Shuttle launch!

We returned to Houston last night after a jam packed weekend of fun and lots of walking. :) Since the main purpose was of course to see the shuttle (despite how much disney filled the time), that is my first post.

We started the morning with a 2:50am wakeup call. We then drove out to KSC, arriving around 4:40-4:45. We had this brilliant plan of stopping at McD's for breakfast. Problem was, we never saw one and we didn't print out a map showing where the closest one is. So, no food for us. Peter showed his badge a few times and we eventually parked in a field by the water. The shuttle is launched on the other side of the water. They had NASA tv blasted over the speakers, so we could hear what was going on. As we drove in, there were several locations that were further out and played the nasa tv on big videos. But since we could actually see the shuttle (though dimly- it was very dark) a screen would have been a distraction. We then waited. Bin played with some toys we bought her at Downtown Disney (more on that in a later post) and I pretended to nap. Napping in a compact car, though, is basically impossible.

We had a few nervous moments as they called out potential problems. At one point, some communication thing was broken and they listed the flight as a no go. A few minutes later, they announced backup was working and the flight was a go again. Another fun flight, should anything go wrong, get in a sealed airconditioned building and listen for further announcements. For those on the causeway (where we were) there are no buildings, so jump in your cars and close the windows. With that many cars, evacuation would be so slow. :) But we were fine.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/ Video of the launch- mine isn't that good. :) Very fuzzy and camera had some trouble with complete dark to complete light- if requested I will post mine.

The launch was amazing. I am glad we saw a night launch too. It goes from being very dark to the whole sky lit up, almost like the sun rose in one brief second. Also, across the lake, we had a several second delay on the sound- which was pretty neat. Everyone cheered and was very excited once the countdown started. Then there was the wait to make sure nothing went wrong and then more cheers as they announced rescue services would not be needed. Jet planes flew over, which we assume were out prepared to help with security and back up.

Bin's response to all this- she hugged daddy and said I want to go home! She did look and later she told us all about daddy's space shuttle and how she saw it (but couldn't go in). Peter also enjoyed gloating over the disney people who were like, we saw the shuttle this morning from the hotel. So much more awesome to see it there vs 40 miles away. Afterwards, the clouds (which were more smoke were the neatest colors in the rising sun.

Then we had the sucky part- getting back to the hotel. The traffic basically didn't move at all. 40 miles back to the hotel, 2o of them at a crawl. Took over 3 hours, which was absolutely ridiculous and frustrating and boring. Bin slept. Peter was driving and only fell asleep a few times.

Last 2 pics- actually from the airport but this seemed like the best place to put them. Bin thought this statue was really neat and was being c ute, then I suggested daddy also hold her hand. The first one was her natural response.