The next four fabulous days were spent with cousins Julie & Mike at the environs of “The Happiest Place on Earth”.  The accommodations at Saratoga Springs were perfect and well situated within walking distance of Downtown Disney where Julie & Mike met up with their favorite princess;-)

A Prince and his Princesses.

Venturing outside that “Happy” place for a day, we checked out the Kennedy Space Center, which is abuzz with activity again;-)  Here one can view artifacts of NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs.  Today’s visitor center and tours are a far cry from the drive-thru tour in 1963 of what was known as Cape Kennedy.  By popular demand, tours expanded to the adjacent Kennedy Space Center in 1965 creating the need for an actual visitor center.  In 1966 a temporary facility provided basic exhibits, restrooms and a hub for public bus tours.  Today’s facility is a far cry from its humble beginnings.  The tours have also expanded allowing us today to take a look behind the scenes, including the Vehicle Assembly Building, Launch Complex 39 and the Launch Control Center.  And we were off – –

The Vehicle Assembly Building is more than 50 stories tall…

…and is still in use today.  A launch tower in place waiting for the addition of a rocket.

Launch Pad 39A was used for the launch of most of the Apollo space craft as well as more than 80 Space Shuttle flights. It is now being used by Elon Musk’s SpaceX operations.

A trip in this area would not be complete without spending time with cousins Brett, Cindy and their boys – Barrett & Harrison – at their lovely home in Tampa.  We even got to attend Barrett’s baseball game where he had 3 RBI!

Barrett was an RBI machine at his Little League playoff game.

As always, our stay went by way too fast – but it was lots of fun.  Time to load up MiniMagic one more time and headed north.

Thanks to Julie and Mike for a fun few days. 

A BIG THANK YOU to all the Clarke’s for their hospitality – especially Julie & Mike;-)  The above doesn’t capture ALL the activities we had during these four days!  There were also delicious dinners at the Old Hickory Steakhouse at the Gaylord Palms Resort and at Hemmingway’s at the Grand Hyatt – and a yummy rib dinner at Chez Brett after the baseball game!  There was also shopping and sightseeing.  And – the best part – we did not set foot in any one of the theme parks to mingle with the hoards of people;-)  Just enjoyed hours of visiting and catching up.

Speaking of catching up – on the way to Orlando there was a quick visit to Vero Beach to catch-up with good friends Betsey & Garrett.  Again, we were treated to two fabulous meals, a tour of their new home and several hours of just plain visiting;-)

This is the best part of this trip – the really special visits with family and friends.  And this portion of our trip has just begun.

E & G