skipped some events

Ahoy,

It was brought to my attention that I failed to mention a few things that happened before Machu Picchu.

There was a last minute trip to Houston, TX awarded to the RRS because he won a rocket science award. Neither of us were sure what he won for. And when they announced it later, I wasn't really listening. We arrived on a balmy and breezy Tuesday. It was forecasted to be rainy over our stay. We attended an hors d'oeuvre and welcome speech talk thinger where we were supposed to talk to someone new. Forced socializing is exactly what adults are missing. Remember in school when we were forced to socialize? Making friends used to be easier. I met an astronaut that night!

The following morning we loaded up onto a bus to go to the neutral buoyancy lab among other NASA sites. Some of the divers gave us a tour and answered questions. I learned that they are required to maintain a certain BMI and so a lot of their work hours are for exercising. We also made stops at the current mission control in addition to the original, historic mission control. The RRS nerded out the whole, entire time. I'm sure you can imagine. Bonus! An astronaut was with our group for the day. So we were hanging out with an astronaut all day! We got to try some of the simulators that the astronauts practice on (READ: expensive video game).

That evening we got to see this new exhibit with a space shuttle sitting on top of a boeing. You get to go inside both vehicles. The exhibit wouldn't be open to the public until the following week. So that was pretty cool. We had some more hors d'oeuvre inside the star gallery at the museum. The turkey was really good! It was the most moist, tasty turkey I've ever had in my life!

We spent quite some time binge watching hgtv at the hotel. That's my new obsession. We flew back to LA the following day after a Q&A with an astronaut. But before getting to the airport egregiously early, we stopped at rocket park to take a look at some engines that the RRS made. The vehicle that was used to go to the moon lives there, and it's ginormous! The RRS continued to nerd out, and I spent most of the trip beaming with pride over his accomplishment. We were the likely the youngest there. Some folks might have been wondering if we were crashing the party.

We also stopped at a barbeque place and HEB, among other dining highlights in Houston.

gleamingly busted,
jt