Focus on your ability!

I'm currently obsessed with this song by Foster The People.  I got the album "Torches" while in Florida to play while driving around in the convertible.  Unfortunately Dan didn't particularly care for the album aside from "Pumped Up Kicks".  (I loved that song last summer but I've been kind of done with it for a while now.)

I didn't agree with Dan;  I enjoyed the CD a lot, especially the track "Helena Beat" and this one, "Houdini."  It in fact may be contributing to my insomnia because it's so catchy that it's hard to remove it from the replay in my head.

Enjoy, and sweet dreams!  Hehehe.

Last Week In Florida!

Dan's busy week at Microsoft TechEd began.  My lazy week doing absolutely nothing began as well!  I spent my days reading, surfing the very slow internet, trying to get in touch with my kids in Atlanta and lounging by the pool.  The days were hot and sunny, but every afternoon a storm rolled in (usually while I was at the pool), rained for an hour or so, and then rolled out, leaving the air cooler and less humid.  In those evenings Dan and I enjoyed the convertible very much!

On one of those evenings we decided spur-of-the-moment to go over to Downtown Disney.  I had avoided going there because I figured it was basically just another way for Disney to take my money, but hey -- there was free parking, and we had already eaten dinner, so I thought it would be interesting just to see the place.  Turned out I really enjoyed myself.

Dan on the bridge between Pleasure Island and West Side

On calmer evenings this balloon apparently takes people on rides.  Tonight, the winds were too high, so
it remained safely on the ground.

Do people who live in Florida still notice the sunsets?

A service dog trying on apparel in the Harley Davidson store.

Sunset and palm trees

We sat for a while and watched a dance party going on beside the water.  My girls would have loved it --
and if they had been there, I would have had a good excuse to join in!

We splurged and had a brownie sundae at the Ghirardelli chocolate shop.  The staff was working furiously churning out tasty treats.

On Thursday evening we went to the TechEd closing party.  They rented out Universal Islands of Adventure for us, so basically they kicked the regular public out of the park at 6:00 pm and bused us in at 7:30.  :)  Of course it began to rain in the afternoon and was still raining when we walked down to the bus.

Saw this guy on the way to the bus.

Here's me on the bus laughing at the people who had to wait in the rain for the next bus.  This was after WE had to wait in the rain for the bus, so you can see I'm a little bedraggled.

When we arrived at the park (a little late because our bus driver took "the scenic route") the rain had stopped.  We got free ponchos in case it started up again (it didn't).  All the food and drink in the park was free, too.  Pretty cool!

After grabbing dinner we decided to ride this Jurassic Park prehistoric ride of some sort, but only after we had waited in line for like 40 minutes did we find out the ride was having mechanical difficulties.  D'oh, way to waste time.

So we left Jurassic Park and went to Hogsmeade.  Where we waited in line again for like 45 minutes to get into the main Harry Potter ride.  Here we are in line, looking up at the towers of Hogwarts.

The Sorting Hat

The ride was fun, but by the time we got out, it was already like 10 pm.  I thought having the park to ourselves for four and a half hours would mean we just sailed through all the rides, but nope.

However we got free food and drinks, did I mention that??  Here we are enjoying Butterbeer.  (No real beer involved.)

Frozen Butterbeer, Butterbeer on the rocks, and pumpkin juice.  We brought the pumpkin juice home for the kids so I cannot speak yet as to how it tastes.  :)

After we wandered through the rest of the park, we rode one more ride (and we had to wait in line for 20-30 minutes for that one too).  It was the Hulk roller coaster, and it was pretty awesome.  By the time we were done, the party was nearly over, so we listened to the band that was playing, and then we caught the bus back to the hotel.

Friday it was time to leave.  :(

Before our flight out, Dan stopped to visit colleagues at the Florida Conference office.  We went out with them to a tasty Mexican lunch.

At Orlando airport, this little guy was going through security behind us.

We had to switch planes in Fort Lauderdale, and then home (by way of Philadelphia).  One more beautiful sunset to round off a great vacation!

More Fun in Florida

Our second day in Cocoa Beach didn't start out sunny, but it was dry.  In the morning Sarah and I went out for a swim.  The ocean was a great temperature, no shock at all to wade right in.  The waves were pretty tame, and we floated in the water for about an hour.  I don't think the water is ever this warm in Ocean City MD, even at the end of summer.

We were pretty hungry come lunch time so we walked about a block to a little bar and grill on the water.

Mmm, fish tacos!

We did a little browsing around at the Ron Jon Surf Shop and a couple of other shops, then walked back to the condo.  The sun blazed.

After some lazing around and lengthy naps, it was time to think about dinner.  But first we really wanted to cruise around Cocoa Beach with the top down!  A storm was coming up so we rushed to get in some cruising time.

Dan's real excited!

But he put on his cool persona.

We're having a ball. Sarah is posting a picture on Facebook.  The fun lasts approximately eight minutes... then the rain gets too heavy and we have to put the top up while sitting at a stoplight.

On our third morning in Cocoa Beach I inexplicably wake up at six in the morning.  I wouldn't normally call this serendipitous, but I stepped onto the balcony just moments before the sun rose over the Atlantic.

And after that beautiful show, I climbed back in bed and slept another three hours.  What could be better!

Later in the morning we went swimming again.

Me and Sarah wave hello!

This is the condo as seen from the water's edge.

This is Dan as seen at the water's edge.

We have to leave for Orlando in the afternoon, but first we go with Sarah to Jetty Park in Port Canaveral.

