February 15

   It's a beautiful day today, so we all got ourselves sorted out after a dip in the pool for Carole and Peter, and decided that today was the day for visiting The Kennedy Space Centre.

   It's about fifty miles away from us, so a relatively short drive. As we neared there we had to stop as the bridge went up to let a boat through [Carole and Peter's first view of the sea over here.] Then we were parking up at N.A.S.A. having glimpsed the rocket and shuttle on the way in. It's a three hour bus tour, so we decided to eat first at the Lunch Pad, we could eat space ice cream there if we wanted, but settled for chicken for them and bratwurst for me. We sat outside and watched the pretty birds, one of which swooped down to steal a bit of my lunch straight out of my hand.

   We then went to the bus to start our tour. Our first destination was the LG39 the viewing gallery, which is massive, with stunning views of the whole of N.A.S.A. and the sea, [this is also a bird and wildlife sanctuary] The telescopes up here help you see for miles across the whole area. There is also an engine here which had it's maiden voyage in 1983 and has retired after 15 voyages into space. We spent quite a lot of time up there looking around, then caught a bus to the next tour stop.

   We passed the astronaut's living quarters and  the 2 launch pads on the way to the Apollo \ Saturn V Centre. Again there was loads to see here, the Firing Room Theatre shows a re-creation of the Apollo 8 launch, Lunar Theatre shows re-creation of Apollo 11 moon landing. We also saw a 363 foot Saturn V moon rocket [1 of 3 in existence] There were also an Apollo command capsule, and lunar modules to walk through. After this bit we stopped for a drink and to look through the palm trees at the sea for a while, this place is wonderful, but so vast and with so much to take in - it addles your brain after a while and you need to stop and digest what you've seen so far.

   Onward to the International Space Station Centre where we saw the components that will make up the ISS. Apparently nations representing every continent are in on this one. The station will cover nearly 2 football fields, includes a habitation unit, a Lab, and multi purpose logistics. It will go up in several bits from now till 2002. 

   The last bus took us back to the main visitor centre, where we bought some N.A.S.A. bits at the shop, then went out to see the sun setting over the rocket garden. We wandered for a while around the shuttle with fuel tanks and booster rockets, and had a look at the lovely memorial that has been put up in honour of the astronaut's that have died. We also went into the shuttle's loading bay which is enormous.

    We  went to watch one of the films in the Imax 1 "The Dream Is Alive"  we all felt that this summed up the day for us, I certainly wouldn't have missed it - briefly - screen 5 storeys high - inside view of shuttle programme showing space from earth and earth from space, return landings and life on the shuttle in general, it was awesome!!!! I want to be an astronaut when I grow up!!!

   Set off for home calling at T.G.I Fridays for dinner Fajitas for Carole and Peter and steak for Andrew and I. Then home for a glass of champagne each to round off the day before bed. This has been a day that we will never forget.