CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE

We spent our last day here paddling in the ocean and beachcombing at the unspoiled beaches of Canaveral. We had ten minutes of thunder, lightning and torrential rain and the temperature dropped to 20oC from the usual 29oC. - that must be the first rain of any amount we have had!
As we drove along the coast's 13 car parking spaces it kept saying no nudity on the beaches. So we drive to the end of the road, walked along the beach and voila! naked bodies everywhere! Shell collecting became my priority! Not that I have anything against it if people choose, but just not for me - as a great country song says - "I just don't look good naked any more!"

a Canaveral butterfly

same one - it has a totally different look underside

Canaveral beach - spot the nude man - laid under the umbrella

American Avocet

Florida Scrub Jay

Canaveral flowers

Roy in Oak Hammock

Golden Silk spider

Golden Silk spider

                                I DON'T LIKE SPIDERS AND SNAKES!

ASTRONAUT HALL OF FAME

A lazy day - cleaned inside the trailer - took all of half an hour! Roy sorted out things with vehicle insurance on phone. Had a session catching up with my sister on Skype. 

Spent a great afternoon at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, part of the Kennedy Space Center but located in a different place.

The name does not do justice to what is in there - we loved it. It gave the whole history of space exploration in easy to understand format. There were lots of hands on things to play with and I went on the G -Force Trainer - an intense, high speed flight simulator, where I experienced three times the force of gravity - 3 "G's" was awesome! 

Roy declined as it said if you get motion sickness dont do it. 

Roy busy in Mission Control!

amazing to think that the plaque is still up there on the moon

The G-Force Trainer and me just before they close the door

Roy my Spaceman

Argg! it wont come off!

a shuttle

MERRITT ISLAND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Having decided to stop at Titusville until Sunday as state park sites were non existant until after the spring break which finishes this weekend, we spent the day visiting Merrit Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The 140,000 acre refuge shares a common boundary with NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Salt and freshwater marshes with wading birds, raptors, waterfowl, alligators and fiddler crabs the order of the day. We saw three manatee at Haulover Canal and some pretty butterflies and not so pretty lizards and bugs.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - FLORIDA

sandhill crane

gopher tortoise twice as big as our own deceased family pet

white tailed deer

 

Moved north and stopped a night at Lake Kissimmee State Park, a beautiful park where we had a bike ride and saw a gopher tortoise, one gator, a dead armadillo floating in the lake, two sandhill cranes, a bald eagle, all the usual waders and three white tailed deer.

Next day we landed at the Space coast near Titusville,got on a great County campsite with full services including wifi for $25. 

We are on the river's edge with a superb view of the Shuttle launches at the Kennedy Space Center - we may have to wait some time to see one!

Today we spent the day at Kennedy Space Center, what an amazing and informative place!

We started in the Astronaut Encounter theatre listening to an astronaut who had been on 3 shuttle missions - fabulous!
Then to the IMAX  theatre for "Space Station 3D" - a select few have been aboard the space station but through the breathtaking special effects we joined the Space Station Astronauts as they live, work and adapt to months of weightlessness.
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Next we went on our bus tour to the LC-39 Observation Gantry (where the active shuttle launches happen) then to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, where finally we spoke to a man who was involved in sorting out that famous episode "Houston - we have a problem" and he explained everything and finally I understood how they launched and what bits fell off and how they landed!

We saw the Rocket Garden and the Shuttle launch Experience was absolutely fantastic - we got vertical! - strapped in for the sights, sounds and excitement of a space shuttle launch (Ash - you would have loved it!)

To end our day we saw the "Hubble 3D" in the IMAX theatre - we floated beside space-walking astronauts and experienced the powerful story of the Hubble Space telescope.

 "And I think to myself - what a wonderful world!"

Launch complex 39 - pad A - all remaining space shuttle flights will take place from here

would have loved to see this live but you can't have everything in life!

"SPIRIT OF PENNEKAMP" GLASS BOTTOM BOAT TRIP

 

this is what it looked like but better and this is a photo!

We spent the day at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, it was the first undersea park created in the US. Lunch on the beach, looked at the campsite then went on the glass bottom boat trip for 2+ hours.
We motored 6 miles out through beautiful blue-green water to Molasses Reef then bobbed about for 45 minutes looking through the glass windows in the bottom of the boat. We we lucky to get a seat right on the edge of the windows, I think a lot of people were put off by the girl talking so long about the fact you might get seasick and what to do and where to go with your sick bag!
It was sheer heaven, just cannot describe how amazing it was to see hundreds of tropical fish, a Moray eel, stunning coral and I was the one who spotted a nurse shark! We were so busy staring at the windows, there are no photos or what I did take were hopeless, but oh, what memories we have!