Day 15 - Kennedy Space Center

We began the day with a stop at Kesh's Restaurant, which appeared to be a one man show.

Cajun burger, which is essentially a burger with crawfish Étouffée on top.  Strange, but tasted okay.

Mom's egg sandwich.

Erin's cornbread.

None of it seemed to be a hit, although I did like their hot sauce collection.

An entire set of spice!  I like it.

Explanations so you don't burn yourself.

After that we headed out to the Space Center.  At $50/person, Mom and Erin didn't care to go.  They dropped me off and enjoyed their own separate mall adventure.

As I left the car, dark clouds were barreling towards the center, so I ran to the admission gate.  I got my ticket and went through security.  Then the sky opened up.  I was just 20 seconds away, but that was enough to thoroughly soak me.  No fun at all.  None of the buildings are connected, so racing through the rain became an evil game I learned to play.

A quick shot before running to the buildings.

Soviet replica.

A real Apollo capsule!  (Never used.)

I'm not claustrophobic, but that looks awful.

Too bad I didn't get to try one on.

Rocket graveyard outside.

Then I went to the new star attraction.  It's really too big to get it in one clear photograph.

Actual size boosters.

Atlantis!

It's so much bigger than it looks on TV.

I can't even fit the wing in a picture.

Huge exhaust.

The best I could do from all the way across the room.

The back half.

I was able to see Enterprise in New York, so I need to go to California and Virginia to check off Endeavor and Discovery.  (Obviously, Challenger and Columbia aren't available.)

Shuttle controls.

An actual engine.  So much power from a relatively tiny machine.

The underside.

After the shuttle, I went through an actual simulator!  You go 90 degrees back and experience real G-forces.  Very cool experience.  No pictures of course because my phone would have become a projectile.

How to use a space toilet.

Space toilet.  (Now you see why there were instructions.)

I saw the Hubble IMAX.  Included in admission and I really liked it.

Not sure how I felt about this, but the kids inside loved it.  Tons of interactive space games.

Real life angry birds, along with mirror mazes, laser-limbo, and many others.

Multiple chances to meet an astronaut throughout the day.  Here's one.

Helmet covers the face, but not the ears?  Not a very safe design for this bear.

Please do not roll on the ground.

I only made it through about half of the center in 5 hours, so you really need at least a day and ideally a day and a half if you take it seriously.  However, I had to go back to Orlando for our next activity.

Dinner theater!

Our cast.

We went to a dinner theater murder mystery.  Sleuth's gave us a better-than-expected dinner and a funny, if not all that mysterious, show.  By the time the show was over, it was 10pm, so no time for anything else.

I don't have any pictures of Erin and Mom's mall adventure, but they came back with freshly painted nails, so I have my suspicions.  It likely involved a salon and Auntie Anne's pretzels!