My Inner Space Geek....

Last week, when Minnesota was in the depths of negative temperatures and wind chills that were in the major double digits, the Big Guy and I left for Florida.

Oh yes we did.
I felt like I was 21 and headed to Florida on a spring break vacay.

The Big Guy and I walked the beach.
I looked for fun sea shells.
I even said to the Big Guy, "It smells like sunshine."

Ever notice how the seasons smell?  Seriously.  Take the time to inhale the next time you're outside in a foot of snow, or raking leaves in the fall.  If I could have bottled that up and taken it home, I would have.

We had just 2 destinations on our agenda:  Kennedy Space Center and Disney World.

Kennedy Space Center, was by far, the best $150 I ever spent. ($75 for both of us to enter, which included the Launch Pad tour).

My favorite picture.

This exhibit was worth the price of admission alone.

Yes.  The real deal.

THE Space Shuttle Atlantis.  

Yes.  I stood there with my mouth hanging open.

I'm such a space geek.

Check out the burn marks from the re-entry.

Did you know?  The material on the outside of the shuttle is like a quilt?  And it is as thick as an oven mitt.  Yes.  An oven mitt.  That is taking out a pizza from a 3000 degree oven.

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

This is where rockets and the shuttle are assembled for launch.

The launch pad

Under the launch pad.

Another shot of under the launch pad.

Imagine.  This is where all the fuel exhaust and steam billow out during a launch.

The ground is charred black (even though you can't see it).

A Saturn V rocket.

In the 1970, the Apollo program (the same one that launched us to the moon) was cancelled after Apollo 17.  But they still had 3 rockets left for Apollo 18, 19 and 20.  This is one of those rockets.

Looks big, right?  That's right.  It is.

It's massive.

And now that the shuttle program is over, THIS is what we'll be using again to explore space.  From learning how to push asteroids out of the way....to exploring Mars.  We're going "old school".  

Guess if it isn't broke, we don't need to fix it, huh?

This explained the Silver Snoopy Award.

Check it out here.

My only complaint was the cost of food.  We had lunch at the Saturn Rocket building and it cost us over $26.  We each had a ham sandwich, shared a bag of chips, each got a small bottle of water, and shared a bag of M&M's (gotta have a little something sweet!).  $26.  While the food was fresh....really? I could have gotten 2 sandwich meal deals at Subway for about $12.  

But.  The food aside?

This was well worth the money and I highly recommend it.

Just pack a lunch and eat in the parking lot.