Sunday July 10, 2011 Miami

This day also followed two parts. First I went to two places in the Coral Gables area - Vezcaya and the Miami Science Center. Then I drove over a bridge to Miami Beach. One thing I learned from driving in Miami Beach was you shouldn't drive in a Crown Vic or anything similar in size.

First I went to Vezcaya. I actually parked in the parking lot of the Miami Science Center, but Vezcaya was just across the street. I had no problem getting in and used a little pamphlet to go around the building. It was all very impressive. This was built close to a hundred years ago but was made to look like it was older by decorating different rooms in different styles from eras hundreds of years apart. There were even pieces from European castles that had been imported to be wall coverings, or even a fire place in the new house. The grounds were very impressive also, although I didn't have time to look through all of them. There was a cement "boat" in the bay that people could walk out to, I guess during low tide. There was a lot of seaweed clogging the channel when I was there.

While I was looking around the gardens I saw an older woman laying on the floor of a building in the gardens. I asked her if she was alright. She was fine but was trying to get a sense of the place. She called herself a seer and gave me a reading. I enjoy these to a degree, not because I necessarily believe them, but they give me a different perspective. See told me about my spirit guides and said I should do something to help my stomach - flax seeds were recommended.

At this point I had to leave to get to the Science Center. I stopped by the gift shop to get a book on the place and walked over. The science center, I thought, was smaller than I expected. THere was the planetarium and then I only saw a couple of rooms with a satellite mapping exhibit and some kids experiments to explain physics. I waited around for the planetarium show. About a half hour before the show, I realized there were a lot more rooms including some snakes and spiders, a compressed air-powered car and various other things I don't remember. I had to rush through them to get back to the planetarium in time. In fact I got a little bit lost and couldn't figure out how to get back to the planetarium entrance. The show was on the history of the number of planets. I thought it would be trying to defend Pluto as a planet. Instead it explained about how the count of planets has gone up and down as we adjust what we call a planet. There was no final conclusion.

Then it was in the car and off to Miami Beach. The bridgeway was no problem but once I got onto the streets I saw that driving around was going to be a challenge. My first stop was the Wolfsonian, which was associated with a college or university in the area. It took me a bit of driving around before I found a parking structure - it cost $20. Every street seemed to have parallel parking and only two lanes of traffic. Add to that some big siteseeing busses and it was not fun to drive around in a big car.

The Wolfsonian was a small art museum containing mainly 20th century art up to about mid-century. This included a lot of industrial design, although the ground floor had an interesting metal statue, probably from the 1920s. I remember some pieces from various worlds fairs. There was also a floor of art connected with the London Underground, which has been going on for decades. As I said, it was a smallish museum with a few areas of specialization.

I drove over to my final stop and found another (much cheaper) parking structure. This was the Holocaust Memorial, which I always thought was peculiar to have in Miami Beach. I'll say more about it at the end of this post.

After the memorial I headed back to my hotel. It was too late to visit anything in central Miami. At this point I figured out that my debt card wasn't working. I called the number on the back and got it sorted out. When I got online, I saw that there had been an email sent earlier in the day. I was running low on cash and gas, although I still had my credit card. After that I went out for dinner and then called it a night.

The Holocaust Memorial was significantly more than I expected. When I found it, I saw the giant hand with all of the people on it, It wasn't until I went around the memorial that I found something very unexpected. If you went about halfway around from where you entered, there was an entryway into the area with the hand. The corridor had the names of various camps on the walls. When you got into the area where the arm was anchored, you saw many more individual statues of emaciated people. Some may have been dead, others were interacting with the people climbing on the arm. One was positioned to be viewed as you are walking down the corridor which sort of set the mood. It was rather shocking how the area was set up, probably to make the make the now abstract horror of the Holocaust more personal and individual.

The remainder of the memorial, outside the central area had plaques listing names of those remembered by people in the area and some history of the Nazi plans and construction of the campls. It was all very somber and left me moody on the drive back.

Saturday July 9, 2011 Florida

There were two parts to the day. In the morning I went back to the KSC Visitor's Center (I could use the ticket I got on Friday for a 2nd day) and see some more of the exhibits. Then for the afternoon I was driving down to Miami.

It was a very nice morning, so I started by dragging Mike's Pants with me into the Visitor's Center to take some candids. I got some pretty good pictures in the Rocket Garden. There was also an Enterprise bridge where I got some photos. After I was done with that, I took him back out to the car and then went into some of the other areas that I had missed before. There was an early spaceflight building where they had a mockup of the Soyuz as well as other early rockets and satellites. There were also some nice models of the rockets used in the man space program, including some early Saturn models.

In addition to the Enterprise bridge (original series) there was at least one other Star Treck exhibit tucked away. They included several modules I think were shooting models form various series and some movies. There was also a long cronology of the Star Trek universe.

I also saw the iMax 3D movie about the Space Telescope. This included footage from several different missions that launched and repaired the telescope (there were more than I had thought).

