First post of 2013, it’s been a busy month. The first week of February my mom, dad, and I traveled to Key largo for vacation. We stayed at the Key Lime sailing club, which had a ton of fun stuff for us to do out on the bay, yes, including sailing. We went snorkeling twice which was awesome both times. We also went to the Florida Everglades where we saw tons of neat birds and alligators. It was a really great trip. There are a ton of pictures in my flickr gallery, and here are but a few of them.
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On Tuesday we visited Universal Studios Orlando, and went to Islands of Adventure to visit the amusement park rides. We did the new harry Potter coasters, Jurassic Park ride, Flume Ride, Spiderman, and Incredible Hulk Coaster. We also did the ET Ride, Simpson’s, Jaws, The Mummy Returns, and Twister.
Wednesday we traveled to Crystal River Wildlife reservation to do a manatee tour with Fun2Dive. It was really great. We snorkeled around in the many coves of the reservation and saw many manatee. We also visited a few of the natural springs that feed the area. Tracy spotted a crab on the bottom. We saw many fish, and were visited by still more manatee. Heather brought her underwater camera, and we were able to get some really neat photos.
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If you are in the Orlando, Florida area, and want to swim with the Manatees, we highly recommend Fun2Dive. They specialize in small group (1-6 people), all day excursions to view manatees in a non-threatening natural environment. More photos in the Florida flickr gallery.
This fall Tracy and I traveled to Orlando Florida for vacation with Craig and Heather. We had a really good time. Monday we went to Discovery Cove, nd all inclusive resort where we swam in a huge artificial reef complete with rays and a variety of fish, we visited the bird aviary and fed many friendly tropical birds, we floated around the lazy river, and swam with the dolphins in the cove. It was a lot of fun, and included admission to Sea World, which we visited on Thursday. There are, of course, a bunch of photos in my flickr gallery.
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Tuesday 11/17/2009 Day 5: Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge
After visiting the awesome Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville, we headed up US-1 towards the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is closed 3 days before a shuttle launch to prevent people from hiding out to see the launch from up close. The refuge borders NASA Kennedy Space Center, and we were sure to drive down to the beach to get close to the pads, although we had already seen the launch the day before. The majority of the pictures from our trip to Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge are available in much larger sizes in my Flickr photo gallery.
After briefly stopping at the visitor center for a map and directions we headed out to take a few wildlife drives, and race out to the manatee viewing platform. Unfortunately there were no manatees at the viewing area, so we returned down the road and took the Blackpoint Wildlife drive. It was an awesome drive and we saw tons of birds and wildlife.
On the way to the wildlife drive we saw many vultures, some Great Egret’s and some Snowy Egrets.
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Once we started on the drive we saw several alligators, and some more birds, as well as an Osprey on one of the Bald Eagle platforms.
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We toured the wetland area and saw lots of birds including lousiana herons.
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We saw a Bald Eagle land on a far away platform. On the way out we shooed a snake off the road so it wouldn’t get run over.
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After doing the wildlife drive, we headed down towards the seashore on a winding road through the marshes. There we got some super close up views of a great blue heron.
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Then after rounding a corner we had to stop the car after another alligator was blocking the road. He was huge! There was no way around, so form a safe distance we got out of the car to see him and take some photos before he slid back into the water. A definite highlight of the whole trip.
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We then made it down to the seashore where we could see the launch pads at sunset and the beach. It was a great end to the day and to the whole trip.
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As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery.
Tuesday 11/17/2009 Day 5: VAC Warbird Museum
On Tuesday, after the shuttle launch we decided to head up to Titusville to visit the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum. It looked pretty neat on the web site, and looked pretty small on the google map, so we decided to stop in. It turned out to be a really awesome museum, and we got a really great personal tour. The museum is located next to the Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. Our guide, Erik Kramer, told us this was one of the busiest helicopter flight schools in the country, and there was a steady stream of take off’s and landings as we toured the hangers.
We started our tour of the main hanger, which was just full of airplanes from World War 2 to the Vietnam era and beyond. Shortly we met up with our guide Erik Kramer who did a just masterful job of telling us all about every single plane in the museum, and about his background. Erik is a volunteer at the museum, and a former prisoner of war by the Japanese army in World War 2. His family owned a plantation in the the Far East and were imprisoned for not helping the Japanese war effort. He spun a fascinating story of survival, and was an extremely nice man to talk to.
This ME208 was used as a transporter for members of the German military in World War 2. It is shown in period colors.
