Mission Space (Day Two)

On the flight to Orlando, I overheard a man with Swine Flu, in between nasty particle-spraying coughing fits, mention that there was going to be a Space Shuttle launch while we were there. For this bit of information I almost forgave him for spreading his pig germs.

So the second day we skipped the parks and went to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis launch! Space shuttle launches were such huge events when I was a kid. I was just a little older than Madeline when the Challenger disaster occurred, and I remember the details of that day like I remember the details of 9/11, so I got very emotional watching the the Atlantis launch with my little girls. It was really incredible to see in person.

Afterwards we ate astronaut icecream and read up on this space shuttle mission. A few interesting facts:

• The pilot is from Seattle
• They will be up in space for 11 days  (home by now)
• This was the 125th space shuttle mission
• This was the last spacewalk to work on the Hubble Telescope (see pics of newly discovered galaxies taken by Hubble here).

I am amazed that this is what someone does when he/she goes to work:  "Bye, honey!  I'm off to fix that damn telescope again."

After watching the launch, we ended up at Whistler Junction buffet and grill. Yes, you read that right. Buffets go completely against my dining beliefs--when I pay to dine out, I am paying for someone to serve me my food, not for me to serve myself.  Dining choices were limited in Titusville. Even for roadside buffet standards, this was pretty terrible. However, the kids were in heaven. In fact, when Emma came back to the table with a big chocolate sundae after eating hot dogs and mac n' cheese, she declared, "Florida is AWESOME!"

And then we drove home. It took about 75 minutes to get to Titusville. It took 4 hours to get home in the worst traffic I've ever sat in. Miserable. But watching 7 astronauts get launched into "outer space" was worth the traffic and the buffet.