FInally, I got some pictures of the full scale (I think) Shuttle with SRBs and External Tanks.

Then it was time to leave. I made pretty good time down to Miami. I was continually worried about whether my tollway tags actually worked, but other than that, it was not very eventful.

Friday July 8, 2011 Florida - Shuttle Launch

This was really just a continuation of the previous day. At midnight I started driving over to the hotel in the Orlando area. I got there at about 1 AM and met up with the other people that I would be going with. The bus ticket was for 4 people. I met an older couple and then an older man who had provided the extra ticket. After some delay we got on the bus and headed to KSC (back where I had just come from). We got there about 3 PM or so - there wasn't much traffic. We talked for a bit but also got some rest. When we got to the Visitor's Center, the let us out and said we would be collected again at about 5 AM. We had the run of the place until then.

I walked to the bus access area shortly before 5 AM and it was a mass of people. When we had arrived a lot of people had set up chairs and sat there. I hadn't realized why. Then it turns out I was in the wrong section of the entry and had to go sideways completely to the other side. We ended up snaking through and exhibit and a bunch of barriers to go to a completely different area of the Visitor's Center. We had been told which bus to aim for but I never saw our guide. I ended up walking through a few rows of busses until I stumbled on the right one. The other three of our foursome were already there. We talked for a bit and then I nodded off to sleep. The busses were supposed to leave around 8:30 or so. I woke up well after that and we still hadn't moved. Somewhere around 10 or 11 AM we finally went off to the observation area. It took less than a half hour to get there. Everyone got out and ran for an observation point. I got trapped by a bush and ended up in sort of a second row. The people in front of me were in chairs so I could shoot over them. The camera with the full zoom did find the shuttle but the distance made the images rather fuzzy (I also may not have had the best auto settings). The plan was to put the camera on a tripod to hit the shutter once a second for launch and hand-hold the camcorder at the same time, trying to keep it steady.

We had about 2 hours before the launch, plus the continual reminder that the weather could still prevent launch. There was a PA system that allowed us to hear launch control. We had a visit from a helicopter while we waited. I spoke with a couple behind me who was there with their two year-old. They had driven down from one of the Carolinas. This was their second launch viewing.

The time went by fairly quickly and the weather got progressively better. Sometime in the last half hour rain started falling on Merrit Island. There was a slight possibility it could move over to the landing strip, but they decided to wave the requirement. The crowd cheered when the countdown started up from the last hold. The count went down smoothly until 31 seconds. There was a hold because a sensor indicated an arm hadn't fully moved away from the shuttle. It delayed the launch about 2 minutes. It was quite a cliffhanger. They started up right at 31 seconds and boom it was off. The clouds of exhaust and water vapor obscured the shuttle almost right away. It popped out of the top of the clouds and headed in a curve as it was turning on its back. The one thing that I didn't expect from the launch was the glow of the SRB exhaust. It looks very different in person. The Shuttle hit a cloud layer fairly quickly. It was really only visible for a few tens of seconds. I could see it though some openings in the clouds after a little bit but it went into the clouds a final time before the SRB separation. Although I was still listening to the PA system I almost immediately started breaking down the tripod and getting everything in my camera bag (so was everyone else). I waited to hear they were good after SRB seperation, but didn't wait until orbit insertion. Then it was back on the bus.

The bus ride back was expected to be long because everyone else would be using the roads out of the area. I napped off and on and we got back without it being too late. I said my thank-yous to my host (and the guide) and then drove back to my hotel. I arranged with the front desk that I was going to be leaving the next day (Saturday) rather than Sunday as I'd originally planned. Then I got some rest. I think I also made reservations for Miami and Key West then too (either that or the day before).

Thursday July 7, 2011 KSC Florida

This was my first full day in Florida. Although I did get in touch with the person with my ticket to the launch, it took several calls to agree that I would just show up at about 1 AM at his hotel.

I got to the KSC Visitors Center later than I wanted (about 10 AM I think). The tickets for special tours were all sold out. I actually had to wait in line for about an hour before I got in. Things had changed quite a lot from when I was there in 1985. The place is run by a company for NASA now. There were some Star Trek displays around the Visitor area. However, for today none of that mattered. It was also very crowded, not surprisingly.

The Visitors Center was organized into 3 major locations - a tower to view the Shuttle Launch Pad (not used during actual launch), an indoor display of a Saturn V (and LEM) and other items from the 1960s and the main visitors complex where I started. Today I was mainly concerned with going to the other two sites.

Unfortunately, it was raining off and on all day. It made it hard to take good pictures out of the bus. I also left Mike's Pants in the car - hoping it would clear up later.

The tower was new to me. I could just make out the launch pad from the top level. Then the rain started getting heavy. I even have some pictures of the launch pad before the rain and then just a darker gray area after the rain got heavy. There was also a rocket engine on two of the levels (I don't remember what the engine was).

