Galveston Mardi Gras

Galveston has a full week-long Mardi Gras celebration.  We went to the final parade on Saturday night (2/6).  It was very cool!  Unlike Springfield, there were no firetrucks, but rather 15 marching bands and tons of floats.

 The crowds were in full Mardi Gras mode!

Janice and I had a great time and cleaned up on beads!

Johnson Space Center

Well, here I am hanging out at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston

OK... a lousy attempt at humor.  We were greeted at the JSC by a most impressive site - the space shuttle atop the Boeing 747 used to transport the shuttle from its landing at Houston to Cape Canaveral for launch.

Both the 747 and the shuttle may be toured.  There are films and other interactive displays explaining the shuttle program.  They even had the wind tunnel model of the shuttle atop the 747 used to test the aerodynamics of this radical mode of transportation.  The airplane reportedly suffered a significant vibration the entire flight when transporting the shuttle; "like driving down a cobblestone road."

Shuttle Flight Deck

Other interesting items that we were able to view incuded the Russian Soyuz space capsule

the newly-developed Orion spacecraft, capable of transporting 4-6 astronauts

The weirdest thing we saw?  a docent explaining how urine is recycled to drinking water aboard the international space station!  Note the bag is labeled URINE.

I think I'd rather die from dehydration!!

The coolest thing we saw?  Definitely the Saturn V rocket!!!

This building houses the Saturn V seen in the pictures below.

Janice next to a Saturn V engine

Janice with all five engines. Each engine produces 1.5 million pounds of thrust!

The Saturn V broken down into its stages.  This thing is HUGE!

OK, maybe the strangest thing, or at least the thing you least expected to see at a space center, wasn't the recycled urine, but rather this:

The JSC has 58 acres that is devoted to the raising of Texas Longhorn cattle.  Local schools are heavily involved, as is the Longhorn Cattlemen's Association.

Galveston

We spent Jan. 31 through Feb. 6 on Galveston Island, Texas.  The weather was atrocious; even though there were a few days of sunshine, the temperatures continued to hover in the 50's during the day and the 40's at night. 

 We were really impressed with the Bishop's Palace in the city of Galveston.  The Bishop's Palace, also known as the Gresham mansion, was made all of stone, and was sturdy enough to withstand the great hurricane of 1900. The Greshams welcomed hundreds of survivors of the hurricane into their home.  The house was built between 1887 and 1893 by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton for lawyer and politician Walter Gresham, his wife Josephine, and their nine children. In 1923 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston purchased the house, and, situated across the street from the Sacred Heart Church, it served as the residence for Bishop Christopher E. Byrne.[3] After the diocesan offices were moved to Houston, the diocese opened the mansion to the public in 1963.

The intricacy of the stone work can be seen in this chimney

Likewise, the beauty of the wood work is evident

These two shots are of the main staircase

This room was converted to the Bishop's chapel, coemplete with hand-painted stained glass windows, seen in greater detail below

Cajun Country

Both Janice and I were suffering from colds while in Bay St. Louis.  We managed to take a drive along the coast, visiting Gulfport and Biloxi.  No stories; no pics.  Just a lot of sneezing and coughing.

By the time we reached Lafayette, LA, we were on the road to recovery.  We drove around Lafayette, my hometown for about four years while I was flying offshore oil support for Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., a/k/a PHI.  Even visited PHI's new digs - a beautiful new facility built in 2011.  I wandered inside and, on my telling the receptionists that I flew for the company 40 years ago, I was given a very nice guided tour of the facility.  Also drove by the old homestead.  One of the little trees I planted is now huge... hard to believe that much time has passed!  We also found a GREAT cajun restaurant in Henderson, about 9 miles east of Lafayette.  The name of the place is Pat's and if you are ever in the area, jump off I-10 and grab some etouffee.  You won't be disappointed!!

Well, we pulled up stakes at Pensacola / Milton today and heaed to the Hollywood Casino RV Park in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.  The park is nice... and almost deserted.  We kinda hated to leave the park in Milton, where we had this view out the windshield of the motorhome.

 

Taken through our windshield at Avalon Landing RV Park in Milton, Florida

We'll be in Bay Saint Louis until Thursday, when we head to my old stomping grounds of Lafayette, Louisiana.  See ya'll later!

After touring the Naval Museum and climbing the lighthouse, we decided to try out McGuire's Irish Pub in Pensacola.  McGuire's more than lived up to the high recommendations we had gotten from the RV park personnel.  Expecting a "comfort food" pub, we were surprised to discover that the restaurant has been featured several times on The Food Channel and has won numerous rewards, including the best steak in Florida.  Janice and I both had the filet, which was absolutely incredible!  As if the food wasn't enough, the ambiance is super cool!  The restaurant was started by William and Molly McGuire in 1977.  Molly wrote her name on the first dollar the restaurant made and stapled it to the wall.  Since then, it has become a tradition for customers to follow suit.  Take a look at the dollar bills in these pics:

Note all the dollar bills on the walls... and ceiling!

You have to remember that the restaurant covers a full square block!  There are now officially in excess of $1 MILLION in dollar bills stapled to McGuire's walls and ceilings!!  Do people try to lift a few every now and then?   Yep.  And there are several newspaper articles posted throughout the restaurant reporting the criminal prosecution of those individuals.  McGuire's takes the tradition (and the one million dollars the tradition has generated) very seriously!  Bottom line:  If in Pensacola, you HAVE to dine at McGuire's!

We visted the lighthouse located on NAS Pensacola.  Pensacola is the oldest European settlement in mainland America (1559), its location has caused great turmoil, with many buildings destroyed by wars, and by numerous major hurricanes. The location, south of the original British colonies, and as the dividing line between French Louisiana and Spanish Florida, along the Perdido River, has caused Pensacola to change ownership several times. Pensacola was Spanish, then French, then Spanish, then British, then Spanish again, before becoming American, then Confederate, and then the current U.S. city.

Congress authorized construction of the lighthouse in 1823 at a cost of $6,000.  The light was first illuminated a year later.  When Florida seceded from the Union in 1961, the Confederates dismantled the lens and extinguished the light to prevent the navigational aid helping the Union ships.  The Union regained the lighthouse the following year and the lens was reinstalled and the light turned back on.

Janice and I climbed the 177 steps to the top and were rewarded by this view

What astounded me was the size of the 1,000 candlepower bulb that, when transmitted through the French-made lens, can be seen 27 miles from the lighthouse.

The primary bulb, seen just to the left of the "P" in Primary, above, is the only bulb that illuminates.  The bulb looks like it belongs in an oversized flashlight... not a lighthouse!  If the bulb burns out, the block holding the two bulbs rotates and the Secondary bulb takes over.  The bulbs last 2 to 3 years and cost about $1,000 each.