The Palm Coast Trip Ends!

I am sure that everyone is happy to know that this stream of familyless pictures is about to come to a close. Following are my final vacation pictures for 05 June 2009:

Remember the tallest one-story building in the world? Take a look at the men working on the building in the scaffold (lower-center portion of the picture).

Another angle with the cool NASA water tower. The bus was moving so it isn't exactly what I was looking for, but...

Nothing real special about this building aesthetically. The tour guide said it was the most technologically-advanced satellite system in the world though, so I figured it was worth a shot.

Inside an older NASA shuttle. The reason they are going to decommission the space shuttles and return to rockets is because all of the shuttles were built a long time ago and still work on DOS, as you can see from this non-HD screen. Learning DOS must be tough these days.

Older shuttle parts...

The very uncomfortable-looking inside of a shuttle, complete with upside down thin-metal chairs.

The multi-nation space capsule-making factory. Apparently the French make most of the parts. Who knew.

That little piece just went up 16 July and is now in space. No, I don't know what it is/does, but it's in space now :D

A memorial wall for all of the last astronauts in the space program. After some reflection, I realized that even though getting to the moon was pretty useless (at least that's the way it seems now) the number of technological break-throughs that came from the process is really quite amazing.

I didn't go into the launch simulator, but it looked pretty cool form the outside.

More cool views...

These are the solar panels beneath the shuttle to keep the astronauts from burning to a crisp when entering the atmosphere. I don't know why they are each numbered, but...

They sure do hold a watermark well :D (Note: Fortunately, I was able to outrun the guards after I crossed the rope they set-up so retards like me don't touch the space shuttle.)

Upskirt Tree.

An older rocket form the Apollo series.

Ditto.

Upskirt Tree.

I made a special stop here--the largest McDonalds in the world. Unfortunately, the super-sized meals were not any bigger :(

The drive-through.

After I took this picture, my window wouldn't roll back up and I was stuck in the rain for over a minute. I was not happy.

The only LDS Temple in Florida is conveniently located in Orlando.

And it stopped raining so I could take pictures.

Then I got home (6 June 2009) and there was a sound in our wall. Many of you have heard the story already, but the essence of it is that I cut a whole in the wall to try and free a bird I though had fallen behind through the roof.

It wasn't a bird... :( And it climbed up the wall and jumped onto our linens. We only narrowly escaped death by rabies.

Next week...New York, New York! PLUS PEOPLE AGAIN!!!

Congrats to Grant and Liz and little Natalie!

Heheheheheheee WIPE OOOOUT!

We LOVED spending time with our nieces this weekend. Too bad that post is several hundred pictures away! Well I better get cracking!

These pictures are still from June 1st. After I came back from Marineland, I spent some time in downtown Daytona Beach. Here is what I saw.

DAMON SPOILER ALERT: I know you don't like blogs without pictures in them, so you might as well stop reading right here. Or should you...duh Duh DUHHHHHHHH!!!!!

A Daytona Beach beach.

Daytona Beach is one of the only beaches in the world that you can drive traffic down. It stretches for miles and miles and even has a speed limit.

A church parking lot where I pulled a U-e. Remember the flooding I was telling you about? Well there ain't nobody parking there on Sunday.

One of the many ugly hotels in Daytona. Because when I think Daytona I think music capitol of the world.

An intense mini-golf course. It was huge.

This is probably a good time to mention that I have taken all of the hotel pictures thus far while driving. I think I did a good job!

Daytona Bridge.

I decided a few months ago to start collecting pictures of pretty trees in a folder called "Upskirt Trees," named after the way I take the picture. When I die they are going to make our family famous! I'll sign your copies if you want ;)

A library. The coolest. Ever.

Upskirt Tree.

Daytona Bridge.

A close-up of the beautiful ceramic tiles around the base of the pillars. So pretty.

El Caribe. 'Cause when I think Florida, I think green beaches.

The Easter Island Statues making an appearance. How exotic.

Argh Matie. Won't ye be staying in my bunk tonight?

How cool would it be to stay there?

I took this picture for Georgey!

A lighthouse. That's all I know.

OK, so now it's June 5th and I am on my way home. I got up early to catch a taxi to the airport, then rented-a-car again. Destination: Kennedy Space Center!!!

I had until 5 PM to return to the Airport. Here's is that I saw...

This building is quite amazing. It is the largest one-floor building in the world. The American flag is the size of a football field. They build the spaceships in here, then wheel them out to the launch site.

Driving one mile per hour, the massive tank-thing hauls the spaceship a few miles to the launch site, crushing every rock in its path.

A small model.

A picture of a picture for some perspective.

An engine on one of the jets. Some pretty amazing stats on these too--the one I remember is the coolant inside is one of the coldest substances known to man.

One of the previous launch sites...the Mercury perhaps?

And the real deal, about to go into space! I missed the launch by several weeks, delayed due to rain. The power of the rockets is so fierce that it literally rocks the building, even a few miles away.

This is the device that moves the rockets. Each and every panel on the "tread" ways one ton!

These are the old Apollo rockets! These one was so big I couldn't get it all in one picture!

As a point of interest, for every dollar that we put into the NASA program in taxes, NASA makes between 7 and 15 dollars back. What a deal!

Look at all of that wiring. I heard a story that when Kennedy told the American people we were going to go to the moon in ten years, people at NASA were NOT happy with him (we had just gotten into space!) I can see why, just looking at the rocket wiring.

Check out the perspective of the woman below taking a picture.

I think this is where they keep the fuel.

And there is the little place for the astronaughts to sit. All that metal and such little seats (more on that in another blog).

Here's a replica.

Ha HA! If you made it this far, here is your sneak preview! This is Cristy winning the favorite Aunt Award.

...And Nathaniel reaping the benefits of being married to the Favorite Aunt :D