Cowgar Family Adventures: vacation

Sunday we packed up and hit the road by 10:15AM. We made a couple potty/gas stops along the way, and by 6:30PM we were in Charlotte North Caroline, our midway point. We stopped at a Quality Inn, a much nicer hotel than what we had in Daytona Beach, (and the internet worked!) and called in a nice dinner from Chili’s, and ate and watched Nick Jr. on TV. It was stormy out, so we got to bed early.

Monday morning we had a continental breakfast and started our journey once more. It was fairly uneventful. We had some fog up in the Virginia mountains, and some rain here and there, but we were home by 6PM. The girls did really well on the drive. Sadly though, we returned to the weather we had left in Ohio. Cloudy, poopy weather!

The girls, strapped in and ready to go home

Leaving Daytona Beach

Georgia has a Peach complex. It's true!

And they have El Cheapo gas!!!!

South Carolina and it's potted palm trees

Luke and the girls at a rest stop, just minutes before we got dumped on by rain

North Carolina in action!

Our Quality Inn hotel in Charlotte. Much nicer than the other place.

We've never felt so welcome in Virginia.

Going through a tunnel. The girls thought it was cool to go under a mountain.

West Virginia, a familiar state

The West Virginia Capitol building with it's gold dome

Avery taking a turn behind the wheel

Welcome to Ohio. Sorry you can't read the sign through the rain... Welcome home, eh?

Almost home!

Our genius dog. So excited to see us that she fell off the stairs running toward us.

Friday was launch day. Our vehicle placard had 12PM as our time to arrive by, but we wanted to be there as soon as possible. We probably sat in traffic for an hour and half before reaching the KSC Complex at 11ish. We walked around, enjoying some of the sights. All of the good spots to see the launch were already being occupied, so we decided to stick to shady areas for resting and taking our time looking at things to keep the girls entertained. We hit the gift shop and could have gone broke right there. We didn’t even make it to the second story of the gift shop. It was so packed from all the visitors, that I waited in line for at least a half hour before checking out. The girls played in the water fountain in the rocket garden, and we camped out under the shuttle displays to stay in a shady area until about a half hour before launch, then we packed up and moved as close as we could towards that corner of the complex. We couldn’t even see the jumbotrons they had outside because of all the people. We knew it was close because of the time on our watch, and then we heard the people in front of us that could see the TV start counting down from 10. It was at least 20 seconds before we could see the shuttle over the trees and the people in front of us. Luke had his a700 with the big lens we rented, and the a300 with a wider angle lens, so he was clicking away with both cameras. I had our camcorder and was trying to track the shuttle through the view screen while making sure that Lexi and Lilly stayed close (I forgot their info ID tags in the car). The video wasn’t that great, since I couldn’t see what I was pointing at, it kept going in and out of focus because of the tree beside us, and I was shaking for the adrenaline (and my eyes were stinging because I was crying….I’m a dork I know). It was so completely awesome though! We are actually formulating a way we can get back down there to see the other launches. It took us over 2 hours to make the 40 minute drive back to Daytona Beach. I felt so bad for Lexi though, her and Lilly walked the entire day, and Luke had to carry her back to the car because she was limping because her feet were so tired.

When we got back we hit Daytona Beach again, and this time we got out the buckets and shovels and stayed a while longer, so the girls could really enjoy it. We also got attacked by some salespersons about buying some timeshare down there. Ugh… we are on vacation people…not interested!!

Saturday we decided to hit Kennedy Space Center again, since our tickets are good for 2 admission days. We hit a Babies R Us and bought an umbrella double stroller for Lexi and Lilly. We took their tour since Luke wanted to see the Saturn V building. We had to wait almost an hour before we could even board the bus, and we had to leave our strollers behind. Luckily, they had strollers at each of the stops. The first stop was an observation gantry to see the launch pads. We would love to go when a shuttle is out on the pad. We also drove real close to one of the crawlers they use to transport the shuttle to the pad. The driver said 98% of people that take the tour will never get that close to them. So that was pretty cool. The second stop was the Saturn V, which had a few short movies taking you through NASA’s space race with the Russians, and ended with the successful lift off of the first manned Saturn V. Then we got to go into the building that housed a real Saturn V, and walk underneath it. Luke was a kid in a candy store. There were so many people there since it was the day after launch, that they extended the IMAX movie showing and park times, but we had been on the tour so late that they had shut down the third stop, which was the International Space Station modules that still needed to be sent to space. Oh well, we saw a lot of things, and touched a moon rock, and by the end of the trip, the girls were excited about being astronauts.

We hit Alan Shepard Park which is in Cocoa Beach and played at the beach one last time before returning home. Avery fell asleep in Luke’s arms, Lilly filled buckets with sand, and Lexi and I picked up pieces of shells on the beach. We had a lot of fun.

Please pardon the out of order picture overload, I'm too lazy (this is Luke speaking for once) to reorder them...