What are We Going to Do?

That is the question we asked ourselves when we heard the news:

CONGRATULATIONS, SEAN!  YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS A "BLAST OFF TO JOHNSON SPACE CENTER" TRIP WINNER!

We were on our way to NASA!  But hold your rockets, Reynolds family, because only Sean could walk through those security room doors!

So, we decided that we would all go down to NASA and drop off Sean, but look for something else to do.

not our picture...my zoom is not good enough

We started out our morning with the lunar eclipse at 0430.  We had already had very little sleep because we did not arrive at the hotel until after midnight.  However, the children were excited to see the red moon.  Unfortunately, that would not be until later in the morning so they missed it.  Sean and I got to see it as we had to get him to NASA by 0800.  He was excited for the day to start and was up again by 0600.  The moon stayed red until about 0630.  

After Sean was settled into his day at NASA, I returned to the hotel to find the others awake and eating the hotel breakfast.  When we arrived at the hotel in the middle of the hotel, we noticed and odd site.  So, the children wanted to go out and get a better look...it was a painted pelican to add to our many painted objects seen across the country!


Once we got into the van, our first thought was to geocache...surprise...surprise...right?  We looked at the map of caches and there were a gazillion caches around NASA.  However, once we started out on the cache hunt that morning, we found that the caches were set up on a busy road without a lot of parking options.  We did grab a few caches at the entrance to NASA but it was just not fun for the children.

SO...we were told about a nature center in the area.  We thought this would be fun...and no fault to the kind brother who gave us the idea...as the description of the center sounded amazing!  However, I do not think we have ever been to such a poorly managed park.  Maybe they are trying to get it in shape but we were not impressed.  In fact, it was so mosquito infested that we each must have lost a pint of blood walking the trail!  We would have been better off going to a blood donation site...I think it would have been more fun  SO SAD!  My only thought while we were walking the trail was their need for a habitat management plan!  There was one highlight from the center...the baby alligators!  We stayed with them for quite some time...so we would not have to go back out with the mosquitoes!

Once again, we did find a couple of caches, but we were starting to wonder if we should have stayed home.  HOWEVER...you can not keep the Reynolds family down for long!  We stopped for a quick lunch along the way and headed to Galveston.  We were heading to the beach at Galveston Island State Park!

And...we realized...this should have been our plan from the start!  We had so much fun on the beach.  We only had a handful of others there with us and it was a beautiful day!  Zaira even overcame a little of her fear of the waves and helped build a sand castle.  I just enjoyed sitting on the beach watching and taking pictures.  I know seagulls can be a pain but I love to watch them fly over the waves.  I am so glad Michael and the children love the waves and sand.

We also got to a see a bit of wildlife at the park.  We found hermit crabs and insects.  Then we went into the sand marshes looking for caches and found a flock of spoonbill and ibis.  Of course, there were also the many seagulls in the area.

Then we found a couple more caches before heading back to pick up Sean.  We had time to walk through a small space park outside of the building where Sean was located.  Of course, Sean had a million things to tell us as we drove home!  He could hardly contain his excitement as we drove home.  He wrote his own blog about the experience on our 4H blog.

So in the end it was a great day for all!  I am so glad we had the chance to go...and we are already talking about another trip to Galveston to go to Moody Gardens!