Our guide told us this plane doesn’t belong in the museum and should really be taken out and destroyed :). It is a kit plane, a smaller scale model of a P51 Mustang. The fighter used by the USA extensively in World War 2.
This plane, the Grumman F4 Wildcat has an amazing history. It was recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan, where it was once used in aircraft carrier take of and landing practice. The plane had to ditch in the lake. It was recovered from the lake, and restored at the museum. With the tail number identified, they were able to find out all the history, and have the pilot who crashed it come visit for the unveiling of the restored plane. The engine could not be restored because of the decades of under water corrosion, but it sits nearby on display. Like many planes used by the Navy at the time, it is painted blue, and has fold up wings for carrier operations.
Next we viewed a fully functional B25 Mitchell Bomber. It is in working condition, as can be seen from the oil pans beneath the engines to catch any dripping oil. There were actually quite a few of these oil pans and rags about the museum, as they try hard to keep as many planes as they can in flight condition.
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Next we walked over to the restoration hanger where we got to see the C-47 Skytrain Tico Belle being restored. This was truly an amazing aircraft. Its history includes glider operations for D-Day and Operation Market Garden at Arnhem, ferrying of supplies for the battle at Bastogne, and crossing of the Rhine into Germany. She participated in the Berlin airlift, and was latter transferred to the Royal Danish Air Force as part of the lend lease program. In the 80’s she was retired and came into ownership of the VAC. In 2001 she crash landed and is nearing completion of her rebuild.
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Also being restored in the hanger is an Avenger aircraft. This plane is really large, and has folding wings for aircraft carrier service. Our guide told us that general Motors would sometimes just rivet up all the electrical access hatches rather than leave them open, so it is quite a challenge for the men restoring the plane. There was electrical system restoration work going on at the time we were there, with lots of schematics out. The guys even had an old style radio playing nearby, really looked authentic.
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Additional planes undergoing restoration included an Vietnam era F4 Phantom. This T2 Buckeye trainer sat outside on the tarmac at the museum.
While we toured the hangers, we could hear the sounds of heavy gunfire in the distance, which was from a nearby army training facility in the woods. It was some heavy caliber guns, and added to the classic World War 2 feeling of the air museum. A nice unexpected touch!
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Returning to the hanger we saw the F-86 Sabre jet. Heavily used in the Korean war, the F-86 scored a 10:1 kill ratio over the russian made Mig-15. It is a really nice plane, in great condition, and still flying.
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Following the Sabre and Mig jets we viewed some other Vietnam era helicopters and jets. The UH-1 Huey, and A6 Intruder. We saw the F-101B Voodoo, and a NASA/DARPA test jet with an odd nose cone for testing different shaped nose effects on breaking the sound barrier.
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We saw an actual F-14 Tomcat up close, an F-8 Crusader, A-4 Skyhawk painted up in the Blue Angels colors, an A-7 Corsair, and lots of other neat engines and helicopters.
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As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery.
Monday 11/16/2009 Day 4: STS-129 Launch
Monday was the big day for the shuttle launch. Sunday was a picture perfect day, cloudless and 80 degrees. We went to bed with a 90% chance of favorable weather for the launch Monday. We stocked up on sunscreen, and even decided to bring a couple towels to place over the back of our necks, as it was going to be really hot, and we were going to be sitting out in the open on the narrow causeway for hours waiting for the launch. STS-129 had a scheduled launch window of 2:28pm, but we needed to be at the space center at 7:00am.
We got tickets in late October to view the shuttle launch from the NASA Causeway within the NASA property. Only a few thousand tickets are available and they sell out in about 2-3 minutes. We would be viewing the launch from a very narrow strip of land about 6 miles from the launch pad. This picture shows the VIP, Press, and Causeway viewing areas. We are at the star (Jeff’s preferred viewing area).
Since we got up before dawn, as the sun came up we noticed a low cloud layer. The current launch weather prediction was for low clouds that they hoped would burn off, giving only a 70 percent chance of favorable launch weather. What happened to the sun?!?! By 7am, it was really cloudy and cool, in the mid 50’s. We were dressed for sunny 80 degrees, and just had white t-shirts and shorts. It was wind,chilly, and seemed like no way the clouds would burn off.
We decided to take one of the normal tours NASA was running, as buses to the causeway didn’t board until 11:30am. The launch day bus tours are very abbreviated, and only take you to the Saturn V building or the International Space Station Center. Fortunately we hadn’t viewed the ISS Center Friday, so we took a bus there. On the way we got to see a pair of bald eagles that live on the Kennedy Space Center grounds. I took a few shots through the bus windows. You can see it is a cloudy morning. The eagle photos were taken at 8:40am.
