My mother cat sat and Rick and I headed for warmer climates. We left out of Baltimore as that required no flying or excessive driving. There are no pics, as who cares about the Balitmore port? So, onward.
After 2 days at sea chugging south, on Wednesday we finally arrive at our first stop in Florida. Guess where we went?
If you can't figure it out from that, I am sorry that your mother had a still birth. That was attached to this:
I swear when we drove past that I saw Discovery inside attached to the main booster rocket (it is being repaired, again, as more leaks were discovered and it had to be pulled off the launch pad). We were told that it was in the near side of it, and as we drove past, through the open door that can be seen above, I saw a big, tall shape with something white-ish behind it with two sweeping wings. The tour guide said that I didn't see it. Unfortunately, when we got out to take pictures, I could not get to the angle I needed to see it again. Instead, all I got to see was the nose of a solid rocket booster sticking out.
We saw launch pads, including the one below that is being partially dismantled. They will remove the cargo loading piece to the left that was added for the shuttle, and go back to the bare tower of the rocket days.
I also discovered the museum setting on my camera, which gave me some sweet shots in one of the dark halls. Get in the capsule.
Really sweet pics.
Unfortunately, as one of our tour guides stated, we were trying to shove 10 lbs into a 5 lb sack, and thus a lot was rushed. We didn't get the time to really enjoy anything and just took a picture and ran to the next thing, but we did ride the shuttle launch simulator which was pretty damn trippy. The sneaky little buggers actually almost sorta kinda simulated 0g.
Oh, and the Saturn V had some pretty damn big engines. Really big. You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's peanuts to Saturn V engines. The picture doesn't do them justice at all.
Rick was in geeky glory, except for the fact that he couldn't go inside any of the geeky buildings we passed and were told about. But, considering the kind of explosives that litter the place, they like to keep commoners well separated.
The next day was our 8th anniversary. Where did we spend it?
And how did we spend our 8th anniversary? Experiencing a truly nerdy mode of transportation.
Yes, that is an off-road Segway. And yes, those are very attractive helmets and yes, I did find a mysterious rash on the backs of my knees that night.
One might think ships stopped there or something. Ours is in the middle.
Next up was Freeport, where we were to have an open ocean dolphin encounter. How awesome is that? In the wild, without concrete walls that force them to turn off their sonar? I was jazzed.
This was our Freeport experience.
That is the image from one of our room's TVs showing our aborted attempt at docking in Freeport. The winds were too high for the narrow channel leading up to it, and right after the abort the port closed anyway. We learned the juiciest details straight from the Captain on the Bridge the next day, and wish everyone heard the full story as there might have been less pissed off people.
Instead of dolphins, we had an extra full day at sea and an early return to Baltimore.
So what did I do with the money I was refunded from my very expensive excursions? I gave a good deal of it back to the casino. Sigh.
At two in the morning on Freeport's night I was awakened by the loud sound of wind whipping through my deck. I turned on the TV and saw the highest wind gust was 69 mph. If the boat is rockin', don't come knockin'. It certainly was rocking and no one came knocking; they would have fallen into the drink.
In the morning, our somewhat neatly arranged deck furniture was all over the place. The chaise lounge in the front was flattened, and the one in the rear was doubled over as if with a stomach ache and had wandered in from around the corner.
Yes, that was the deck for our room (taken in the Chesapeake). We had a DAMN fine suite. And I am now DAMN poor.
Oh hey, sunset from our deck.
We also went on the boat's behind the scenes tour, which was awesome but alas, no photos, as security was very strict. We even got wanded. Ooooh. We got pictures taken, including one of me "driving" the boat with the captain, but we have no scanner so nyah.
Let's see, what else. Rick had acupuncture for the first (and second) time, and loved it. At dinner, we were seated with another couple who are so much like Rick and I that it is scary, except they have the kind of jobs that Rick and I actually wanted. I ate too much. We had VIP embarkation and debarkation. Etc.
And now back to reality.....
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