Amber and Eddie Are Here

Arriving in Orlando after a long day of travel - Hannah served as my photographer 

Amber and Eddie have arrived for a visit - YAY!!!  We'll be enjoying their company for the next week.  After leaving early in the morning from Oregon on Tuesday and having a long stop in Chicago, they arrived at the Orlando Airport around 7 pm East Coast time. Kevin and the girls went to pick them up, while I got dinner together and Cameron arrived home from school. Jennifer who was in town for her dad's birthday also stopped over for a chance to say hello and good bye since she had to leave early the next morning.

We had dinner and got a chance to visit for a little bit then called it a night since it had been a long day for Amber and Eddie.

Wednesday morning after breakfast we headed over to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center.  Cameron had school so he wasn't able to be with us. It was a beautiful day to go, the weather was perfect and we were fortunate that the crowds were really lite.
We bought an annual pass so we can return again with the girls and day passes for Amber and Eddie.

Entrance are to the Kennedy Space Center

Once inside we saw the line of rockets displayed and admired these before we headed over to the bus area for our tour to begin.

The tour drove past the vertical assembly building, rocket platform and the rocket transportation module, before we head to the space program building, where we learned the history of space trials and travel and saw the Apollo rockets that originally allowed for the early tests, moon visits, space station, Hubble telescope and shuttle missions.

Our group tour photo

The bus loading  zone, top left building is the vertical assembly area - a massive building and complex, then on the upper right is a vertical launch pad, again massive in size, but looking rather small at the distance of this photo

Lauren and Hannah by Snoopy 

Eddie and Amber

Moon landing presentation

We then re-boarded the bus and headed to the Shuttle Atlantis building and after viewing the Atlantis, we road a simulator ride designed to give visitors the experience of being on board for the launch of the shuttle. That was quite an experience with the visuals, sounds and the way you felt like you were moving off the launch pad and headed for space.

The Atlantis Shuttle, and upper left the Hubble display

Girls in the simulator and by moon rover, then a closer look at the bay area of the shuttle

After a long, fun day of touring it was time to head home and get dinner and meet back up with Cameron.  Loved our time here at the Space Center.