In the early morning hours of Monday, May 16th ( 1am to be exact!) I woke the kids up and we drove down to the Kennedy Space Center to get ready to see the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. We missed having Dan go with us, but he had to go out of town later that day so he wasn't able to join us on our adventure. The kids were groggy after getting up in the middle of the night, but excited enough that they changed into their clothes without fussing and then curled back up with their blankets and pillows in the car for a little more sleep. Traffic was light so early in the morning and soon we are at the Kennedy Space Center.
All activities at the Space Center were open and after we found the perfect spot to set up our chairs to see the shuttle launch we headed off to explore. It was around 4:30am, dark and a little chilly but there was a buzz of excitement in the air.
Emory, Ellie and her little elephant posed as astronauts...
After a while walking around, we headed back to sit down for a little while and watch the astronauts get into the shuttle on the big screen. Ellie also decided to curl up on the ground for a little nap...it didn't last too long.
Finally the sun came up and we knew that it wouldn't be too much longer before the launch. There were lots more people everywhere by this time and we were glad that we got there early for a good spot.
The shuttle was scheduled to blast off at 8:56am and went off just as planned.
We were able to see it blast off but...
...the clouds had rolled in over the morning hours before the launch and we couldn't see it for very long at all.
The neatest part of the launch came about 36 seconds after blast off when we were able to hear and feel the rumble of the shuttle blasting off. The sound came toward us slowly and eventually surrounded us. You could feel it. That was something that we had never experienced before when watching launches from the boardwalk near our house.
We packed up our chairs and spent the rest of the day at the Kennedy Space Center seeing the IMAX movies, riding in the shuttle simulalator and enjoying all of the space exhibits.
It was a really fun day with Emory and Ellie and one that I had really wanted to share with them before the end of the shuttle program. Now there is only one left. Hopefully the memories will stay with them for many years to come. Bon Voyage, Endeavour!
