Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Sun, Sept 13th

Sunday morning started with us jumping in our mini-van rentals and driving an hour southeast to Cape Canaveral to The Kennedy Space Center. I have always wanted to visit this place, so when Jo & I put it on our agenda for our Florida trip, I was elated! Tony spent his childhood summers in Florida with his Grandma & Grandpa, and he remembers watching the spaceships depart from Cape Canaveral. What a fantastic experience! After we visited the Kenndy Space Center, we drove to Cocoa Beach and cooled off in the warm Atlantic ocean.

Kennedy Space Center

Cape Canaveral

Sunday, September 13th

Mary-Gail, Me, Lovey & Rebecca

Replica of a space capsule

Lovey, Me & Momma saw a replica of a space capsule while we were in Grand Turk.

The kids had fun piling in, but there was no room!

Snoopy

I learned that Pluto (the former planet & 'Pluto' the Disney dog) were "discovered" the same year in 1959 (if I remembered the year correctly). That's probably why there has been such an uproar that Pluto got kicked out of the Solar System late last year - there has been such an affinity towards Pluto (the planet & dog)

Dancing water fountain in the "Rocket Garden"

Rebecca & Mary-Gail were hesitant, but Gage, Reese, & Cy jumped right in

(I was jealous and wanted to get wet too; it was a blistering hot & sweaty day)

Our family vacation!

Cy, Mom, Gage, Jo, Reese, Jed + Taylor-Bug, Rebecca, Lovey, Mary-Gail, & Dad

(The few pictures we have of Cy are of the back of his head,
or of him walking out of the shot. This is "proof" that Cy was with us)


I love this picture!

4 kids running along the apparatus that leads to the space shuttle.
In real life, this orange walkway would be 30 stories above the ground!


The cockpit

3 very small & 'cozy' seats, and not much leg room.
We learned that the astronauts were launched into space laying down


This pic could definitely be our Christmas family picture


Which one will be the next astronaut?
Which one will work at NASA?


Kids climbing on the Space Rover


I love these cutouts - can't hardly resist them when I see them


Jed & Tony are showing the kids the Leatherback turtles in the pond.

Mary-Gail runs excitedly to me and exclaims, "Mommy, I see the turtles!"
We also saw an alligator in the pond

Taylor Bug could not have been happier the whole trip.
She gets the GOLD SUPERSTAR award


Inside a space shuttle replica

We saw the "bathroom" facilities on the space shuttle.
All the plugs & buttons there were intimidating - I might just have to "hold it!"



An astronaut in a real space suit greets us as we enter the gift shop.

Did you know it takes 2 hours to put on the multi-million dollar space suit and to make sure it is functioning properly before astronauts can do their space walk?

We cooled off inside the IMAX Theatre and watched a 3-D film on the journey's to the moon. This film was so interesting and insightful. Did you know you don't have depth-perception on the moon? Did you know you loose the ability to measure distance too? Did you know that the most recent astronaut, Rafael someone (forgot his last name) immigrated from Mexico to America with his parents when he was just 6 years old, didn't really learn English until he was 11; excelled in math & physics, and applied to work at NASA when he was 12? He finally got hired on at NASA when he was 41. He's living his dream now.