Publish Date: Friday, April 17, 2009
Location: Cocoa, Florida
Coordinates: 28° 21.560′ N 80° 42.905′ W
Ayla with the space shuttle Atlantis behind her on the launch pad.
Everybody’s school has spring time field trips, and our home school is no different. We visited Epcot Center on Wednesday, and The Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. Both excursions were excellent due to the content, but made even better by beautiful weather.
Epcot is the favorite Disney theme park for all the crew of Three@Sea. It must just speak to the travel spirit in each of us, along with our love of science and futuristic type things. Our favorite countries to visit were Morroco and Norway, both we hope to see in person in the next few years. The “Test Track” ride was fun, and met our “need for speed”, since normally we are only moving about 6.5 knots (~8 mph) on the boat.
The Kennedy Space Center provides an excellent tour and exhibits; which can’t help but you get fired up about space exploration and what the human spirit can accomplish when working together. We saw the space shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad awaiting her May 12th launch.
When making inland excursions we often dock the boat at marina, particularly if the weather is “iffy” or
We saw our first wild alligator while touring the Kennedy Space Center. Good security system!
there is chance the wind could shift 180 degrees. We prefer the boat not be dragging around the anchorage, especially if we are not there. Of course, there are plenty of cruisers out there, who will leave their boats for weeks or even months at anchor while they are away. We haven’t quite reached that stage yet, so we tucked in to the Cocoa Village Marina (nice facilities, very friendly staff). Also, there was an Enterprise Rent-A-Car just a few miles away and they gladly picked us up to get our car. Any time we have needed a rental car, Enterprise has always been close by and willing to pick-up and drop off—a key selling point for any cruiser. Both of these items do add to the expense of an excursion, so we use them sparingly.
We all had a great time! It definitely brought back childhood memories of spring time school field trips and the anticipation of summer.
Glad you liked the Space Center; I used to work there on Apollo before moving to Boulder in 1970. Saw the Daily Camera article about you and have signed up for updates, really enjoy hearing about your adventures.