The space shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday, May 14 for the last time and we got the opportunity to watch it live. It was a whirlwind trip because Jeff had to get back to Houston as soon as he could because he is working the mission. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to my mom's house in Covington, La. We drove the rest of the way to Orlando on Thursday and settled into our hotel room. On Friday (launch day) we got up, got ready and met Jeff's coworker and her two friends and started the drive to KSC. We were about 50 miles away from where we needed to be to watch the launch. We had turned the local news on in the morning and it said that traffic was expected to be twice as bad as normal. Not really knowing what that meant, we left the hotel around 9:45am thinking we had plenty of time to get to KSC before they closed the gates at 1:20 (one hour before launch). Remember, we were a measly 50 miles away from KSC. It was a straight shot down the expressway and we should have been there around 11:30 or so right after the gates opened. Needless to say, we got to KSC around 1pm! Very close to the cutoff time. The traffic was horrible. Never have we seen traffic this bad. It was crazy! Luckily the friends of Jeff's coworker had a toll tag that they let us borrow so we didn't have to wait in the mile long line to pay the tolls. That really saved us! We parked the car and staked out a spot on the "causeway", about 6 miles from the launch site. We had a great view with hardly any obstruction from trees. There were a ton of people there (I think that this spot can hold 3-5000 people), but we were all spread out so everyone got a great view. Jeff got the camera set up on the tripod and I was ready with the video camera holding Charlie.
And the countdown began...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 LIFT OFF!
What a glorious site that was! The sky couldn't have been more beautiful and the takeoff was perfect. So awesome! I tried my best to get some good video, but Charlie was bouncing on my hip and the wind was blowing, so the video came out sorta like the Blair Witch Project, but pretty cool anyway. It wasn't very loud, but you could feel the vibrations in your chest. Charlie did great and wasn't scared at all. After about 2 minutes, the shuttle is so far away you can hardly see it with the naked eye.
And just like that, it was over. Godspeed, Atlantis!
We got back in the car and suffered through more traffic and finally got back to the hotel around 7:30. What a long day! But one we will never forget!
Saturday morning, we got up early, checked out of the hotel and headed to Cocoa Beach. We came all this way, we wanted to see the Atlantic Ocean! We went to the famuous "Ron Jon's Surf shop" and got a few things. Our friend Erin's parents were staying right down the road, so we met up with them and headed to the beach. Charlie was not very enthusiastic about the water. I think it was too cold for him. But now we can say that he's been to the Altantic Ocean. :)
We got on the road and decided to make a detour to Daytona. We ate lunch at this little hole in the wall restauarant on the water. We stopped at the beach for a few minutes, but didn't really have time to do much, so we headed to Daytona International Speedway.
We would have liked to have done the tour there, but again, we needed to get on the road since we had a long drive ahead of us. We took a bunch of pictures (from the outside) and headed back to Louisiana, where we spent the night. Sunday morning we slept in and then had lunch and headed out for home. We had a wonderful trip and it was a great experience to see the shuttle launch. Charlie did very well for being stuck in the car for 5 days straight. Our next trip is Memorial Day weekend where we are going to California to visit Jeff's brother and his family. We'll be flying there so that will be another first for Charlie.
Here are the rest of the pictures:
