Family Vacation of 2012

Family Vacation of 2012

There we were, just sitting at the house days before our vacation would actually start, with no set plans. We could go to Six Flags Over Texas like we had done last year. We could go to the Diamond Mine in Arkansas. We could go to a beach…somewhere?

Then, out of nowhere (actually it came from a Google search for vacation ideas) there it was…Houston, Texas. What? There’s nothing in Houston. Is there? This is where it gets exciting.

My wife found these great little things called City Pass. They allow you to choose five area attractions for one low price. And, it just so happened that it was about half the normal price. (For those of you who know me, this was going to be a great vacation). OK, it cost forty dollars per adult and thirty per child. You add that to a few nights in a hotel room, pack your lunches, and about fifty gallons of gas and you’ve got a very affordable vacation. Oh yeah, we filled up the first time for $2.95 a gallon!! And, the highest we got was $3.19.

Anyway, we chose to go to the Houston Zoo, the Museum of Natural Science, The Children’s Museum, The Downtown Aquarium, and NASA. If we had done our research before hand, we would have also seen the Health Museum. The Museum of Natural Science and History has FREE admission on Tuesdays. It worked out for the best because we ran out of time anyway.

The zoo was awesome. We spent about five or six hours there and still didn’t see everything. While we were there, they had a dinosaur exhibit that featured life size, animated replicas. They were complete with movement, roars, and even a spray mist for fighting off threats (the kids loved getting sprayed with “dinosaur spit”). We continued through to see other exhibits like the elephants, birds, reptiles, and even got to feed the giraffes. It was worth the roughly eight hour trip itself.

The next day we went to the Museum of Natural Science and also to the Downtown Aquarium. The museum was featuring dinosaurs. Yeah, real dinosaur bones were all over the place…actually confined to one large room, but WOW! There’s even a piece of dinosaur skin you can touch. We also saw my wife’s favorite exhibit, the jewel room. It featured all kinds of royal jewelry that was given as gifts to kings and queens for centuries. We also got to see the Western exhibit that was dedicated to the Indians, the gem collections, a real mummy from Egypt, and some other cool stuff. We didn’t pay extra for the Titanic or Warriors exhibits, but they looked pretty interesting, too.

We left there and headed to the Aquarium. If you don’t know Houston, get a map! We circled this building on Interstate and on highways and on side streets before we finally reached it by the mercy of God. Now, I can’t say a whole lot for this stop because we had visited a Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach years before and it’s no Ripley’s. But, we had fun and the kids got to play in the free water area outside for longer than we stayed inside. And, inside we got to pet sharks and rays, which the kids loved.

Now, we make it to our final day. We started at the Children’s Museum, which is very close to the other museum. Again, get a map! This place was a kid’s dream come true. Everything was hands on. From pulleys to water projects to a kid sized town operated by children, it was a lot of fun. They even had an “obstacle course” that spanned at least three stories.

From there, we drove about thirty or forty minutes to NASA. Yes, we concluded our trip with the Houston Space Center. Amazing enough, the lady taking our ticket was from Louisiana…just outside of Shreveport. We started with the tram ride into restricted areas. I know it was restricted because they took everybody’s picture before they could get on the trolley thing and we had to go through a metal detector. Anyway, we got to see where the astronauts train and learned about some of the new things NASA has planned in the future. After we got back into the museum area, we looked at the insides of a space shuttle and different space suits. There were demonstrations to test your fear. I failed most of them. We went into the rock museum where you got to see “life” in space inside the space station. Then we continued through the halls to find a room full of Moon Rocks. And, yes, there was a piece of the moon on display that you could touch.

All in all, this is one of the best vacations we’ve taken. The kids now get to go back to school this fall with an exciting story to tell when asked, “What did you do this summer?” And their answer will be that they got to pet a dinosaur, play with sharks, feed a giraffe, and touch the moon. I wonder how many of their friends can top that.

Now for the background stories…we left out on Faith that we would find a good room. Summer, my wife, had started looking at the recommendations on where to stay and apparently, Houston has a lot of “bad” neighborhoods. We realized this firsthand as we approached the less costly hotel we were planning to stay at. We quickly did a u-turn and headed back northeast of Houston to get a room. The other nights, we found a room to the northwest thanks to the help of a security guard, who informed us we were in the WRONG part of town. Thank God for His angels. So, use the street views on Google maps to see what an area looks like before you book it. We could have stayed closer in, but figured we’d yield to safety (especially with three kids).

The other thing we would have done differently is visit the other museums in the area. Excuse me, the FREE museums in the area. If we’d have had one of the hotels in the good part of downtown, we could have seen much more.

As we traveled, we got to use the Cross Pennies we had with us to uplift peoples’ day. If you don’t know about the Cross Penny, email me. Anyway, there was a lady in one of the museums that was just boo-hooing, so I gave her a penny and let her know that Jesus is watching her. You see, the museum district is close to the hospitals, including MD Anderson and the Children’s Hospital, so we don’t know why she was upset. But, she mustered a smile to say thank you.
We also had an opportunity to promote our book, On Bended Knee, to a whole new group of people. We talked advertising opportunities with several attractions (we could help you, too). We even got to share Limu with several pizza delivery guys and hotel maids that looked like they wanted a change in life. We also met some Mexicans from Chihuahua, Mexico who spoke mostly German to each other with a mix of Spanish. And, yeah, they spoke English to me or else I wouldn’t have known what they were talking about.

While we were there, there were several camps going on. I don’t know what those workers were paid (I fear they volunteered), but it wasn’t enough for all of those kids. But, it was great to see people taking the time to give these kids something to do during the summer months that is productive and educational.

We had an amazing time and just wanted to share this experience with you. Believe it or not, this is one of the cheapest and most exciting trips we could have taken. Just goes to show you that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to have fun. Or, to use the old expression, “Money doesn’t buy happiness”.

Here’re a few more traveling tips we’d like to share. You can save quite a bit of time if you carry an ice chest with drinks in it with you. That makes the gas station stops faster and cheaper. With a family of five, we easily spend an extra twenty dollars on snacks if we don’t carry them with us. By the way, when traveling through Louisiana, you can have a firearm anywhere in the vehicle. But, in Texas it must be out of sight and out of reach such as in the glove box or console. And, the Bible goes on the dash within arms reach no matter what state you’re in.

Let me know if you know of any other vacation spots where we can have fun, save money, and spread the Love of Jesus. We’d also be glad to write a review of your vacation spot. May God bless you in all that you do in His name. Remember, the fastest way up is to kneel down.

Written by: Robert Lemoine
writing@foreverandalwaysonline.com

Referenced Websites:

City Pass
http://www.citypass.com/?mv_source=foreverandalwaysonline
City Pass Houston http://www.citypass.com/houston?mv_source=foreverandalwaysonline
On Bended Knee
http://www.foreverandalwaysonline.com/arwrbyrole.html
Limu
http://robertandsummer.iamlimu.com/
Cross Penny Ministries
http://crosspennyministries.com/