GLAST Off

Hello, loyal reader, who has bravely remained with this blog through all of the “What I did on my summer vacation” posts! As a reward for your loyalty, here is a picture of the GLAST (no, I don’t know what it means either) rocket taking off from Kennedy Space Centre, on a day that may or may not have been this Wednesday. (What day is this? Where am I? Who am I?)

Thanks to my mad photography skillz, it’s almost like you were there, no? Say it is like you were there. Actually, being there was pretty cool – much more so than this crappy photo suggests. We were standing on a piece of scrub land right next to the highway on the approach to Cape Canaveral (We go to all the best places when we vacation), and the view was about as good as it gets without the type of security clearance they’re just never going to give the likes of me. Especially not if “they” read my blog…

There were a couple of dozen other people there, most of whom seemed to be rocket nerds (I say that in the nicest way possible, by the way, because they were all very lovely), and one guy counted down to blast off for us all through a loud hailer. A couple of military helicopters circled us constantly, which made it all feel a bit like an episode of 24, and when the rocket finally went up, it appeared to rise silently into the sky, followed a few seconds later by a rumble that grew and grew until it got to be really quite freaky.  Which was cool.

After the launch, we drove to Cocoa Beach, where we managed to finally defeat the East Coast Curse which has dictated for years now that any time we try to take Terry to the Space Coast, it will pour with rain. The weather stayed warm enough for us to take a swim (the water was so warm it was hard to believe it was the same Atlantic Ocean that washes up against the UK. Back home, you wouldn’t even paddle in it without Wellington boots. And actually, probably not even then.) and for me to get a sunburn on my nose, which has led Terry to refer to me as “Rudolph” ever since.

Anyway, the rain stayed off until yesterday, when we drove down to Tampa Bay to go to Busch Gardens. It had been … um, 14 years… since I’d last been to Busch Gardens, and about the only thing that was familiar about it was the animals, who were really pleased to see us:

Blue tongue! Blue tongue! RUN!

(Note: Blue from cotton candy. Not strange tropical disease. But looks like it.)

After about an hour or so, though, the rain came on and basically closed down the park. Not before Terry and my dad managed to ride most of the (totally terrifying) coasters, though…

My dad took the opportunity to have a quick snooze on this one. He is famous for his ability to sleep anywhere, at any time. Terry, not so much. Oh, and speaking of coasters, I found the evidence of my one, never-to-be-repeated attempt at one (from last week) tucked away on my mum’s memory card:

Hee!

After that it rained, and it rained, and it rained a little more. And so we shopped. And I didn’t really buy anything other than half of the Benefit counter and some more workout gear, because seriously, that’s a LOT of food they like to give you over here. Terry did manage to win a couple of Barts (now there’s a phrase you don’t say every day) to add to the little Simpsons family we’ve got lined up for Rubin to eat when we get home:

The Barts are bigger than the Homer because they ATE ALL THE FLUFF.

Today we went to Downtown Disney. You know, for the MAGIC.

Two Princesses. I am the one on the right. (Disney: call me!)Aaaand… that’s about it. Tomorrow, though: MAGIC KINDGOM! OMG! THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH. And actually? That whole “Happiest place on earth” thing? Is totally true. I LOVE the Magic Kingdom. Love it. Haven’t been since 2001 (although before that I’d been more times than I care to remember), and am now so excited I may throw up any second. Although, that could be the wine.

Anyway, I’m off to bed now to make tomorrow come faster. And to eat FLUFF, obv…