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I saw this water tower on the tour too, nice to see NASA has some creative people working for them.
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The black containers in this photo fit into the rounded “suitcases”.
NASA has limited buses to take people to the causeway, and the buses must remain there in case of a launch emergency and the need arises to bus us civilians back to the visitor center. We needed to remember our bus number (ours was 23, like Michael Jordan). We made it out to the causeway relatively quickly and settled into a viewing area in the second row of people. Dad did a great job and scored us some plastic chairs to sit in. That made the day much more bearable. This first shot of the shuttle shows what the day started as, cool and cloudy. Next you can see the causeway crowd before launch. I took an infrared image that shows how far away the shuttle is without a 200mm zoom lens.
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We had to wait around 2 and a half hours for the shuttle to launch, and as we waited, the skies slowly cleared. We saw lots of birds, and fish were jumping from the water like crazy. There were dolphins swimming in front of us, and a C130 refueled two blackhawk helicopters as we waited. The clouds slowly cleared, and with around 9 minutes until launch the NASA broadcast stated that the weather was “perfect” so we knew we were a go.
The following are a few pictures of the launch I took. I used a Canon 40D, and a 70-200mm F2.8 lens without tripod. The launch pad was about 6 miles away and I am really impressed with the results. Click each image for a larger photo.
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The launch was spectacular, but seemed over in minutes. I took a few infrared photos, and you can really see the shadow of the exhaust plume as the sun shines down onto the low cloud bank.
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After the launch we hung around and took a couple more shots of us at the viewing area, exchanged some high-fives, and got back on the bus to the visitor center. A pair of F-15 Eagle jets flew over. We actually made it back to the hotel by around 5pm, had some dinner, watched some football and went to bed. It was a really great day, and we were so lucky to see the launch on our first try.
As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery.
Sunday 11/15/2009 Day 3: Florida Institute of Technology and Cocoa Beach
On Sunday we took a break from our traveling to relax before the shuttle launch. We did go south to Melbourne and the Florida Institute of Technology to walk through their botanical gardens which was nice. There were lots of varieties of palms, bamboo, and lizards too. A lot of the trees had giant pathos plants growing all over them, but the leaves were huge compared to how large they get indoors in Rochester.
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For me, it was fun to see lizards everywhere, but I have a hunch they are like squirrels down there to Floridians. I took the opportunity to take some infrared photos while we walked through the gardens, as the palm plants make really stunning pictures.
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After we walked through the gardens, we went back to the hotel to spend the day at the beach. There were strong rip tides because of the remnants of Hurricane Ida that went up the coast, but we still did some wading. It was a very rough surf, and you really got pushed around by the waves and currents. But you gotta go in the ocean when you go on vacation, so we did.
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As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery. Day 4 includes our photos of the shuttle launch.
Saturday 11/14/2009 Day 2: Daytona 500 Experience
On Saturday we traveled up Interstate 95 to Daytona to tour Daytona International Speedway and the museum. When we arrived we were able to hop onto a tour tram and get onto a tour of the infield. I was surprised that the speedway actually seemed smaller than I thought it was. Seemed like if you were watching a race that you would easily be able to see all the action around the track. It is a large track, don’t get me wrong, but I was pleasantly surprised at the sight lines.
The tour took us into the infield through one of the tunnels under turn 4. The tour guide told us that the Italian Auto Club currently had track time, and we were treated to a steady stream of Ferraris, Mustangs, and other sports cars zooming around the track. Pretty much EVERYONE on the tour was more excited to see the cars racing by than look at the row of garages or grandstands and safety fences.
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The banking of the track is REALLY steep, at 30 degrees in the corners. The tour stopped near the new winners circle for us all to get photos there, and view the VIP suites high above the speedway. Still, most people were trying to get views of the sports cars on the track.
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After touring the speedway we went into the museum. There were multiple interactive racing simulators (some cost money), lots of cars on display, and lots of Richard Petty memorabilia. Matt Kenseth’s 2009 Daytona 500 winning car was on display right out of the winners circle. There were lots of bugs and gunk on it, and the fenders, front and back, were bashed in from the bump drafting. Really cool.
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We watched an IMAX movie in 3D which was pretty good, and then went out to the track to watch some more auto club racing from the turn 4 grandstands. The cars were fast, and you could tell the grandstands were huge.
