UCF: Day 33

Location: Radisson Hotel, room 604

John and I went to the Kennedy Space Center today. We had a blast. John knows his space history. We had a brief tour of the "Rocket Garden" and John answered so many questions that the tour guide gave him a photo of the launch of a Mercury rocket in which Alan Shepherd was the first US man in space. I was both impressed with his knowledge and proud to be with someone of intelligence. Someone jokingly made the comment that John and the tour guide should switch places. We visited a few museums at the Visitor Complex and then we toured some of the facilities. We had to take a tour bus. We saw from a distance Cape Canaveral and Launch Pads A & B. We saw from the tour bus the vehicle assembly building (VAB) and crawler which are used to build and transport the rockets to the launch pads. The volume of the VAB is 3.75 times that of the Empire State Building's volume. It's massive. We toured a museum dedicated to the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo 11 mission, which was the mission that the first men walked on the moon. We toured a museum for the International Space Station as well. By the time we returned to the Visitor's Complex we were beat. We didn't even have enough energy to watch an IMAX show which was included in our admission.

Oh and speaking of admission... John and I got a great deal on our tickets. Because I have a UCF REU Student ID I was able to buy our tickets at half price so we only had to pay $20 each.

We took a lot of wonderful pictures today. When we got back I posted the photos on facebook and then we went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom. After dinner, John and I drank a bottle of Gallo Family: Twin Valley Pinot Noir while playing Carcassone. It was one of the best times I've had since I've been in Florida. I didn't want the day to end, but it had to.