From the Travel Journal -
Madison - I didn't get any sleep last night. Usually, Mom's snores are gentle and quiet, but NOT LAST NIGHT!
Cara - It's because I drank two cocktails. Which I should have done before Karaoke. Then I might have gotten up to sing. As it was, I shot all my excitement out with my BINGO win. Everyone was jealous, of course when I won. They were annoyed that they hadn't gotten up to get another card like I did. The AD kept saying we had terrible cards. Why not get another one then? Whatever.
The New Jersey Cowboys fan asked what building we were in at the end of the night. Maybe he knew about our plan to consider coming over every other week and wanted to make sure we were legit. Instead of lying as I've taught my children all these years, I gave it up. Building 3. Not a good thing and my kid was horrified. But the man was in a motorized wheelchair and never stood during standing Bingo, and Building 3 didn't have an elevator, so I figured he'd never find us if he came looking. Although as loud as the Glenn family is, he might have discovered us had he somehow gotten up the stairs. My bad. He was Building 11, by the way. We didn't go look him up.
We are now off to the Kennedy Space Center. Our time of departure was 7:30 this morning, and we blame Alex for being late--he took time to poop.
Madison and I did not. It might be a long day.
We took the back toll roads to avoid I4 morning traffic. We kept forgetting it was Monday. That's the problem with no school and with getting off our regular routine. We thought it was Saturday. Threw me off all day. We had no traffic issues and arrived before the place opened. Nothing looked familiar to me. We parked ($10 for parking) and hit the bathrooms. Having Madison along, rest assured you will see all the restrooms at every place you visit. God love her.
It was not crowded. At all. We were expecting a terrible crowd, but apparently, all Spring Breakers went to the Orlando Parks. We heard the lines at Disney were wrapped around the park. We were grateful the day was cool and overcast. We couldn't have asked for a better day.
5:13 p.m.
SueG: It was different then I remembered. I don't know how long it's been. I don't think I ever brought Santosh so a long, long time. It was different, especially the bus tour, and how you can't get off and walk around like you used to be able to do. It's amazing how big those rockets are standing next to them compared with how they look when watching on TV. And I was impressed with the KSC prices. Very reasonable compared to Disney and Universal. Even in the gift shop. Very reasonable.
Alex: Cara and I, in the end, got in a capsule. We had to lie down on our backs with our feet up like the astronauts did. Cara was impressed we got in there and did that with no incident. I was impressed we got out of there and were able to stand up without incident.
Sydney: Maddy and I went on the space shuttle simulator. We had to wait in line, and in the line, we went up a ramp and into a room where we got the basic rundown on an actual launch and what we could expect on this simulator. From there, we went into another room, stood on a dot that gave us our seat number. Then we went got on the ride, heard the safety rules, and had our belts checked. Then we were tilted back to 90 degrees so that we were lying back like Cara and Alex were in the capsule. Then they tilted us forward and then back again. The countdown began, and at six, we started to feel it. It started shaking and was very loud. After the boosers were released, the ride got smoother, which we were told would happen. The whole point we were told was to get to where the fuel was released. At that point, the ride ended, and we got off. It wasn't truly that long. It just seemed like it.
Cara: I'm with SueG. SO different from what I remembered from my last visit, which I think was with Tom and Madison, but that could be wrong. Tom believes we took both children, but I only remember Madison there. I've been to the KSC several times; with my parents and brother and with my friends during Spring Break trips in the 80s. I'll have to look for pictures to accompany this recap on the blog. Of course, that means I'll have to sift through pictures from my boxes that were supposed to be scanned long ago...Sigh.
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| 1982 Family Trip |
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| 1984 Trip with my friend Michelle |
The weather was great. Overcast, and 70 degrees. It was actually chilly at times in the air conditioning and with the breeze off the ocean. Quite pleasant and unexpected. I brought my Spring Break 2018 sweater (read about that HERE), and I wore it the entire time. Turned out to be an even better thing --the weather I mean and not the sweater --as we forgot the sunscreen. Luckily, we never needed it.
We had our picture taken, walked through the rocket garden, which was different from what I remembered. I remembered horizontal rockets, and these were all vertical.
