Texas and immigrant soldiers in the Army of Texas at San Jacinto were natives of Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal and Scotland.

Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican–American War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the American Nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty.