(click here for today's pictures)
Our day began and ended with things flying through the sky-this morning it was a rocket and this evening it was Tinkerbelle. We had to all start stirring around 6:15 this morning. We had hoped to leave before 7, but left a few minutes afterwards.
We had planned on going to Kennedy Space Center today for a few days now. I had even called to get the homeschool rate saving us $195. Now, if we saved that much, just know that I fully expected one of my kids to be on the rocket for what we did pay. Seriously, the savings made it completely worth it today.
This weekend, we heard that the rocket that was to be launched was delayed for today. We were pretty excited about this possibility, but didn't want to get too excited. It took us about an hour to get there and arrived around 8:10 though we weren't the first folks there at all. They had opened early due to the launch.
We picked up our tickets and followed the crowd. At Disney, we laugh all the time at people who have no idea what they are doing or where they are going-that was us today. Before we knew it, we were on a bus headed to the rocket launch viewing site. That was all that we knew. We did later figure out that this was part of the bus tour-often the line for the busses is an hour but today they had them streaming in picking up people.
We must have been one of the last busses to the viewing site. They had at least 5 sets of bleachers set up and most were full. We opted to walk through the building there while we waited almost an hour for the Space X Falcon 9 to launch. They are sending up batches of sattellites into space all for high speed interner.
We sat down in time for the final countdown. We heard the rumble and quickly realized that what we were looking at (we didn't really know where to look since we were still 10 miles away) was behind some trees. We slid over and were able to see the rocket launch. Overall, it was impressive-just a huge ball of fire blazing across the sky.
I had expected the sound to be much louder. We did learn that if you are within 800 feet of the blast, you would die due to the loud noise. Also we had been watching a alligator in the water. Right after the blast, he stuck his head straight out of the water. Later we learned that animals in the water hear those vibrations and get a bit upset as well.
As soon as that rocket launched, we hightailed it to the video in that building. We watched it and bussed back to the main visitor center. You could compare the place to Disney-music, lots of lines, lots of gift shops, lots of food places. We did really enjoy it.
Our first stop there was waiting in a pretty long line for an imax. The Imax was good-though practically every movie and film we saw didn't have chairs to sit in. Seriously, a few benches would go a long way. Then we walked through the astronaut hall of fame.
By this time, it was nearing lunch so we sat down to eat our Lunachables. Last minute, we thought to look and make sure that we could bring food in. We could and that saved us a budle of money and time-the lines were super long.
The next building was all about Atlantis and the space shuttles. There was a few films-all extremely high quality. This was probably Whitman's favorite-they had tunnels to crawl through along with a pretty steep slide. And at the end of the buildng, there was a spack shuttle simulator. At the beginning of the simulator, they had the best film ever explaining exactly what would happen when a shuttle launched.
My Graham and Anderson soak all of this information in. They were definitely the most interested today in everything. We hated that the imax was closed for renovations today, but the play area was a favorite for the littles. They played while I shopped. I was hoping to buy some space ice cream. but they only had freeze dried strawberries and apples-who wants to eat fruit?
It was nearing 3 and we had had finished the Kennedy Space Center. So we left and headed for Scoops ice cream which was nearby. For 23 dollars, Robby bought 22 scoops of ice cream. Everyone was able to get exactly what they wanted and most everyone had leftovers that Robby, Graham and I finished up. Now if we had bought those scoops of ice cream at Disney, it would have cost at least 75 dollars.
We had to fight a bit of 5'o'clock traffic to get back to the house. Robby let those who wanted to stay at the house. Reagan, Anderson, Graham and Whitman all opted to stay. They folded laundry and made their suppe while we were gone. Campbell and Keaton don't pass up a party, and I think they enjoyed tonight. I sure did.
Magic Kingdom was pretty crazy especially since they were having an after hours party. Our first stop was the Barnstormer roller coaster followed by a snack. The snack had been on my list-a waffle and chicken sandwich. It was delicious, and I marked it off this list and put it back on the May list.
After we ate, we were right be the perfect spot to stand and watch the fireworks. We were to the side of the castle but could see really well. What I was waiting for was to see Tinkerbelle, and we were able to see her fly down tonight. That was super fun.
Then we all rode the Magic Carpets. The girls rode it twice before we walked to Buzz to use our last Fast Pass of the day. When we finsihed the ride, the park was closed for us, but we didn't have any plans of leaving. We made the loop and then hung out at the train station platform watching people walk down Main Street. We waited for a long while gazing at the people leaving.
When we finally did decide to leave, we opted to take a bus back to the Transportation and Ticket Center. The monorail line was crazy, the boat line was full and the busses were empty. It was just us and about 5 other folks on the bus. We were soon back and walking to our car.
Back at the house, Anderson and Graham were already sound asleep. Whitman looked like he should have been asleep when we put him in bed. I am afraid that he is getting another cold! Reagan was still going strong, but everyone quickly went to bed.
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