Epic East Coast - Day 21

I started the day completely exhausted.  The unrelenting heat, bickering children and non-stop pace of the trip has really drained me (don't tell Sandra, though).  Luckily, our plan today was to visit Kennedy Space Center, home of one of the last remaining Saturn V rockets.  It took some time to get everyone up this morning, so it was past 9:30am before we were packed up and checked out.  It takes about an hour to drive to Kennedy, and we arrived and found a parking place.  Happily for me, I figured out how to use my phone as a GPS, which made traveling less scary.

Unhappily for all of us, we immediately entered an outdoor line that stretched for a very long way, with the sun beating down on us.  After the last two days of sun, everyone immediately started complaining.  The long line was for security, and while it was unbearably hot, it actually moved fairly quickly and then we were in.  I sent everyone who was complaining inside to the air conditioning while I went off to look at the Rocket Garden.  Alex was interested enough to join me, even though the heat was bothering him the most.  We got to see some older rockets, as well as the actual walkway that the Apollo 11 astronauts used to enter their spaceship.  We also sat in examples of the spaceships, just to see how small they were.

The next part of the tour was a bus trip around the Vehicle Assembly Building, launch pads 39A and 39B and ending at the Saturn V center, where we watched a couple of videos pertaining to the Apollo program before entering to look at the rocket.  It was well past lunch at this time, so after grabbing a quick look, we sat down for lunch.  After lunch we took a longer look, watched another video and I was able to shake the hand of one of the NASA engineers that worked on the Apollo program.  Done there, we boarded another bus for the trip back to the main visitor center.  Another section contained another few videos and then the Space Shuttle Atlantis, our second shuttle that we have seen this trip.  (Theoretically we could see one more, as Enterprise is on display in New York.  We can't get all four in one trip, though, as Endeavour is out in LA.)

Atlantis is displayed tilted sideways with its cargo bays open, so it is a lot cooler to look at than Discovery is.  We spent some time looking around at the displays, chasing children and running to the bathroom far too many times before Evan demanded that we go on the Space Launch Experience.  For some reason I had it in my head that it was a kids thing, so I took them over to it and was going to send them alone before things clicked into place and I joined the three older boys, as it is a "ride" much like Star Tours, where you are in an enclosed room that moves up and down and sideways.  This one simulates a launch, so it moves you to a 65 degree angle and then vibrates a LOT.  I didn't think it was that great, but the kids liked it, except for Jonathan, who got very scared when they simulated a master alarm during the launch.

It was then time to leave.  We drove to a nearby town for supper, as Kristen warned us that Orlando traffic was nasty until later and then drove into Orlando and found her condo, where we are staying for a couple of nights.  However, there is absolutely no rest right now, as tomorrow we are supposed to head out to Universal Studios.