To the Space Coast

Today was the start of our birthday trip. Delaney and I haven't taken one in quite a few years, and I wanted to get one more in before he's off to college. We were up at 6:30, and off to the airport. We were two of the last to board, but it wasn't a full flight and plenty of space for our bags.

I had asked him where to go a few months ago and he wasn't sure. None of my trips interested him, so I thought about his interests and asked him to go to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. He was interested in that, so I booked the trip. There wasn't many good times to go, and this wasn't one, but we had to pick a time and this worked.

We had an easy, uneventful flight. I watched part of a movie, and Delaney did some gaming, but he pulled out an economics text book for a bit and read that as well. He'd been interested and Tia bought him a book, so he's working through it on his own.

We arrived in Orlando and immediately set out East. A short drive to Cocoa Beach and then a stop for a late lunch. With some time to spare, we decided to go to Kennedy and get our multi-day tickets and see something for an hour or so.

We bought the multi-day tickets. We wanted the VIP, but apparently it's busy, so we couldn't necessarily get the lunch with an astronaut or  KSC tour, so we went with what we can get.

 As soon as we could, we walked in and started making our way around.

There's a rocket garden, with actual replicas (or maybe real) rockets on display. Here's Delaney in a Gemini capsule. That's a tight fit.

 A Saturn B1 on it's side, where they projected a light show late.r

 One of the Saturn F-1 engines. Amazing.

 We did manage to catch the Mars Explorer program. Here's a prototype of a next gen explorer. And me.

 Delaney had fun with the simulators.

 He said he was really glad we came as we walked around. I think he was lukewarm, but seeing all the space stuff got him excited.

 We stuck around at dark where they projected some animations with music on the rocket.

 I recorded a few, here.

It was a cool evening, and what's more, SpaceX is supposed to launch a rocket tomorrow night. We should be able to see it from our hotel, which is amazing.

Really looking forward to tomorrow.