We had an interesting drive to Houston via the Bayou Teche scenic Byway. This takes you the southern route from NewOrleans through the Acadian region, which is where the Swamp People come from! We saw some more stunning plantation mansions along the way.
Louisiana Plantation home
The drive across south Houston to the Nasa area isnt very attractive, lots and lots of oil refineries! But the area near the Nasa Johnson Space centre is quite nice, lots of restaurants, shops and hotels. WE had dinner at a Carrabas Italian Grill, a chain we hadnt tried before - had a lovely meal and will go there again.
At Nasa Houston we did a short tram tour that first visits the Apollo Mission Control room, It was a thrill to see the room from which missions like Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 were controlled. From there we visited the Astronaut training facility and saw an amazing array of mockups, simulators and other equipment that the astronauts use to prepare for missions.
We saw the Space Gallery, where we saw a film summarizing all the various missions. At the front of the theatre they proudly display the lectern that John F Kennedy was using when he said his "we choose to go to the moon" speech. From the theatre we walked through a museum gallery of various items including a lot of moon rocks.
Then we watched a presentation of how they live In space inside a mockup of the space station, it answered ( in great detail!) the most-asked question at NASA - " how do you go the the toilet in space??"
Space toilet..
DS then tried out the flight simulator, he was strapped inside the simulator module where he went through a video-game style mission to fly a plane and shoot down enemy aircraft. There was a camera inside the module so for the outside we could watch DS operating the controls and we could also see the whole body of the simulator twist and turn and roll I'm response to his actions. He loved it especially when he made it do a full 360 degree roll!
We enjoyed our day at Nasa Houston but to be honest, DH and I both agreed that we think the one at Cape Canaveral is better.
THat night we drove about 7 miles east to the gulf coast to the Kemah Boardwalk. It's an entertainment and restaurant complex built out over the water at the inlet to Clear Lake. There's lots of amusement rides, a hotel and several restaurants. As we walked along the boardwalk we'd noticed coin operated machines that dispensed fish food but we still got a shock when we saw the water in one area heaving and moving with hundreds of catfish all fighting to get the scraps that were being thrown into the water. I've never seen anything like it!
Kemah Boardwalk
Catfish!
Next day was a fairly short drive to San Antonio, Texas. We hadlunch and then wandered down to the San Antonio Riverwalk. It is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of the city.in the 1920s , after a bad flood on the river, the city decided to dam the river upstream of the city and direct the stream through sewers under the city. After protests by the local conservation societies, a local architect came up with the idea for the Riverwalk. It has been a huge success and it's easy to see why. It is absolutely lovely!
The pretty paths meander along either side of the little river under beautiful trees. Here and there vine covered bridges span the river and along the banks are many little cafes and restaurants. At night it is lit with fairy lights. We noticed that the temperature down along the river is noticeably cooler that up on street level, it really is a wonderful oasis. In the busier season they even run little boat tours along the river. We went back there to have dinner and it was full of people having a wonderful time.
During the afternoon we visited The Alamo, which was originally a mission building and was also the site of a famous battle between 180 Texans and 4000 Mexicans during the Texan Revolution (which led ultimately to Texas becoming independent of Mexico and joining the USA) The Texans, led by Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and 2 others were slaughtered. In battles afterwards "Remember the Alamo" became a catchcry and it has been repeated in many movies and TV shows since!
Alamo Gardens
I think that the Riverwalk really makes San Antonio unique , at least compared to any other cities we have seen in the USA. This trip keeps turning up new-and-different for us.
Andona
in a few years we are so going there.
your update looks like your having an amazing time 
that's going to be one hell of a $$$ trip 
