by Chris Tobias

I let my wife Richelle choose the destination of our family vacation this year.  I figured she’d more than earned that right.  After all, she had been willing to let me go off to a major con in Philadelphia for four days in late spring, and had put up with my taking over the job of organizing Pittsburgh’s annual Can’t Stop the Serenity events.  She also agreed with the idea of our traveling to Germany next summer with a group of my students and their parents instead of taking a family vacation.

When she said she’d like to go to Houston, Texas for a few days to visit her sister Laurie and her family, I was on board without hesitation.  My previous experiences in Texas were overwhelmingly positive, and I enjoy spending time with Laurie, her husband Steve and their two kids, who are both about the same age as my son.  Since this would be the first time we visited them since they moved to Houston from Austin, I was also looking forward to seeing what the city of Houston had to offer, and I was especially enthusiastic about the prospect of visiting the Johnson Space Center. Continue Reading