Thursday/Friday en route and at KSC

Wow. There's just… wow. I love Florida.

The drive was long and sucky, but we got in (and then I got to stay up later until the last car got in also so I could show them to the dorms and give them their keys) and were housed in the wonderful (and delightfully complimentary, thank you!) Florida Institute of Technology dorms.

So we woke up, got pretty, and drove out to the island where KSC is, which is also a National Wildlife Refuge. Then we drove up and down the road looking for our badging office, which turned out to be a different badging office than the one we were landmarking for, but it worked out. Got badged, went in to the KSC HQ building, checked out the gift shop (which was way more "gift shop/corner store/newsstand" than "space goods"), and got on our bus. (Funnily enough, the astronaut ice cream at MSFC is cheaper than the stuff at any of the other centers, especially ones that astronauts actually frequent. Huh.) Bus headed out to the Vehicle Assembly Building, which is really really big. They stack Space Shuttles inside of it. Oh, but we can't go inside because of RTF stuff. I hate when tours do that to us. Happened at JSC, too… we have really really cool things on the agenda until the last minute, and then we get cancelled because of Return to Flight activities. I understand that has much much more prominence than little ol' us, but we could have been allowed to peek in the door and take some pics without disturbing anyone.

On the way to the VAB was the giant bald eagle nest that had been there for over 20 years. It was estimated to be around a thousand pounds, I believe they said. Past the VAB were the launch pads. *imagine intense giddiness mixed with extreme sleepiness here* We got to see Discovery on the pad, and drove all the way around it, then got out to do some pics. Of course. Then we went to a building where they assemble solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and I saw where my explosive-charge-fractured frangible nut from the wonderful pyro guys fits into the Shuttle.

After lunch at a diner called Shuttles, we have a meeting with Center Director Jim Kennedy, who's really great. He gives us an overview of the center, answers questions, and is generally awesome. One of our (Morgan's) last questions is a kinda pointed question of, "Hey, do you know where a good place to watch the launch would be?" So he lists some beaches and locations, and then, finally he pretty much says, "Well, if you guys are going to stick around, I have these two busses that I'm allowed to put anyone I want on, and they were filled before when the launch scrubbed a few hours before it was supposed to go, but a lot of people won't be here this time. I might have some spare seats…" And so we were given the personal invitation of the Center Director to watch from the VIP section, the closest place you can see it. That rocks hardcore!!

After that we went to the beach, I got to play in the Atlantic Ocean for a couple of hours, and it was excellent and relaxing. Then… we had sushi! I love sushi. I had something called a NASA roll that involved super delicious eel and avocado and roe and some other things and was wrapped in a crepe (several of their rolls were wrapped in crepes). After dinner we had an adventure of trying to find wireless internet (unsuccessful) and other various necessities with varying levels of success. The evening turned out really great overall, I spent a lot of time getting to know people better, and Omar helped me come up with a game plan for during and after ISU to get the things done that I want to get done in life and have a great time doing it. I might just end up being a scientist. Maybe.