7 on 7 is a photographic blog circle of friends posting 7 photos on the 7th of the month. Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and walk through our circle with us. It will do your heart and soul some good.
This year was the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing (and if you live in Houston, you absolutely capitalize that). This summer has been all about the Apollo 11 mission here. And rightly so. We are the energy capital of the word, but we are Space City and very proud of that. I mean, two of our major sports teams are the Rockets and the Astros. We even had one of the original WNBA teams: the Comets.
We went to the NASA Johnson Space Center for the 50th anniversary celebration. JSC which is a fabulous museum and, while it’s a bit out of the way, it’s definitely worth the trip. The anniversary was feted with a multi-day festival with former astronauts and children of astronauts speaking. We went for the last day in the afternoon and the evening.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. “
-President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, Rice University, Houston, Texas
This is podium from which he gave that speech.
Part of the day was a concert at the end of the day’s festivities. We saw Phillip Phillips who sang Man on the Moon, and one of my favorite bands, Walk the Moon. They took a break when the countdown to the landing moment was happening and we all watched the landing replay on the video screens. It was a super happy fun time staged in front of the Space Shuttle mock up. It was a great night to live in Houston.
Fun fact: the plane that the replica shuttle sits atop at JSC is one of the original transport planes. Sadly, Houston was not awarded one of the original remaining shuttles. We Houstonians are most absolutely not bitter about that at all in any way (uh-huh.)
I know what you’re thinking! Elton John could have sung Rocketman. The Police could have reunited and done Walking on the Moon. Cat Stevens – Moonshadow! R.E.M. – their Man on the Moon!
Blue Moon, Moon River, Fly me to the Moon, Bad Moon Rising… There are many good moons songs out there! Do you have a favorite?
Please continue around our circle with amazing underwater portraits by Renee Stengel. You’ll be glad you did! See you in September!
kris mcneil photography 
5 thoughts on “7 on 7 august 2019”
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jenvazquezphotography
This is so cool!!! I totally celebrated watching documentaries! I am 51 so the story goes that my mom sat me in front of the tv and I (at one) watched the moon landing. I of course don’t remember but it’s a cool story!
Kris McNeil
Awww I love that story! I did that with my boys when we rang in the year 2000. Good stuff.
Renee Stengel Photography
What a fun way to celebrate!! When we lived in DC we were really close to the Udvar Hazy Museum and it was a VERY regular stop for me and my two (well, two at the time 😉 little boys! They adored seeing the space shuttle along with all of the other big planes in the giant hangar!!
Kris McNeil
Oooo I’ll add that one to my bucket list! I take people to NASA under the guise of showing them, but it’s really for me. Hah!