Blog ≫ 2019 ≫ Holiday 2019 day five - Kennedy Space Centre
Our first day out on our own! We didn't start too early today. There's plenty to see at Kennedy I'm sure but we didn't think we needed to go as early as the parks, we could make our own time. We got our neglected car out of the hotel parking and headed to Publix, a supermarket, for lunch. Just a few bits soon became $100 worth of snacks. We did try some interesting american things and I did get some chilli sauces to take home.
The route to Kennedy took us through three or four tolls. Only a few dollars a time but a bit annoying. The hire car had a built in smart pass thing for the tolls, if I used it I would be charged the toll plus a service charge for each time, so best avoided. This reminded me I'm sure I hit a toll when we were doing the first drive from the airport to the hotel so I was already expecting a bill. Been home a week (as I write this) and nothing showed up yet! So maybe I didn't need to stop and find change at each one? As well as the tolls we hit A LOT of flies. The front of our monster van was absolutely spattered with them. Was hard to clean them off the windscreen, impossible to clean them off the front of the car.
We started with a bus tour around the launch sites and things. Great to be there and to tick it off but we didn't get as close to the main assembly building as I'd hoped, so still can't really tell the scale of it. Yes the blue bit of the flag on the side is the size of an NBA basketball court but that still doesn't put it into context for us.
Seeing an actual space shuttle up close was cool. It's not as smooth as I would have expected, it looks like it is covered in nappies. The shuttle launch simulator was underwhelming, after all the warnings about it.
We took our own packed lunch, utterly beating the system, and ate it on the picnic tables outside the shuttle exhibition. This was off the bus, so half way through our visit really. We very much enjoyed the wildlife here, squirrels and strange birds and almost entirely followed the instructions not to feed them.
We saw all the stuff, the landing module, the space suits, all sorts, pretty cool. A bit too much to take in really.
I feel I should have more to say about such an iconic place but it did feel a bit like a school trip. A cool school trip but a school trip nonetheless. I did not buy a rubber, but I did buy a baseball cap and t-shirt. There was an actual astronaut there doing a signing, but I don't remember who he was. There were some really good interactive exhibits for the kids including a model of the space station to climb inside, and a big drop slide for everyone for some reason.
On the drive home we hit one more toll than we did on the way there. Maybe a few less flies though. Aren't you impressed at my driving? No actual accidents at any point even though I'm driving a tank on the wrong side of unfamiliar roads.
We weren't back as early as we were from the other parks but we didn't really have time to go to the pool today I think. We did keep up our routine of going to the terrace bar, and today we stayed there and ate. It's sort of tapas and it sounded good, and it was. The boys got mini burgers, I had a wild mushroom thing. We maybe could have eaten more than one each but with the generous spicy nuts I think we had enough. I had a good local pint this day too, a stout.
Our first evening without having to think about getting up early the next day. A day with nothing planned!
Do you want to see a space shuttle?