Apparently peacocks roam freely through people's yards in this part of the state.  Also apparently they enjoy posing for people who pull over on the side of the road and get out with their cameras going "Ooooh peacock!!"

Jetty Park has a long fishing pier that runs between the beach and the waterway that pleasure boats, fishing boats, and cruise ships use to get to Port Canaveral.  From the pier we saw pelicans, sea turtles, and dolphins.

Sea turtle.  Duuuude!

Pelican

Dan really wishes he had his boat with him.

Preparing for the march of the cruise ships!  There are three ships leaving today.

The Carnival Sensation

We have to leave Jetty Park, but right before we leave for Orlando, we get to see the Disney Dream cruise ship leaving port.  You can see that everyone on board is apparently already having a blast, especially the people on the water slide!

It's a quick drive to Orlando, but as evening approaches yet another storm comes up.  Welcome to Orlando!

Day One in Cocoa Beach

The Microsoft conference doesn't start until Monday, and here we are in Florida on Friday.  What to do?

Turns out a good Maryland friend, Sarah, is down here in Cocoa Beach for six weeks for work.  She's away from her family, SO lonely... of course it's a humanitarian effort on my part to go and stay with her at her awesome three bedroom condo right on the beach... :)

Seriously though, Sarah was really awesome to let us come stay with her.  Friday morning she had to go to work, so we slept late and completely lazed around, as evidenced by this picture of me sitting on the balcony in my pajamas.

There's the beach, right beyond the dunes.  We were so close that apparently, at night, no one is allowed to turn on their outside balcony lights because it might disturb the sea turtles that come up out of the water to lay their eggs in the sand.  Yay for sea turtles, but also it was really nice having it be so dark and peaceful at night.

Dan and I drove around for a bit (with the top up, because the weather alternated between blazing sun and drizzle) and then after lunch we met up with Sarah at the Kennedy Space Center!

I think the sign looks so retro.

Beyond the entrance here you can see the rocket garden.  They are building a whole new addition to house the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

There are a lot more things to do at the KSC Visitor's Center than I expected.  Since we were there only half a day, we didn't nearly get through everything.  We didn't get to any of the IMAX movies or in to see the rocket garden, or to the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

I think probably the main attraction, though is the bus tour of the Space Center.  Not only did we get to spend some time on a nice air-conditioned non-humid bus... ahhh... but it took us to several different stops and along the way we also saw all kinds of wildlife -- alligators, a manatee, lots of cool birds, and a huge bald eagle's nest.  The nest was so large, the guide said, that a king-size bed could fit in it.

Here's Dan and Sarah goofing off waiting for the bus.  The great thing about going on this tour with Sarah, besides the fact that she's just a lot of fun, is that she is an actual rocket scientist.  In fact the reason she is down in Florida right now is that she is working on a spacecraft that is going to be launched later this year.  So Sarah is just a wealth of extra information.

This is one of the three main engines that power the Space Shuttle.  This very engine flew on 15 missions.

Here's the business end of the engine.  Sarah explained to us how the fuel comes through the engine and the size and shape of the nozzle creates the thrust.  It was fascinating, and Sarah is so animated as she talks, since she truly loves this stuff, that we noticed other people around us stopping to listen in.

This is launch pad 39-A!  It was originally built for the Apollo program, but was modified to be used by the space shuttles.

Obviously I'm pretty excited about seeing the launch pad, even though there will never be another shuttle launch there.

This picture looks like we were being posed by the Sears Photographer.  I don't know what's up with my hand laying so daintily on Dan's shoulder.

Look, there it is!  Right there!!

Also behind us you can see the roads that the crawler used to transport the shuttles out to the launch pads, at a blazing speed of about half a mile per hour.  The crawlers were too heavy to go on the asphalt road so they traveled on a separate road made of small hard stones.  They got an awesome gas mileage of about 42 feet per gallon.

Now we go backwards a bit in time and relive the Space Race, where America went basically from kids playing with toys to putting a man on the moon, in a decade.  Funny what a little good old-fashioned unfriendly competition with another superpower can push you to accomplish!  Here's me and Sarah with a picture of the Saturn V rocket that powered the Apollo missions.

Now this was really cool.  We sat in a room with the actual consoles used in the launch control center for the Apollo missions, and there was a simulation of launch.  It's amazing to think they accomplished all this in the 60s with what we now consider to be such ancient technology.

This is the van that carried the astronauts out to the launch pad.

And here is the actual Saturn V rocket.  It lays horizontally in this huge warehouse.  The scale of the thing is just amazing -- especially when you realize that the actual astronaut capsule is so small.  All of this power was necessary just to get the spacecraft up away from the earth.  Very very cool.

We got to ride on the shuttle simulator, which was a lot of fun.  Then we tooled around the gift shop for a while before heading out.  On the way back to the condo we stopped at a seafood restaurant in Port Canaveral.  I'm not really a seafood person, and I wanted to order some chicken or a burger or something, but I felt like since I was at a seafood restaurant I'd give their fish of the day a try.  It was really yummy -- grilled mahi.  Now, back home I always hear it referred to as "mahi mahi", but down here it was just called "mahi".  ????

So all in all it was a great day in Cocoa Beach, and we were really hoping the next day would be sunny so we could go swimming and cruise around with the top down...

(P.S.  My camera battery died (because I hadn't charged it in weeks) halfway through the day so a lot of these pictures are Sarah's.  Thank you!!  Sarah writes about her work, her kids, and whatever else she feels like writing about, at e-manadventures.blogspot.com )