Floridaland 3

We actually got off our butts and did something today.

In anticipation of the space shuttle landing today, we drove over to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. The skies were threatening all morning and we knew there was no real chance of the shuttle actually landing in Florida today, but we went anyway. I think we were all desperate to get out of the house. Sure enough, we bought tickets for the tour of the facility and the first thing we heard was that the shuttle would be delayed a day or it would be landing in California.

The tour makes three stops and drives by a few recognizable buildings. Sadly, it does not go anywhere near the launch pads. You do, however, drive by that huge cement slab of a building where the space shuttle is put together before each launch. The stops are at an old gantry site, the Apollo/Saturn museum, and the international space station facility. There are a lot of movies to sit through, and the main complex has some simulator 'rides' as well. The ISS facility is the only place where you see anything current though. The tour there overlooks a large testing and assembly space for components bound for the ISS. All in all, it is a fun way to spend the day, and I highly recommend it.

At the end of the tour, we returned to the main complex just in time for the shuttle landing in California. There are two IMAX theatres running different presentations throughout the day, but for the shuttle landing one of the theatres was showing NASA's broadcast. So, in the end, we did see the landing after a fashion.

Oh, and the Kennedy Space Center is spread throughout a very diverse wildlife refuge. I saw three or four alligators and two armadillos, as well as dozens of turkey vultures.

I'm sure this will be last post from Florida. I leave Tuesday afternoon. I hope to upload a lot of pictures of my trip when I return.

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