Now Boarding Flight to Orlando

Feeling hot hot hot! What a fantastic weekend we had in Florida. The weather was warm (like 34C warm) and sunny). Friday, we hung out around Disney. At MGM Studios, we did The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. I hate rollercoasters. I closed my eyes, hold my breathe and waited til it was over. We then took the monorail to Magic Kingdom where I met Mickey. We finished at Epcot where we had a great lunch at the French restaurant, checked out the World Pavillons, and tried out their new ride (Soarin).

Now on to the real reason why we went all the way to Orlando. R turned 30 this year. For the space geek that he is, only a trip to NASA would be worthy of his 30 year old birthday. Up until Friday, he had no clue where I was taking him (whee!). We were registered in the Astronaut Training Experience at NASA.

We got to chichat with Charlie Walker, an astronaut who went to space three times (3!). It was amazing to talk to him. He seemed like a well rounded individual. I asked him if going to space had changed the way he sees the world. He responded that he is even more aware of environmental issue now that he has seen from up above how thin the layer of air around the earth is. The second highlight of our visit was to SEE the space shuttle.

To our surprise, Discovery was on its launch pad, uncovered. This does not happen very often so we were lucky. We also did a simulation of two missions. I was a mission specialist and the public affair officer. R was a mission specialist and the flight director. Needless to say he loved his surprise!

We spent Sunday at the pool enjoying the weather. I cannot believe it’s only 11C here!

Pictures