Back to the Beach

Sunshine, shells, the surf pounding on the beach, surfers off in the distance, the sound of gulls. That was our afternoon as we walked on the beach and sat in the sun. Despite frost in Florida last night, today was beautiful. We went out to the Farmer's Market again and bought more oranges and tomatoes. This time we got a couple of highly prized ones called honey bells.  We just checked on the Crown of Maine website and saw the snow falling, so we are going to present you with pictures of the beach and the sunshine today. We hope you enjoy being taken by camera to a lovely place!

It Flew!

After several days and lots of adventures,  the Delta rocket lifted off tonight after 9:00. We drove out to the causeway at Cape Canaveral and waited in a crowd of 40 or 50 vehicles. We found out the launch had been postponed, returned to Cocoa Beach, and watched it from the stairs leading to the beach. We had a very busy day today. We went to Merritt Island and shopped a bit. We spent some time in Barnes and Noble and Pier 1. We bought a few books, and had an interesting lunch experience. We went to a European Cafe in the mall, and were probably the only people there with English as a first language. We had a croissant sandwich and a salad. Our best guess is that people from the space program must have been there speaking Russian or some similar language. They were mostly young and seemed to know each other. It was a strange atmosphere. This afternoon we went to the movies and saw Dustin Hoffman in "Last Chance Harvey." It was not an exciting movie, but it was interesting. We finished off the day with a nice dinner at Applebees.

Quiet Day

We had a quiet day today as we explored south a bit, checking out Satellite Beach, Patrick Air Force Base, and Melbourne. Mostly you can't even see the water for the tall condos that cover every inch of the route. We did find a shopping center in Melbourne, but were generally not impressed with the area. We did locate the zoo so perhaps that will be a day trip soon. After that we shopped for groceries, and are cooking tilapia again tonight. Louise knit on a new sock, and Gary did some gardening. Not a very exciting day, but a nice one. The pictures are Gary's moonrise and some trees looking down the beach a bit.

Kennedy Space Center Again

Gary spent 3 hours outside watching for the launch of the Delta rocket, which unfortunately was aborted earlier in the evening, but he didn't know. He did get some  interesting pictures of the moon rise over the Atlantic. This morning after Gary's chilly walk of several miles, we went back to Kennedy Space Center. We took a bus to see the shuttle which was taken to the launch site yesterday. Unfortunately, you can only see the tip of it. We returned to the Visitor Center where we went on the shuttle launch simulator. Matthew would love this! The G force bounces your head against the seat, and the skin on your face feels like it's rubber. We saw the second IMax movie about the space station. Finally we went to the rocket garden and then back to Cocoa Beach. The colder temperatures are obvious in these pictures as you can see how we were dressed. Perhaps they will launch that rocket tonight, but Gary doesn't plan to wait outside watching for hours.

The weather changes

Gary rose early for us (7:30) and went for a two mile walk on the beach. We are experiencing a "cold" spell here. Roy, our landlord, wore a knit hat today, Gary wore wool socks, and Louise wore long sleeves. Compared to the -30 at home, the fear here is that it will be in the 30s above zero in some areas here tonight. Today was wash day at the Cole abode. We ate our lunch outside and it warmed up to nearly 70 with full sunshine this afternoon. Louise went for a walk on the beach while Gary got some rays on the deck. In the pictures Louise is knitting a sock on the deck, and the foliage outside our door is shown. We are hoping to get a glimpse of a rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center tonight.

Kennedy Space Center

A day at the Kennedy Space Center! For most of the morning we traveled by bus on a series of three tours of parts of the space complex. It is huge! The first tour took us past the vehicle assembly building, the crawler transporter area to the observation gantry where we viewed the launch pads from some distance, and saw a film. We were then taken to the Apollo Saturn V Center. These rockets were unbelievably huge! We viewed a presentation from the actual control center used during the launches of the 1970s. The third stop was the space station work area where things were being assembled to send to the space station. We returned to the Visitor Center where we watched an IMax film in 3D  about walking on the moon. It was a busy day and we decided to finish the visit, including a simulation of a shuttle take off at another time. The rain held off until we were in the truck leaving the parking lot. Yes, it is actually raining tonight!

A Day Without Sunshine

This picture is from the Cocoa Beach farmer's market yesterday. Just look at those tomatoes! We bought tomatoes, oranges, and yellow and red peppers. I'm afraid we have become spoiled for the fresh produce! Today was the first day without sunshine since we have been in Florida, but it has been a good day. We have been running errants as Louise blew up a burner on the stove last night by heating an empty pot by mistake. We bought a new pot and replaced the burner. Gary did some yard work on our patio area and that looks very nice as a result. It is still summer-like, despite predictions of cold weather this week.