Space Center Houston is the place that my family have been to for tons of times. But today was special. A friend of my dad had come to Houston on a business trip, but we got to have a bit of fun with them too.

But with two whole days, just walking around was definitely not an option. So for the first day, we took them to Space Center Houston.

First we watched some movies, went through a gallery, and saw some more movies in the humongous five-story IMAX theaters.

After that, the next spot to go was the Tram Tour. It took people to see behind-the-scenes stuff like Historic Mission Control and the rockets that aren’t being used anymore.

As soon as we managed to get through the long twisty line (I might mention that the people next to us absolutely stunk), we were all piled onto the tram as it drove us away.

We went under a highway and got to the other side of it, where the actual stuff was, not just the galleries and movies.

 After climbing the stairs next to the stairwell sign (that was accurate; I counted) we finally we got to the top of the building where ancient machines sat there, motionless behind a window.

This was the so-called Historic Mission Control Room. We got to see it as we were stuck in the viewing room behind it. On the TV screen above us, we even saw the current Mission Control, controlling Endeavour, the space shuttle.

After that, we were pulled by the tram to a big building. After going up 27 steps, we finally got to a long hallway with glass windows on the right.

“This is the NASA training and testing facility. We practice training here and test things, as well as others.”

 Everything was covered up because they said that Hurricane Dean (coming our way now, I might mention) might hurt the equipment. All I saw were big lumps of orange equipment.

The guide then pointed at a small table after somebody asked about it.

He told us a joke. “Yesterday, while I was giving a tour, they were down there, talking about something. They brought in pizza and everything and the whole time my mouth was getting wetter and wetter until I just totally had to bust down there, grab the pizza, and get back here and pretend nothing happened.”

I took a good look at him after I laughed. He was a bit skinny with black hair. As he pressed a button in something that looked like an electric box, some audio began to play in the back.

“…that facility inside NASA is what makes it possible to send men to the…”

We got back on the tram about fifteen minutes later. We drove away and got to the station in no time. As the workers swarmed to get us to buy a photo of ourselves, I thought about a gift I purchased that cost five dollars…

But that’s another story, isn’t it? *twinkle in eye*