Eddy had been patiently awaiting a trip to Florida for some time, and this year was finally his year. The primary focus was to tour Kennedy Space Center and see a launch, and given that I gave us extra time down there, just in case of a delay in the launch, we had some extra time to fuck around and see some stuff.
Wednesday Night
Landed just before midnight local time, picked up the rental car, and drove to Titusville. Checked in to the hotel. Eddy was asleep almost instantly; I needed an hour of downtime.
Thursday: KSC/Launch
Got up early, had a quick breakfast at the Waffle House, and things went fine until we had to wait nearly an hour in-line at KSC to get in, and Eddy damn near shit his pants. By the time we got parked, he had to run (holding his ass) to the bathrooms, and unleashed the hounds. After that, we poked around a bit and then made our way to the Banana Creek launch viewing place. We touched a 3.7-billion year old moon rock (basalt), we marveled at the size of a Saturn V, we put eyes on the Apollo 14 command module (Kitty Hawk) and then we got outside and got spots in the bleachers for the launch…which was weather-scrubbed.
Poked around a little more — got myself a couple of meteorites at the gift shop (one lunar, one Martian). Prepped to return the following day, drove back to the hotel. There’s not a lot to do in Titusville. We found a game shop and decided to hit it up for some cards. Grabbed some dinner, and then hit up another game store for open Commander play. It wasn’t great. Eddy hit up the pool for a bit before we called it an evening. So not an ideal start, but still pretty good.
Friday: Attempt #2
After the lessons of the previous day, we got up super early and got our butts on the road to the KSC Visitor Center far earlier than previously, so our wait was minimal and we were parked in the front row of the lot. And then we waaaaaaited. Eddy was patient as hell throughout. As we sat in the bleachers at Banana River, we watched the clouds move in and worried because they were heavier than the previous day. In the end, though, we got what we came for, and we got to see the Crew-11 launch. Holy crap, what an amazing experience — from Banana River it wasn’t much louder than a loud firework, but we were also over a mile from the launcher. She punched through the clouds, distorting one of them as she passed through, and then just a few minutes later, the first stage came barreling back down on a pillar of fire and disappeared behind the VAB before the sonic boom hit us. So cool!
After the launch, we went and saw the Atlantis, poked around in the Gateway area, had some ice cream, and then we got on the road to go do some other stuff.
Our first stop was the Warbirds museum, which Eddy was fascinated with. I was a little underwhelmed, having been to the Smithsonian and the Pima Air & Space Museum last year, but I wasn’t about to yuck his yum, and I indulged him. We had a great time.
He unleashed the internal water-bug for the second day in a row and spent a ton of time playing in the pool.
Saturday: Universal Studios
We took our time getting going on Saturday, and I’m glad we did. Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure was a complete letdown, and in my opinion, a waste of the $500 it cost us. It’s basically a bunch of overpriced gift shops and restaurants, with a few rides that have ridiculously long times. We stuck around for about 5 hours and then bailed.
We hit up Gods and Monsters in Orlando, bought some cards, discovered a new (to us) flavor of Mountain Dew, and then went back to the hotel. We had dinner, we watched Bob’s Burgers, and Eddy’s ADD slowly spiraled out of control. He fell asleep to ESPN. I read for a bit and then called it.
Sunday: The Trip Home
Got up early, did some light shopping, filled up the rental car before returning, and got to the airport with 5+ hours to spare. Flight was delayed about 30 minutes for reasons unknown. Got home around 6pm Central time, Didi picked us up at the airport, and we headed home.