At sea…quick trip to the Bahamas

While sitting on Cocoa Beach, you can see cruise ships sailing out to sea leaving from nearby Port Canaveral.  We checked into it and found a great deal on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.  We had two stops, Royal Caribbean’s private island and Nassau.  We loved our first cruise and were very excited to go on another. 

This time we just got an inside room, instead of a room with a balcony.  We didn’t mind – we were hardly ever in our room. We joined the crowds at the pool deck.

But, also had time, on the private island, away from the crowds.  We went on a jet ski tour and saw the most beautiful turquoise water and also went snorkeling and saw some pretty cool fish and a stingray.

In Nassau, we went on a carriage ride around the town and wandered around a bit on our own. Wasn’t really the island destination I expected-quite a busy little city.

Sunset

We found a great restaurant on the Banana River – outdoor seating, and look at this view…

We are absolutely loving being so close to water.  We’ve got the ocean on one side and a short drive away is this river.  We’ve been on the beach for so long, it’s going to be hard to leave – especially for dry, landlocked Colorado.

Searching for Manatees

It’s getting pretty warm here in Cocoa Beach.  Most days have been around 80 degrees.  The ocean water temperature is at 68 degrees, but I would guess the inland waters are even warmer.  We read that it’s time for the manatees to start returning to the area, so we went to look for them today.  I would really like to see one!

This is the only one we found…

Day 2 at Kennedy Space Center

Our overly priced admission ticket to KPC, included a second day at the center.  One of the locals recommended going to see the Saturn V rocket, and I’m glad he did – it was very impressive.

This is the bottom of the rocket with the five engines.  But, to put it into perspective, check out the one with me standing under it.

The rocket (on its side) was so much bigger than I expected.  You can’t really get a picture that does it justice.

 

We also went to a viewing platform for the shuttle launch pad.  Endeavour, which will launch in mid-April, was out on the launch pad,but you couldn’t really see it that well.  What you can see is the orange fuel tank.

 

Is it summer?

We’ve moved on to Cocoa Beach, Florida.  There’s a beautiful big beach and the weather has really started to improve.  We were quite surprised by the crowds, both on the beach and in the water.

Even with the crowds, the beach is nice and big…so different than Daytona, which is just about an hour north.  We’re already talking about how hard it’s going to be to leave the beach…we’ve gotten use to hearing the waves and the beautiful vast views.

Our routine has been working in the morning (I help Jason with various tasks for his websites), then we have lunch, and hit the beach for a hour or two each afternoon.  Every day we’ve taken books to the beach, but somehow we never seem to read.  I’m happy people watching and taking it all in.  It’s a nice break because in the late afternoon we work more before making dinner.

Kennedy Space Center

After a few weeks in Daytona, we happily left in the middle of bike week.  Our nice quiet beach had turned loud and obnoxious.  We packed up and headed to Kennedy Space Center.  Surprisingly, it is not run by the government, but contracted out to a private company.  You could tell by the $46 basic admission price!  It had more of an amusement park feel than the seriousness of space program visitor center.  However, I do have to confess the space shuttle launch simulator was pretty cool.  There are two different Imax theaters and several different activities for kids.  Not at all what we expected…which for me was more like the Smithsonian Air & Space museum.

There were several other tours you could take, of course for an additional price.  One thing our ticket did include which we didn’t have time for was  a bus ride to the observation gantry of the shuttle pads and a building with a Saturn V rocket.  Our tickets are good for seven days, so we plan to return to see those parts.

We did get to go inside a space shuttle, but I think it must just be a replica because as far as we could figure there were only five shuttles – two were lost, Discovery just flew its last mission and there are two more launches.  Also made me realize that the shuttle at the Smithsonian is not real – for some reason I assumed it was.

The shuttle replica at KSC.

This is the cargo bay.

  

And the famous Canada arm.

Ponce de Leon Light House

The tallest lighthouse in Florida just happens to be down the beach from Daytona, so we went to check it out.  You can climb all the way to the top.

The stairs can make you feel quite dizzy.

There’s a nice view of the inlet from the top.

No surprise, Jason didn’t even want to come out.  He’s been talking about going parasailing, but I decided since he wouldn’t even walk around the light house, there’s no way he’s going parasailing – at least not with me.  I don’t want to be up there with him when he freaks out!