Galveston and Houston - Texas

22/4/13 to 28/4/13, 06/05/13 to 13/05/13 Texas City/Galveston Texas

If you are visiting Galveston, Texas, Moody Gardens is a great way to spend your day, whether you have kids or not. It is a public, non profit organisation offering a choice of 3 different interests ie, the Rain forest Pyramid, Aquarium Pyramid and the Discovery Pyramid.

We opted for the Aquarium Pyramid with a short movie at the Imax Theatre. Tom and Dana (our friends' Bev and Kent's oldest girl) heading towards the complex.

This interesting lipstick looking flowering bush was along the sidewalk.

Sea urchins, starfish...glorious and unexpected colours!

The South Atlantic exhibit showcases 5 different species of penguins...wonder what's their secret to keeping their white fronts so sparklingly white.

I managed to get a shot of this Manta Ray as it's curiosity drew it to the wall of the glass tank...resembles a dour looking old man, don't you think so? Wonder if he's Scottish??

Nemo and friend!!Actually they are a couple of clown fish.

The curious looking Sea Dragon.

Dana, Tom and Bev - we met Bev Ross and her family when we lived in Singapore and lost touch with them for close to 30 years. It has been wonderful to catch up with them again in Texas City.

Galveston, located on Galveston Island, Texas is approx. 28 sq. miles with a population of about 48,000. It has some really exquisite architecture.  This white building is a Catholic church.

The Bishop's Palace also known as Gresham's Castle is a Victorian style building. A bit of info follows- Galveston's grandest and best-known building, the Bishop's Palace is an ornate delight of colored stone, intricately carved ornaments, rare woods, stained-glass windows, bronze dragons and other sculptures, luxury materials and furnishings, and impressive fireplaces from around the world (including one lined with pure silver!).

Built by lawyer Colonel Walter Gresham and designed by Nicholas Clayton, Galveston's premier architect, this Victorian castle was cited by the American Institute of Architects as one of the 100 most important buildings in America. The home was built from 1886 to 1892.
If you can only visit one of Galveston's architectural treasures, the exquisite Bishop's Palace is the one to see. The building is owned by the Galveston-Houston Catholic Archdioces, and is managed as a museum by Galveston Historical Foundation.

Moody House - another grand old building that has been donated to the City of Galveston.

This lovely plant is called Angel's Trumpet - CC, Bev's neighbour had this in her garden.

Houston - we have a problem....our waistlines are expanding rapidly.  Jokes aside, the Johnson Space Center is well worth a visit. The admission fee includes a tram tour of the "behind the scenes" journey through the Space Center.

The training area where all the new gizmos are tried and tested.

Currently, the International Space Station has 15 member countries with astronauts from the participating nations spending time in space on a rotational basis.

The size of the shuttle is mind boggling...Kent, me and Bev all rugged up, it was a bitterly cold wind blowing that day. We were a bit disappointed that we were told we had to have our photos taken for "security" reasons...it was just one of those touristy take home photo deals.

One has to marvel at the brilliant intelligence of man - to design a rocket that took us into space and return to Earth.

The Saturn 5 Rocket has several detachable components that come apart after launch, as we have seen many times on the telly.

A very early "space module" that the pioneer astronauts were sent off in, very small, confined units.