"Houston, we have a problem." Everyone has heard those words at least once in their lives. My husband and his stepfather were interested in going to the Space Center in Houston since it had been years since their last visits. I was roped into going but my interest was minimal, at best. If you're a space lover, this is for you. If you're along for the ride, there are the gift shops and food halls. We arrived in the morning around opening to a bustling crowd. It turns out there was a cruise ship that docked that morning and we happened to arrive at the same time that they did. Parking was relatively easy.
We got in line and told that tickets were a separate line. The SFIL went to purchase tickets while we waited in the entry line. The line moved fairly quickly and we were told firmly that we needed tickets to be in the line we were in. Okay, then. We got to the front just as SFIL arrived with the tickets. Hooray! We got scanned and posed for a photo at the entrance. That photo would later be used to place us in front of various backgrounds. We weren't allowed to take a photo of said photos because we had to buy them. Meh. On to the interior of the building. We walked through a few of the exhibits lining the hallways. Sally Ride's Space Uniform? Check. Neil Armstrong's first steps? Check. We got to touch one of eight moonrocks in the world that are touchable to the public. Good thing they had hand sanitizer everywhere. We got on a tram to visit the unlaunched Saturn V rocket. We did not get to see Mission Control due to their COVID protocols. There were 2 different trams running at the time and we did the red tram. We did get to see the interior of the space shuttle and the Boeing plane that would have carried it.
I walked through the gift shop and noted the pricing on the shirts and memorabilia. The food hall was interesting with the variety of snacks, drinks, and food available for purchase. We were headed elsewhere for lunch that day so we spent about 2 hours there before heading out. An informative visit if you're a fan of NASA and the space program.