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| 1982 |
While we walked through the rocket garden, one of the NASA people took our picture with some new technology. Apparently, we will be able to see ourselves from the space station or something. I just now realized we never looked that up while we were there. Bummer. I bet it was a great picture that we could've purchased. The lady suggested we hit the bus tour first, so we got in line for that.
We were first on Ken's bus. He told us it was the Happy Bus, which brought to mind him gassing us with marijuana fumes, but turned out he wanted us to literally be happy.
Happy that we were alive thanks to a spiritual being. Then Ken got maudlin and a tad religious as if something had occurred in his life recently that had him rethinking things, but then he suddenly shook it off, hopped in the driver's seat, started the bus and off we went. All of us breathed a sigh of relief.
I didn't realize how much land NASA owns. Prime ocean real estate no less. It's part of the Merrit Island wildlife refuge, and Ken made sure to point out alligators, the largest eagle's nest ever, egrets, and birds.
Ken stopped right under a bald eagle sitting on a pole. It was the coolest thing ever. He was just sitting there looking like the photographs one sees of bald eagles on television or National Geography magazine, and I handed Madison my phone to capture the moment seeing as she insisted on the window seat. She and I do not agree with her photography skills. She got him as he took flight.
Madison: "An action shot. Ted's Nature Photography has nothing on me!"
Uh huh. You people can be the judge on that. Here's my nephew's SITE. Those are Madison's pictures of the bald eagle above. Sigh.
The tour was about an hour. We had a TV that gave us information on NASA and everything we were seeing. Ken would occasionally pause it to add in his two cents. It was an excellent tour. We got to drive around Elon Musk, and his Space X rented pad at launchpad 39. Space X is renting for twenty years this pad and is planning on launching a rocket in April.
We also drove by Boeing, who rents a pad. Soon these companies are planning on taking people into space to hang out at the International Space Center. Not something I'm going to save up for quite yet. Maybe one day, my great-grandchildren will do that. That'd be cool.
We finally were dropped off at the Apollo building, where we could wander around. Apollo is housed there, and WOW, that thing is HUGE. We watched a movie about the history of Apollo and then got to walk around and under it.
We had lunch at the Cafe, made the same walk the astronauts take to board their aircraft, and we explored all sorts of exhibits before we boarded Esther's bus for the ride back to the visitor's center. It's hard to jot down all that we did. There was so much to see and do. Tons of historical movies. Real footage from takeoffs. We didn't get through the entire park. We missed out on the Heroes and Legends section and another theater. I'd say it's a definite two-day affair if you want to see everything. I'll come back someday to do that. Maybe when a launch is happening.
For me, the coolest thing to see was the space shuttle. It was hanging in one of the buildings, and I took a panorama view of it. I probably hung out there over 45 minutes just checking it all out. I mean, WOW. That thing can hold several buses inside it.
We left before it closed at 6:00 p.m. because we were tired and sore from all the walking. We drove home and got into some five o'clock traffic, but it wasn't too bad. Of course, I wasn't driving after spending all day at a park, but SueG is the master driver after all.
We had dinner at Cracker Barrel, made some junk food purchases, and headed back to Cypress Palms. We forgot about checking in on the activities for the night. We played another Madison made-up singing game and then showered. Alex went to bed first, and the girls stayed up talking. I caved first, and I slept well. The only regret I had was not being able to sleep in late on this trip.
Favorite Thing at KSC
- SueG - I liked the bus tour and the Imax movie
- Alex - The bus tour
- Maddy - The Imax movie
- Sydney - The Shuttle simulator ride
- Cara - Seeing Space Shuttle Atlantis
Least Favorite Thing at KSC
- SueG - The Mars Experience talk
- Alex - Mars
- Maddy - The Lunar Theater. They gave a lot of clips but failed to contextualize.
- Sydney - The Mars Experience
- Cara - The fact that the coffee and pastry place closed at 3:00 p.m. I could've used a pick-me-up about then and had to settle for a Pepsi instead. Oh, that and Alex picking on Sydney, which got on my nerves after a bit.
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