Vacation Day 2: Kennedy Space Center

To kick off our day we went to sacrament meeting. It was a good meeting but made me appreciate being part of a bigger ward. Afterwards, we visited Cape Canaveral (where the space shuttles launch from).

The weather today was...semi-cold, but lovely, nonetheless.

The best thing today was...the NASA Up-close tour at the Kennedy Space Center. It's a bus tour that takes you all around Cape Canaveral.

(here's the whole gang wearing our bus tour stickers)

On the tour, you get to see and hear about all of NASA's launch sites and buildings; it was just so fun seeing history firsthand (I know; I'm a totally a nerd...but I dig learning). Here's some of my newfound knowledge...

Can you believe the size of this thing? It's only a small part of one of the space shuttles.This is a Crawler Transporter. These things transport the space shuttles at a speed of 1 mile per hour. We saw one in motion, which is a rare occurance. Launchpad A. This is the place where all 12 astronauts who've visited the moon have launched from. The white box (if you squint REALLY HARD) is where they enter the shuttle from. And this is our cute family in front of Launchpad A.The VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building)

Cape Canaveral also happens to be a National Wildlife Refuge, which I didn't know before. Because of that, there are animals all over that island. We saw one very huge 40-year old Bald Eagle's nest, with an actual bald eagle sitting inside. Amazing, huh? We also saw armadillos, birds, and alligators (to name a few animals) all over the place. It's a very cool place and it doesn't hurt things having an ocean backdrop to look out on.

The worst thing today...La Casa Nostra Pizzeria. After Kennedy Space, we were pretty exhausted so we decided to have some food delivered to our hotel room. We called La Casa Nostra and they quoted us a 45 minute wait, but that didn't happen. When our food came an hour and 45 minutes later, Dave refused it and we just went to bed. Lovely.

The funniest thing today was...this photo

or when I confused astronaut John Glenn with senator Jake Garn. I met Jake Garn a few years ago...shook his hand, got a picture with him...you know, typical me behavior. I was talking about "John Glenn" and how good of buds we were, until Dave corrected me and said, "No, that was Jake Garn that you met. If you had met John Glenn, you would know it." You can see why I was confused, though...both have the initials: J.G., are men of an "older" generation, and both went to space.

Today we tried...the food at Kennedy Space Center and the result was...NOT GOOD. Dave's hamburger patty looked grey...seriously, grey. We decided that it was probably comparable to the food they eat in space, so I guess if you're going for theme instead of flavor...the food was right on.

The most magical moment today was...opening Valentine Cards first thing in the morning. Dave and I exchanged a card to each other, and we gave one to Kate as well. It was kind of fun celebrating Valentine's Day as a family. Another magical moment...touching moon rock (below)

(...it's the next best thing to walking on the moon) and hugging my honey from one of the launch-viewing areas.