No boat travel.
We met Joann and Jim from Namaste II at the dock master's office just before 8:00 a.m. to grab an Uber drive to the Kennedy Space Center. I tried to reserve a rental car for the trip, but due to Spring Break, no rental cars could be found on the "space coast". With that unfortunate news, we worried that we would face a mob scene at the space center.
The Uber driver got us to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) well before the facility opened at 9:00. We walked up to the ticket booth where we had no wait to buy our admission tickets. So far so well!
Entering the grounds, we stopped for some picture taking.
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| Clark and Ev at Kennedy Space Center |
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| Joann and Jim at KSC |
Then made our way to the bus tour station. Nancy from California Lady told us when we saw her to make sure to do that first to avoid lines. We found a minimal line and multiple buses ready to provide tours. One bus loaded and then another pulled up in front of us. Since we were so close to the front of the line for this bus, we literally got front row seats!
Our tour guide, Tommy, worked at NASA for years. He said that when he worked there, he got in trouble for "telling stories" about the site. Now he gets paid to tell his stories. He proved to be a fountain of information - not only about the history of NASA but the wildlife living on the grounds as well.
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| On bus approaching the Vehicle Assembly Building |
The Vehicle Assembly Building is huge. To get a feel for the size of the building, Tommy told us that "in volume" the Empire State Building could fit inside the building four times over. At one point, as we passed the building, he pointed out the "rat holes" at the bottom of the building that in reality were 7-foot tall doorways for the people to use to enter / exit the building.
On the bus tour, we could also see the two launch pads 39A and 39B.
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| Launch Pad at KSC |
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| Liquid Hydrogen - Flammable Gas Tank |
On our tour, we got to see some of the wildlife Tommy told us about.
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| Alligator, Turtle and Egret on KSC grounds |
After his presentation and bus ride around the grounds, Tommy dropped us off at the Apollo / Saturn V visitor center for a walking tour of the museum.
The size of the spacecraft is mind boggling.
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| People look very small compared to the size of Saturn V |
Clearly a lot of time and effort has been put into laying out the visitor centers on the grounds to optimize crowd control and flow. I found touring the facilities a pleasant and educational experience with minimal hassle caused by dealing with other people.
As part of the experience, we sat on bleachers overlooking the NASA Control Center. While we watched, the stations lit up and the seats shook during a simulated count down to rocket launch.
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| Control Center |
Every time we thought we had seen it all at the Saturn V building, we found something else to look at.
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| Moon Boots |
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| Space Capsule |
When we finally decided to move on, we took another bus, driven by Julie this time, back to the main visitor campus to tour the other buildings on the grounds.
The physical size and height of the spacecraft are quite awe inspiring.
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| We look so tiny! |
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| Looking up up up |
For the next part of our exploration, we visited the Atlantis building.
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| Space Shuttle Atlantis |
Some of the exhibits allowed hands-on participation.
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| Clark "piloting" the Space Shuttle |
The exhibits brought back so many memories of the space race for the four of us. To see an actual space shuttle and hear its history was fantastic.
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| Served on 33 Missions during 26 Years of Service Flown 126 Million Miles by 207 Astronauts Spent 307 Days in Space Retired July 2011 |
We also toured the "Heroes and Legends" building and the "Journey to Mars" exhibit. We poked our noses into the "Nature and Technology" center and decided to skip that building. Before leaving the grounds we stopped at the ice cream shop for a treat where we all agreed we were burned out for the day by "information overload". We agreed that one day was not enough to see it all.
Having worried about crowds, we agreed that we had it easy today with minimal waits. Joann said Clark's birthday brought us good Karma. Multiple times during the day we had no-wait moments just before a long line formed. This proved true at the ticket booth in the morning, the bus tour, the lunch counter and even the ice cream shop where we walked up and bought our ice cream only to turn around and see a line wrapped around behind us waiting to be served. Amazing Karma!
At the ice cream shop I checked the Uber app and found at least four cars waiting in the parking lot for calls. I put in my request and had less than a minute to wait for our ride to appear. Since we remembered where we had been dropped off in the morning, we readily found our ride and piled into the car for the ride back to the marina.
Since I provided dinner on board Sunset Delight two nights ago, Joann said it was her turn for dinner on her boat tonight. At 6:00 Clark and I joined Jim and Joann on Namaste Too for a relaxing and delightful evening. Today provided a very special birthday for Clark and a wonderfully memorable experience for all of us!
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| Cocktails before dinner on Namaste Too Jim, Ev, and Sammy |
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| Joann busy in the galley |
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| Clark, Ev, and Jim enjoying our chili dinner |
We stayed on Namaste Too until well after dark, but during the evening, Clark popped out to get his sunset picture of the day.
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| Sunset at Titusville City Marina |
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