Amanda was booked to take a course in Houston, USA for a week. This gives us a great opportunity to visit the USA a little cheaper than normal since we won't have to pay for hotel and one of the flights. We had been planning the trip for a while and were going to add on a short vacation to Oklahoma City to visit Emily at the end of the course thus we all get a real break before back to work. Two weeks before we were due to depart things got a little complicated, Amanda's course was postponed. The decision was upon us. Should we stay or go! We decided since we had already booked flights, hotels, cars and arranged to meet people we would go.
Travel to Houston
If you have ever travelled with a baby/infant you will know sometimes things just don't work out to plan. As we don't have a car in Bogotá, Fiona seems to always get car sick on the way to the airport. Now we are on top of this (or so we thought) it doesn't seem to be a problem, our current solution is not to feed her before we leave and to have something to catch the inevitable vomit, this time it was a success. Once at the airport we got checked in and through security without a problem though we discovered Fiona didn't want to sit in her pram/stroller a theme she continued throughout the holiday. She does however want to push her pram and have no one else touch it, this would not be a problem if she could walk in a straight line or watched where she was going.
The flight was going well and Fiona was being very good, everything was going smoothly until the food and drinks arrived at which point Fiona coughed once and proceeded to projectile vomit onto Amanda and I, the situation was compounded as the food cart was right next to us we could not get out of the seat for approximately 5 min to change Fiona/wipe of ourselves clean. Now we have spare clothes for Fiona while we are flying, what we didn't have was spare clothes for Amanda and I. Following this incident the rest of the flight was uneventful and we arrived in Houston smelling distinctly of vomit and hungry but all in tact.
Houston activity's
Since we were on holiday we make use of the fact we were in an excellent tourist destination and visited some fantatourist spots as well as doing some shopping.
NASA
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| Fiona is just tired not bored :) |
This was the second time Fiona and I had made the trip to the Johnson Space Centre at Houston. This time we were with Amanda and as last time the centre was fantastic.
We got lucky with the tour we took as it was different to the last one I took. The tour took us around the centre and out to where they train the astronauts in a mock up of the International Space Station. We then made the trip around the Saturn V rocket which is enormous!
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Mock up of ISS
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| Saturn V |
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Mock up and model
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After the tour we explored the rest of the museum, once again Fiona managed to fall asleep just as Amanda and I were enjoying one of the excellent features on space travel but we managed to get her into the pram so she could nap shortly afterwards which allowed Amanda to get her hand on some moon rock.
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| Lots of buttons.... |
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Luna Rover
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| Amanda touching.... Moon Rock = Happy Geologist |
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| Model Shuttle |
Downtown Aquarium
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| Fish that scare Fiona |
Another must see location for any trip in Houston although not that big the aquarium is really well laid out and they do have nice exhibits and a touch pool. When you walk into the aquarium their is a tank of fish right in front of you, Fiona ran up to the tank and said "Fish" and was pointing at them right up to the point where one of the fish went against the school and swam straight at her. She almost fell over in shock! probably not helped that Amanda and I thought this was hysterical!
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| Fiona looking for something |
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| Nemo, Clown Fish |
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| Moray Eel |
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| Blue frog, poisonous |
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| Lion Fish |
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| Fiona was not so sure about being a diver |
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| spotted ray |
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| Piranha |
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| Tigers say "Meow" according to Fiona |
The only sad part of the aquarium was the Tiger enclosure, she just looked sad :(
Children's Museum
Although I didn't take many photos here I can say Fiona loved it. If you have children in Houston and you don't buy family membership for the year you are crazy. Fiona even had a go on a tricycle, she was good at going backwards.
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| Great |
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| At |
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| Going |
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| Backwards |
Dinner with Friends
We had planned to go to a friends (Andrew and Jemma) and have a BBQ however the weather was just not quite good enough. This meant Pasta Bolonese, given some of the photos of Fiona on Facebook I was surprised at this choice especially on entering their house, they are brave people. I need not of worried though as Fiona was fantastic and I don't think she left any marks anywhere on either walls or furniture... Thanks for a great evening guys.
Steve and Lina, we had dinner with Amanda's old boss and her husband at an Argentinian Steak house near the Galleria. Although pricey it was some of the best steak I have had and once again great company.
Wall of Water
This is something we saw from the road while driving around Houston so we stopped to get a few photos the next day. Wiki link Wall of Water
Nick's Tattoo
The final thing we did in Houston was for me to get a Tattoo. I've been considering this for a long time and finally plucked up the courage to get it done. After a lot of research I choose a Tattoo shop called Electric Chair and the artist who did my work was Stephanie and I think she has done a really good job, which given it is permanent is pretty important.
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| Initial design |
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| On my leg right after it was done |
