Kennedy Space Center

David and I are fascinated with anything that has to do with space. We fight back sleep to watch meteor showers. We set alarms in the middle of the night just to run outside and watch the ISS fly overhead. We follow NASA on social media so we are up-to-date on new explorations and findings. When NASA announced they were discontinuing the space shuttle program, we knew there were only a couple more chances to see a launch in person. So we decided to make the 600-mile drive down to Florida to be a part of history.

David’s parents let us use some of their Disney points to stay at a resort in Vero Beach, about an hour south of the shuttle launch. We had everything planned. The day of the launch we would take a chartered boat out to an open, unobstructed viewing area in the middle of the Banana River, eat lunch and watch the shuttle take off. However we did not plan for the weather to be uncooperative. The shuttle launch ended up being delayed to a later date due to unexpected weather conditions. We were disappointed because we had to head back home the next day – but this did not deter us from seeing the shuttle. We changed course and headed to the Kennedy Space Center for a closer view!

We took an amazing tour of the KSC that included walking through museums of retired shuttles and rockets, driving around to different NASA facilities and getting a closer look at the delayed Endeavour shuttle. We were geeking out the entire day. Even though we had to watch the shuttle launch on TV ten days later, it was still pretty cool to think that we saw it in person on the launch pad waiting for lift off.