5/19/11 – Kennedy Space Center

The shuttle launch was Monday; we visited the Space Center on Thursday.  It’s not a national park, but it’s on NASA property, so I guess that counts.

Lovebugs are still out in full force on the Space Coast of Florida, so standing in line for tickets was miserable with them flying all around.  (And no, I don’t know why the Floridians nickname sections of their coast.  Besides this one, there’s the Gold Coast and the Treasure Coast; there’s a Sun Coast, Nature Coast and Emerald Coast; also the First Coast and the Forgotten Coast! I’m not sure what’s wrong with just the Atlantic and Gulf coasts…it’s not like any other state has more than one anyway.) 

We spent most of the day there and still didn’t get to see it all.  It’s a lot like Disneyland with only Tomorrowland--there are rides and movies and lots of historical exhibits.  There's a place called the "Rocket Garden" which has a bunch of the actual rockets and capsules that were used. We went to the Astronaut Memorial, walked through one of the shuttles (Explorer, I think), saw lots of old space and astronaut stuff, the real Mercury mission control consoles, along with a pretty neat video about the Apollo launch), took a bus tour out to the Observation Gantry for the space shuttle launches where you are practically next to the crawlerway to move the shuttle out to the launch site.

The bus also went to the Apollo/Saturn V Center which has one of the moon rockets inside! We saw a 3-D Imax film about when they did some repairs on the Hubble, plus some amazing pictures that it took. (We were too close to the screen and had to look up for the movie, but we barely got back from the bus tour in time to get in.) There were still other things we didn't get a chance to see, but it was a full day. Amazing how much of this stuff I actually lived through and remembered--and how much I lived through and didn't remember...     

Vultures behind the Apollo Saturn V Center

LC39 Observation Gantry

Went to a local restaurant on the way back. We both had rock shrimp, which don't taste like shrimp. No, they don't taste like chicken--they taste like lobster! Shells aren't peelable unless they're split down the back and then broiled. Even then, the shells are really hard. Yummy though.

George’s SD card broke and none of his pictures were transferrable.  Bummer!  I gave him all mine, but he always takes more and of different things than I do.

Link to Kennedy Space Center pics