We spent a week in Titusville, on Florida’s space coast.  We spent one of those days at Kennedy Space Center. The first thing we did there was the bus tour.  It went out to the Apollo exhibit hall.  One of my favorite things there was a movie about the Apollo 11 landing, because at the end, a model of the moonlander came down into the theater!  We also got to see the original equipment from the control  room that was used for the Apollo missions.  Then, we got back on the bus and went back to the main part of Kennedy Space Center.  On the way back, we saw a huge bald eagle nest that the bus driver said was 49 years old.  We also saw a few fifteen day old alligators that were already on their own.

Back at the car, we had picnic lunch before heading to the Atlantis space shuttle building.  We all really liked the introductory movie, because at the end, half the screen lifted up, and the real Atlantis was right there!  After exploring a little, Ma and I went off to do a launch simulator ride.  It was so awesome!  When we got off and regained our balance, we went down an awesome slide, found the boys, and got on a bus.  This time, we went to the launch viewing site to watch the launch of a satellite on an Atlas V rocket.

We had to wait about two hours until the launch.  About four minutes before the planned launch, we thought there were no problems, until we heard that they were worried about the winds. The countdown was paused.  Finally, the winds cleared up and the countdown resumed.  I picked up the binoculars and focused them on the launch pad.  The last four minutes went so fast, it seemed that it was only a few seconds before they announced one minute.  When it launched, it happened so fast.  Through the binoculars, I saw a spark of light that got bigger and brighter until I was completely blinded by the light.  That was when I dropped the binoculars and watched.  All we could see once the rocket got off the pad was a huge flame with a tiny dot at the top.  A few seconds later, we heard it, and the bleachers actually started vibrating!  When we could hardly see the rocket anymore, we saw the booster rockets fall off and tumble down.  After the spectacular launch, we headed back to the RV.

During the rest of the week in Titusville, we went to the beach a few times, which was fun as always.  We found a few cool shells, and of course we had fun with sand castles.  One day, I made a really cool sandcastle with a huge canal system and bridges.  We   also walked on the beach, and once we saw a kite boarder.

Granny, Aunt Nancy, and Michael came to visit us in Sarasota, Florida!  The morning after they got there, Jay started calling Michael “that man that’s Mike”.  Aunt Nancy and Michael only stayed a couple of days, but those days were very fun.

We spent one day exploring Myakka River State Park, where we were camping.  We saw a lot of alligators on an airboat ride.  Another day, we went to the Mote Aquarium, and got to see a shark feeding, which was cool.

After Nancy and  Mike left, we still had the rest of the week with Granny!  I decided to stay with Granny in the hotel room. It was great to be together all the time!  It was really fun to have baths, since I hadn’t had a bath in a very long time.  I also really liked the breakfast at the hotel.

One of the things we did together was going to a beach with ancient shark teeth.  We didn’t find many ourselves, but someone gave us a few.  Another thing we did with Granny  was go to a cool museum at the Ringling brothers house.  The Ringling brothers owned the Ringling Brothers and Barnum-Bailey Circus.  My favorite part was the circus museum, but dad’s favorite part was the art museum.  With Granny, we also did some walking around downtown.  Finally, Granny had to return to Connecticut.  We said goodbye and spent the rest of the day at the shark tooth beach.  We found a lot of shark teeth that time. I am excited to see where Granny will meet us next!

We went to Blue Springs State Park to see manatees, and manatees we saw! Most of the manatees we saw were on one cold day when lots of manatees came to the warm head springs.  We took tons of pictures, and here are a few of the best.

We got up at four this morning to make the ninety mile drive to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket, headed to the International Space Station.

We were able to see the rocket standing in the distance and all was looking good for take off …. clear skies, systems ready. It was so exciting … I literally had goosebumps.

And then, at T – 01:22 (one minute, twenty-two seconds before blastoff) the launch was aborted. Apparently there was a problem with the second stage thrust vector control actuator (huh?).

We will continue to monitor the launch schedule and try to see a launch before we leave the Space Coast ….

We had some delightful days at Ochlockonee (it took us six days to learn how to say it correctly) River State Park.  On our first day there, we saw something new and cool: white squirrels! We learned that white squirrels are not albino, but simply a white species of squirrels.  Barney also liked the squirrels, which made walking him… difficult.

White squirrels were not the only new thing for us, we also encountered ticks. I was the first one to get a tick, probably from playing in the bushes.   Pa and Ma tried twisting the tick out, which left behind the head.  The next time I got a tick, they got the head out too.  After that, we started evening tick checks.

One day, we took a day trip to Wakulla Springs State Park.  The first thing we did there was take a fantastic boat ride down the river.  We saw several huge alligators, but fortunately they where sunning themselves, not hunting.  We also saw some cool birds, including the anhinga, a swimming bird with a super cool tail.  The ones we saw were all drying off their feathers, wings open and backs to the sun.  When we got back to shore, had a picnic, went on a short hike, and headed back to the RV.

Another thing we did there was canoe.  On the first day of canoeing, the whole family went down a small creek with u-turns every thirty feet.  The next morning, Ma and I decided to do some girl canoeing.  At first it was very beautiful, floating down a small creek with a gentle current.  Then, we were dumped onto a side river with a very strong current.  When the wind was on our butt, it was all right, but then the wind started blowing against us, and we were basically on a tread mill.  Finally, there happened to be a motor boat going by.  They rescued us and gave us a ride back to the dock that we were very thankful for.  We realized that we had gone a very long way.

Next stop: Blue Springs, where we hear there are hundreds of manatees.