I needed a break from

…planning my menu > cooking my planned menu > cleaning after cooking my planned menu > vacuuming > scrubbing > dusting > planning another menu.. not again! Le sigh.. the endless list of household chores!

So, last weekend was a blast {literally} with a trip to Kennedy Space Center – NASA. Some might quote me as geeky, but I heart NASA 🙂 If only, whilst growing up, my parents had coaxed me more towards space engineering. Anyone out there, dream of being an astronaut? You have my blessings for sure 🙂

This is a lengthy post, filled with photos. Don’t steal, ask for permission before using any photos. Considered warned 🙂

If you are a Floridian, I would suggest getting the yearly pass to NASA, or for that matter, any Disney theme parks! Total tour takes a whole lot of time. With unlimited returns to NASA via a yearly pass, you can plan your trip and cover every nook and cranny. You have 1 year to do that anyways 😉 There’s a whole lot of exhibits, tours and gadgets to see, test-drive and familiarize with. We arrived around noon and was greeted by some gracious security personnel at the check point. It was a fast and easy-peasy process. They were absolutely friendly. I heart friendliness. After a click of the above photo, me and Tarun were famished and begin our tour by visiting the Orbit Cafe for a scrumptious meal of chicken fingers and fries. It’s fast food for us whenever we are on the road.

With a happy tummy, we proceeded for our first bus tour. This is not our first trip to NASA. We skipped visiting a couple of exhibition sites that we’ve visited before and instead, choose to enjoy the informational bus tours and clicked away endlessly with our Nikon 🙂 These photo’s below are some of scenery’s taken from the bus:

Awaiting to board the tourist bus

This is where the orbiter is fitted & engineered with the Solid Rocket Boosters 😉

The Crawler is used to transport the orbiter to the launchpad for the countdown 😉

Pebbled pathway for the enormous Crawler!

We returned to the Visitor’s Centre Rocket Garden and enjoyed a full blown view of orbiters, shuttle rocket booster and experienced a whooping simulation of a shuttle launch. Goodness! It was so thrilling! No photos allowed in the simulation as it was a very shaky ride. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself or any one else! I could never understand how these astronauts are able to handle such working conditions, riskiness and pressures. Kudos to them, I can never do it because of my vertigo. And the fact that I am very well under-qualified 😉 Sigh… this is the little astronaut in me, spewing words from the beyond 😀 Enough of me, let’s get back to more photos:

A model of a solid rocket booster!

A model of an Orbiter, where astronaut's are housed during shuttle missions.

The Launch Simulation Hall.. Exhilirating!!!

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for Part 2 – our visit to the Astronaut’s Hall of Fame. Yes, this tour was a long and enjoyable one!

On a separate note, we want to take this opportunity to thank our readers and well-wishers for your continued support, love and participation during the 2009 Orbbies: Orlando’s Rockin’ Blogs competition. We are eternally grateful 🙂

So, what are your plans for the weekend? Anything in the lines of … 3…2…1… Lift Off?