Texas Road Trip, Day 3: Houston to San Antonio

Carol | July 1, 2018 | Featured, Texas | No Comments

Day 3: Visiting Mission Control

Shipley Do-Nuts
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Guatemalan Food at Atitlan Restaurant
Discovered Buc-ee’s, ‘the convenience store of gods’
Drove to San Antonio and checked into the awesome Marriott Plaza

Starting the Day

I’m not normally a donut fan but I was in the mood for something sweet so we started our day off with a visit to Shipley Do-Nuts. Karl say’s it is to Texas what Krispy Creme is to Alabama. The donuts were good standard fare. My favorite item was the sausage and cheese kolache. Yum!

NASA’s Johnson Space Center

To be honest I was a bit disappointed with Johnson Space Center. We arrived early in the day but were only able to fit in one of the tram tours due to long wait times. The facility itself was interesting, especially the space shuttle and plane exhibits. My favorite part of the visit was visiting Mission Control. It was humbling to be in that space. We were seated in the historic area that the families and special guests observed in. A guide gave us about a 10-15 minute talk about the space and history of it. It was also really cool to see the ‘campus.’ Johnson Space Center is where all the brains of NASA are and the different departments are housed in different buildings. It’s modeled after a traditional college campus.

One of three Saturn V’s. The others are in Cape Canaveral, FL and Huntsville, AL

The Orion project is housed in this building.

We found the Star Trek shuttlecraft Galileo in the Space Center’s food court.

This prop was built in 1966 and recently refurbished.

It’s believe to be the first ‘shuttlecraft’ mentioned in science fiction.

Guatemalan Food

This hole in the wall place isn’t fancy but the food and service were both great. It was our first time trying Guatemalan food and I loved it. It’s similar to Mexican food in flavor but the dishes were quite different. I would totally eat here again, and will be on the look out for other Guatemalan restaurants from now on.

The interior is very basic and some of the servers only speak Spanish so it felt like an adventure.

Tostadas with Beans, Guacamole, and Sauce spreads

Chuchito — Surprise! This had an entire hot wing inside.

Buc-ee’s ‘the convenience store of gods’

During our drive from Houston to San Antonio Karl became to see signs featuring just the face of a Beaver and an exit number. There were so many he became intrigued and decided to check it out. We took the exit and pulled up to the largest convenience store/gas station either of us has ever seen. It was monstrous. We entered Buc-ee’s and walked around with our jaws dropped. We both kept looking at each other and asking ‘what the hell is this place.’ There were entire walls dedicated to gummies, jerky, canned goods, half the store was home goods and Buc-ee’s merchandise. There were deli counters featuring various foods and the list goes on.

San Antonio

My first views of San Antonio, including the Alamo, and our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Plaza San Antonio, just a few blocks away from the Riverwalk, and the Alamo. It was a lovely place with a beautiful courtyard and pool that were like a tropical oasis in the middle of the city.