Next I went to the Saturn V exhibit. It was nice to see it inside. Last time I saw it was from a bus as we left the VAB area - outside exposed to the elements. It was in much better shape now. Plus, I could walk underneath it. That was fun. I took lots of pictures of each stage including some detail. There was also a LEM hanging from the roof and a see-thru model of the Saturn V to show what was inside. All of it very cool.

There was lots of other stuff, including an Apollo capsule. There were two different theaters in the building. The first was a recreation of the Apollo Launch control center with a countdown from about 5 minutes. They had network news clips showing as the countdown and launch happened as well as lights showing the different consoles when they were speaking (there were no people at the consoles). The other was a program about the mission, from a more cerebral view. It included a mock LEM landing on a stage and, later the ascent stage taking off (none of which I took pictures of).

I went back to the main visitors center and looked around. A major area outside the central area was a memorial wall which listed all of the astronauts killed on the job. This included those killed on missions (including X15) as well as those killed during training (mostly jet crashes).

Finally, I went on the shuttle launch simulator. They had a good setup to keep you entertained while you were in line. When you got in, you went to a holding area where they had more explanation of what to expect. Finally they let you into the simulator. I miscalculated on the amount of junk I had in my pockets. Right when I was lining up to go into the simulator I noticed the sign that listed all of the things you should not have (like a cell phone); it also explained all of the lockers outside the entrance. I ended up stuffing my hands in my pockets so nothing would fall out. I mostly succeeeded. The ride was fun - no falling, which I hate, but the weightless simulation was done by pointing our pod down. There was a nice view of the earth out of the top section of the simulator at the end.

It was getting late so I drove to the Astronauts Hall of Fame. This was set up seperately from the KSC Visitor's Center but then became part of it. They had a room with all of the recognized astronauts, including their different missions. There was also a Mercury capsule and a Gemini mockup. There was also this odd movie on a sphere aperatus that intrigued me. After looking around a while I figured out that there were four video projectors all perfectly lined up projecting onto the globe. The globe also appeared to be floating in the middle of the room. It was too dark to tell, but I'm pretty sure there were wires holding it up.

Both the Visitor's Center and the Hall of Fame were open until 7 or 8 PM. I left shortly before the Hall of Fame closed. It was still light out.

After that I went to have something to eat and rest at the hotel.

Wednesday July 6, 2011 Florida

Flew into Orlando and got to my hotel. The flight arrived a little early I think. The hotel wasn't near much other than the freeway. I had to go over to the gas station to get online access.

The hotel across the road had a lighted sign that had an odd phrase on it - "topshelf karaoke". I can't imagine many things more "bottom-shelf" than karaoke, but they are entitled to their opinion.

Editors Note

Note: Sorry for the delay in posts from my latest trip. I did not have the bandwidth to post during the trip and due to a lost laptop, I had to rewrite my notes from the trip. I now have everything prepared and will start posting tomorrow - one post a day, exactly two weeks after each day of the trip occurred.

Sunday July 3: Hamlin Beach

Today was my final day in the Rochester area. John and I decided to go to Hamlin Beach State Park. It was a place we went in the summer (usually) all the time growing up (each with our families) but hadn't been to since a few years after we graduated high school.

John knew the route to the park and we had no trouble getting there. The entry fee was $7 (oh, the horror). There were plenty of people there mostly in the central area, probably because that was where the snack bar was. There were lots of families using the grills.

The fact that there were buildings was a surprise. I'm not sure whether they weren't there before or I had just forgotten. There certainly seemed to be more than before. The beaches seemed to be clean (i.e. no dead fish as I recalled) but I wasn't sure about the water. It was cloudy but I wasn't sure what that meant. The beach was broken up by a series of jetties of jumbled large rocks, probably to break up any currents running parallel to the beach. There were also lifeguard stations at each beach section, although not all were manned. I think the jetties were there before but not the lifeguards. It seems a lot of effort had been put into the beach since were had been there last.

The same couldn't be said for the parking areas. Although there weren't any deep ruts that I remember there was grass growing out of expansion cracks all over the place. Seagulls had picked out certain sections of some of the lots to rest in (that hadn't changed). We had fun driving through them although we had to go slowly because they didn't really want to move (we didn't hit any).

After getting drinks at the snack bar we walked out on one of the jetties to try to look at the bluffs at the west end of the beach. Unfortunately, all we saw were trees. So we decided to go to the source. We drove over to the last parking area and walked to the west edge of the beach.

When we got there, all we saw were trees. We walked up to the signs saying don't go past this point but didn't go in. There was a path past the signs but the greenery was dense enough we couldn't see too far past the edge of the trees. I took a few pictures and we left. Thinking about it later it occurred to me that the trees may have been part of the stabilization of the bluffs. Although I remember a few trees the last time I was there (about 1979) and some plants on the ground, I think mostly the bluffs were just sand.