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Overall it was a really nice day, and we spent about 4 1/2 hours at the museum before heading back to Coca Beach.
As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery. Day 3 includes our trip to see the gardens at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and the beach.
Friday 11/13/2009 Day 1: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center
On the first day of our Florida trip to see the NASA STS-129 Shuttle Atlantis Launch, we decided to tour the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center to see the exhibits and take the Up-Close Shuttle Bus Tour of the complex. We knew we were going to be back on Monday the 16th for the shuttle launch, but wanted to take a day on site before the launch day so we could take our time and see everything we wanted to without feeling rushed on launch day. Plus, some of the tours and exhibits might be closed on launch day, and Dad made the great move of getting us Up-Close tour bus tickets for Friday, which promised to get us closer to the shuttle launch (it did not disappoint).
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We arrived at the Visitor Center Friday morning and proceeded to walk through the rocket garden. The rocket garden has a collection of the early rockets the United States used to get astronauts and payloads into space. There is a Mercury Redstone, like the one Alan Shepard used to be the first American in Space, and a Saturn rocket, similar to the humongous Saturn V, as well as an assortment of capsules and many informative plaques and descriptions. Dad and I even sat in some of the replicas. It was pretty neat, and tough to get all the rockets into the camera frames.
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After viewing the Rocket Garden, we went to the Astronaut Memorial, and saw a brief presentation on NASA today, which showed some live remote camera views of the prep work that was being completed for the upcoming shuttle launch. It was pretty informative, and neat to see. Then we went and saw the 3D IMAX movie about the International Space Station, and it was on to the main event, the Up-Close Bus Tour.
The Up-Close tour was really great and well worth the extra $20 it costs. We got to ride out to the NASA Causeway where we would be watching the STS-129 launch from on Monday. We could also see the Atlas V rocket which was supposed to be launching Intelsat 14 early Saturday morning, and the Delta IV rocket in its assembly building which was to launch later in the next week, but got delayed. We could tell that we were going to have some prime viewing spots for the launch. The shuttle was on Pad 39A, although most of it was obscured because the control structure was in place. NASA Launch Pad 39A, where Atlantis would launch from is 6 miles away from the causeway. Pad 39B, converted for the Ares Rocket Program is slightly farther away. The Delta IV and Atlas V are US Air Force Launch Sites, and not accessible or viewable to the public. Views from the causeway.
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After viewing the launch sites and rockets from the causeway, we got back on the bus and headed towards the large Vehicle Assembly Building. We made a right and drove past the standard tour viewing platform (3 miles away) and headed towards a closer tour viewing area. We drove past the 39B launch pad and past a couple NASA crawlers. Then we made it to a viewing area midway between pads 39A and 39B. It was really close. We stayed there a while and viewed both pads. Shuttle Atlantis was on 39A. We also saw a tortoise burying eggs, and a NASA T-38 Jet fighter flew over. It was very close, very cool, and well worth the trip.
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While at the viewing platform I was able to use my super zoom lense to get an image of one of the USGS Benchmarks in the excluded camera pad area. Its designation is “KAREN”.
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After viewing the shuttle and launch pads, we went to the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The VAB is the largest building in the world by volume. It is over 500 feet high, and each star on the giant American flag is 6 feet in diameter. Each stripe is 9 feet in diameter. The VAB was built to assemble the huge Saturn V rocket. Today’s shuttle is half that size. When we visited, vultures were using the heat waves off the building to soar. More info on the VAB is available on Wikipedia.
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We did a drive by of the really loooonng NASA landing strip after our stop at the VAB. It was not very exciting, just a huge runway.
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After the runway drive-by we ended our bus tour at the Saturn V building. This rocket is huge! To big for my zoom lens, so I’ll have to wait for some pictures from Dad to post here. It was neat to see the rocket, touch a moon rock, and get a bit to eat. The Saturn V building is near the bleachers where the extended family of the astronauts get to view the launch. More info on the giant Saturn V rocket is available on Wikipedia.
After the bus tour, we returned to the visitor center and rode the NASA Launch Experience, which was amusing, and toured the shuttle bay in their full size shuttle on sight. Then it was back to the hotel. The Intelsat 14 satellite was due to blast off on the Atlas V rocket we saw earlier at 12:48am that night. So we got some rest and went out to the beach at 12:30am to watch the launch. Unfortunately unknown to us, the launch was scrubbed at 12:35am and we ended up staying out on the beach until 2:15am before giving up on it that morning. Doh!
As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery. Day 2 includes our trip to Daytona Speedway.
