This morning after taking the dogs on an early and quick outing, Mike went to the Johnson Space Center. Here is his write-up of his time there...in his own words.
This is headquarters of NASA, where the astronauts live and train, and where the space shuttle and the International Space Station are controlled. The visitor center, just outside the Space Center, is a very new looking facility with some very nice displays and several movies. A lot of the stuff was very kid oriented however, and even worse, there were kids actually there.
But there was a good museum, with stuff from the history of the space program, such as an actual Apollo capsule,
a full scale Skylab replica,
a lunar rover trainer,
a Saturn V rocket,
a space shuttle cabin,
and a lot of space suits. There was a tram tour of the actual Space Center also. One of the stops was the building that houses the Mission Control Center.
The tour is not allowed to see the current Mission Control used for the space shuttle, but they did let us in to see the Mission Control room used for the Gemini, Apollo and early space shuttle missions.
It has been restored to look just the way it was for the Apollo moon missions. The tour also stopped at the building that holds mockups of the space shuttle and the space station,
where astronauts train and where they develop new equipment and procedures for space. Overall, the visit was interesting, although the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was better.
As soon as Mike got back we made a quick trip to the beach as this is the last time the dogs will get to see the ocean for a long time. Mike and I decided that if the dogs could only do one thing together ever again it would be to play on the beach. They have always loved the beach – together. One at a time – not so fun, but together – well there really is nothing better.
They were a little more subdued than yesterday but not my much. Yesterday when we came we notice horseshoe prints in the sand and some horse poop here and there. We had managed to keep the dogs from paying much attention to it as they were so busy playing.
But when we arrived today, we noticed there was a little horse stable area right on the beach. Yesterday there weren’t any horses there but today there were probably 30 horses – most of which were saddled up and ready to go. It was very obvious from looking at the beach that they had many riders today as Mike now figured the name of this beach must be Horse S___ Beach. We had a lot of trouble keeping the two youngsters from snacking between toy throws. Gross!!
Today’s visit wasn’t the perfect outing like yesterday was. That’s always the chance you take when something is perfect and then you try to duplicate it. In addition to all the horse droppings there were a couple guys that had two dogs (a boxer and a chow) tied up when we arrived. We went down to our empty spot on the beach and started playing. But only a few minutes later the guys came walking down the beach with their two un-neutered dogs off-leash. We saw them coming as we always keep a very close watch on our surroundings. When we saw them headed our way we put all three of our dogs on leash and started to walk further down the beach – following us. So we decided to stop and let them go on by. As they got closer I yelled for them to please get their dogs. Well, these were two young males, probably in their very early 20’s, and their two untrained one year old dogs. They had no chance of getting those dogs on leash. Mike took Sparkie and Slugger and headed the opposite way. I then took Wazzu off leash so she could distract the dogs so they wouldn’t head over toward our other two.
Wazzu seemed to know exactly what her role was as she sparred with them a little bit leading them in the opposite direction from Slugger and Sparkie. Since she was keeping them occupied it gave the guys time to get over and try to catch their dogs. Even though Wazzu was keeping them within a four foot area the guys still had a lot of trouble catching them. They kept telling me not to worry, that the dogs were just a year old and wouldn’t bite. I tried to explain that even though their dogs may not bite that if they charged one of ours they may feel threatened and a fight could start. While I truly didn’t think it looked as though there would be a problem you can just never be too safe – especially with dogs you don’t know. And my number one job is to protect my dogs, no matter what. They finally got them on leash and headed on down the beach. I told them that before they started getting near us on their return to be sure to get the dogs on leash and that we would do the same. They assured me they would and said they know a lot about dog training because they watch the “Dog Whisperer” on TV. I figured we were in trouble if that was their sole source of education.
Sure enough we saw them coming back and got our dogs on leash while they were still well down the beach. But they had no luck (or they didn’t try) getting their dogs on leash. Their two dogs both charged straight at Slugger. Bad thing to do for two reasons. 1) Two charging against one can be seen as potential danger by the one being charged. And 2) Slugger was on leash – that always adds tension to the situation. All the dogs were good but Slugger was definitely on alert. The guys finally did manage to get their dogs on leash and continue on. So there were no real “incidents” but it did add stress to our time at the beach. After the other two dogs safely on their way we were able to let the dogs off leash to play once again.
Mike said Wazzu was being a little B____ today. Wazzu and I both took offense to that comment although it was kind of true. We had two toys to play with. Wazzu would go get one then come about half way back and stand there and wait.
Then as soon as we would throw the other toy she would drop the one she had and go chase the other one. That meant the original toy was still out in the water so we had to try to point that toy out to the other dogs. They would always end up finding it but it took a long time!
Slugger loves chasing toys in the water but will ALWAYS differ to any and all other dogs if it looks like they are going to get there first. But when he goes for the toy he can move a lot of water.
Mike was throwing the toys out farther today than yesterday so Slugger was getting out to where the waves where bigger. But Slugger has no fear. Here the wave completely over took him – if you look closely you can see a small portion of his ear and that’s it. But he came up with only one thing in mind and that was to find the toy.
Of course he always has to keep an eye out for the girls to come steal his toy as he gets closer to shore.
We were at the beach a little later than yesterday and after a while Sparkie got cold. When that happens she just goes up the beach a ways and just sits there and shakes. Poor Sparkie….
Here is a picture of a bird. It has absolutely no story to it – it was just the only picture I took that wasn’t of the dogs!
So long beach. Hey, that may actually be the next beach we go to – Long Beach in Washington. But no matter what time of year we go to Long Beach it won’t be as warm as it was here. I do however think that we’ll probably still have some Galveston sand with us!
Bye bye, ocean.
Debbie & Mike
3/8/07
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