Star Tours

Long day today. This morning, around 9:30, I was sleeping in the beach-front condo in which my Uncle set us up, when there was a loud pounding on the door. Mercifully, my brother was more alert than I at this early hour, and let the dudes in who apparently needed to fix the air conditioning. Sigh. That was just about it for sleep today.

A few hours later, my father, brother and brother's girlfriend and I were on our way to Kennedy Space Center. I had envisioned a dry tour around a scientifically-impressive but ultimately dull facility. Once, on a Vegas trip, my parents took us to Hoover Dam, and this was among the most boring possible vacation destinations. Leaving Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of America, to walk around a large dam for several hours is like leaving Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to claim a half-eaten granola bar across town.

But instead, the Kennedy Center's an interesting place. In addition to the launching pads for most rocket and shuttle launches, it's also a huge wildlife preserve. We saw egrets, wood cranes, gophers, alligators, even a bald eagle, which I'd never seen before.

The day's highlight, however, was probably checking out the Saturn rocket, the propulsion unit that powered the vast majority of Apollo missions.

I don't know if you can really appreciate the scale of this bad boy from the photo, but it's friggin' huge. Suspended over the entire large room, which also features a moon rock exhibit, a mock-up of and a spacesuit, a gift shop and a cafeteria featuring delicious freeze-dried ice cream dots.

We also took a bus tour around the grounds, where they bring you pretty close up to the launch pads themselves. They still use the same ones that launched the missions that first went to the moon back in the 60's. A real palpable sense of history around the whole place. It's really something impressive to see.


I know it looks really small...They got us a bit closer, but this turned out to be the best shot.

Also massive is the VAB, the Vehicle Assembly Building. They actually build spacecraft inside the building, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty and big enough to fill with almost 3 Empire State Buildings, by volume. You can see the back of my brother's girlfriend's lovely scalp in the shot, because I am a poor and uncareful photographer.


Again, the photo doesn't do justice to the scale of the actual building. That American flag? It's the size of an NBA regulation basketball court.

Finally, we took a look at a simulation of the Apollo 8 launch, housed in the actual Mission Control facilities from the 60's. It was like a mix of a science museum and one of those Universal Studios backlot "experiences." Only not totally cheesy and hosted by Ron Howard.


The only downside to the trip was the massive line to get on the bus to take you back out of the park. It was huge. Took forever for us to get through. And there was this one woman near the front of the line with this bulbous gut that proved quite troubling to my entire family. I thought she might be pregnant, but if this was the case, then the baby had accidentally slid down several inches to reside in the stomach area as opposed to the uterus. Instead, I think she was just a chick with a beer gut who insisted on wearing midriffs for some inexplicable reason.

So it's been a super-long day and I'm about to head out to bed. I'm somehow doubting I'll get a chance to blog until I get home on Friday, so you'll just have to do without my witticisms for a few days. I'm sure you'll make it.