Vacation Blastoff

Hello readers!

I've just returned from Orlando, enjoying an unusual November/December week in the 80 degree sun (even as I watched and cheered on the foot of snow falling on the ski slopes back in Colorado). I've visited Orlando twice before, but there were still plenty of new experiences this time out -- which I'll recount in the days ahead.

Our friends had long been planning to take their kids to Disney -- with the opening of Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios being the particular push to go. They generously offered up a room in their mother/mother-in-law's condo for my husband and I to join them. Although we'd spend a whole lot of time walking and waiting in lines with them in the next week, our excursion on our first full day was actually just the two of us: we drove out to visit Kennedy Space Center.

I've long been a history buff when it comes to space travel, and was excited to visit this famous site of so many launches. KSC (which does sound like "KFC" when spoken over a loudspeaker, which made us want chicken all day long) is an interesting location: part active rocket launch site, part museum, part theme park. We didn't get to enjoy that first part; apparently, during the week we were in Florida, two different rockets did launch, but we weren't there on those days. (And we were a few weeks late for the much-rescheduled launch of Artemis I a few weeks ago.)

The other two parts, though, we definitely enjoyed. The "museum" aspect of KSC was my favorite, of course. On display at different parts of the center is the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis, a Saturn V rocket remaining from the Apollo program, command capsules from more than one space flight of the 60s and 70s, and all kinds of memorabilia from moon rocks to spacesuits and more. I loved it. Much of it was accompanied by super cheesy short films you were made to watch before being admitted to see the things, which I admit tested my patience. I think the artifacts speak quite well for themselves; but then again, I've been reading about all this stuff since I was a kid.

As for the "theme park" element of KSC, there are a number of motion simulator rides on site -- because this is Florida, and that's the rule. The ones we did were decent enough, though. There was a simulated space shuttle launch -- a sort of "Star Tours" kind of experience, albeit one that actually does tip you mostly on your back for the launch. We also did 2 of 4 different "Soarin" type of rides: your feet dangle from a motion-controlled seat as you're thrust out toward an enveloping circular screen -- in our case, for a tour of the outer solar system and a surface buzz over Mars. We would, of course, experience more entertaining and more intense rides later in the trip, but these were a fun way to "get your feet wet."

If you're not a space nerd like me, KSC might be a bit too far a drive from Orlando amid a Disney/Universal vacation. But I'm glad to have finally done it this time around.