The End of the Trip As We Know It
We left off our little adventure in D.C. Our next stop on the trip was at Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. We spent much of the day there and were all quite impressed with the facilities and staff. Unlike many of our other destinations, Mt. Vernon is not tax-payer funded. From an educational standpoint, the kids may have gotten more out of Mt. Vernon than our other stops along the way and we certainly got far more educational materials there. They had a whole education resource center and offered a rather large packet of free materials in addition to recommending books available at their bookstore. That'll keep us busy for a while.
We made our way back to Hagerstown and pawned the kids off onto Edi's mom for the next 3 nights. The next day, the 6 of us (Edi & I, the kids, Edi's mom and step-dad) went up to Gettysburg for a guided tour of the battlefields there. They offer a neat service there, where a guide will drive your car for you on a ~2 hour tour all over town. Our guide crammed in more information than we could possibly digest and that seemed to barely scratch the surface of his obviously vast knowledge of Gettysburg.
Our next day was supposed to be a relaxing day. The girls got manicures and pedicures while the boys started working on a model of Mt. Vernon, which was a good start to the day. But then Edi and I got tied up most of the afternoon and evening working on a business transaction.
The next morning before we left town, we stopped by to see Edi's grandmother. We managed to sneak a 4 generation photo in. Then we left town and went to Roanoke to visit with long-time friends Keith & Kim and their kids Ryan & Andy. Kim and I went to flight school together and worked at 2 different jobs together. She's now a captain for another airline. We managed to sneak a few airplane stories in, even though there were lots of other things to catch up on. Keith's mom made us a great dinner. In addition to enjoying their kids, our kids enjoyed their kids' hamsters. It was too short of a visit but we had a nice time catching up.
The next day we drove to Savannah for a short overnight. After that we made our way to Orlando but stopped in St. Augustine on the way. We didn't stay long but we did enjoy a couple of hours at the Castillo de San Marcos, a formerly Spanish fort, dating back to the 1500's. The kids (mostly Edison, really) particularly enjoyed another cannon firing demonstration. This time, it was done in Spanish and 2 cannons were fired at once. There was even a boat in the harbor which fired back a few minutes later. Hah!
When we were done in St. Augustine, we finished our drive down to Orlando. Once we were in the Orlando area, we had fun pointing out some of the sites from when we lived there. We pointed out the lake north of Sanford, general areas where we lived and worked and other interesting stuff. We settled in for our stay at a New Hampshire friend's condo (thank you Mike).
The next day our big outing was to Kennedy Space Center. Edi and I had been many years ago (in the early 90's) but hadn't seen it since then. We were pleasantly surprised with how much it has grown and how much more enjoyable it was for us and the kids. We were fortunate to be there on one of the rare occasions (and probably the last) when 2 shuttles were on launch pads at the same time. This was due to the upcoming launch not going to an orbit where they could dock with the Space Station in the event of an emergency. The other shuttle was ready for a rescue mission if need be. During the course of our tour, we learned that the shuttle program is about to end, that tickets for the closest shuttle launch viewing location sell out in 2 minutes or less, and that a new manned space program is already in the works.
There were a couple of highlights of our visit. The Saturn V rocket that was rusting away outside in front of the VAB has been moved and refurbished in a fantastic new indoor exhibit. The new Saturn V Center begins with a film introducing the first manned space programs and leading up to the first Saturn V launch. Then you are lead into the actual mission control center which has been relocated to this facility and made into a multi-screen/multi-media presentation of a Saturn V launch sequence. From there you enter an enormous hall containing the largest rocket ever made, the Saturn V. The rocket is even bigger than I remember and there are numerous other excellent historical pieces on display there.
We also enjoyed a briefing and Q&A session with Astronaut John Blaha. He was on 5 shuttle missions and spent several months in the Russian Space Station Mir. I couldn't resist asking him how it was to fly the space shuttle, and I couldn't resist getting jealous when he told me it handled better than anything else he had ever flown. Edison asked him when he would go to the moon and he laughed and said younger people would be doing that.
There's more to tell about KSC than can fit in a blog entry, so I'll leave it at that. I can't resist mentioning, though, our dinner on the way home. We stopped in at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville and pigged out on shrimp. The kids especially enjoyed feeding the fish afterward. Reminded us of old times.
Our next big day in Orlando was our visit to Epcot Center. The kids may have been looking forward to that day more than any other day. At the beginning of the day, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do. It required a heroic effort but we managed to squeeze in almost everything. We took in all the best rides and visited most of the countries represented in the World Showcase. We try to pay attention as we made our way around the countries, as this was a bit of a preview for a possible future overseas trip for the family. Our world tour started with lunch in Japan and a tour through most of the country. We also saw Morocco, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. Our dinner in Germany was quite authentic and included banquet seating, a polka band, and a lively atmosphere. We finished off the night with the best multi-media/fireworks show in the whole world.
We took a slight breather the next day and slept in. Once we got going, we drove up to Sanford to take a closer look around where I went to flight school and where we lived when we were first married. We started out with a tour of what is now Delta Connection Academy. I started there as a student in August 1992, nearly 17 years ago. A few things were the same or very similar and some things have changed a lot. It was amusing to see some old photographs, once of which contained my name on a white board. Our tour guide was a flight instructor there who gave us an excellent tour of both the facilities I was familiar with and a brand new building that didn't exist when I went to school there. They also have mostly new airplanes (Cirrus SR-20's), but there were a couple of airplanes there that I flew when I was a student and flight instructor. Edison and Erin enjoyed the tour and especially their chance to sit in one of the new airplanes. After our tour, we drove by our old house, church and apartment.
Our time in Sanford lasted longer than we had expected so we had to go straight to Downtown Disney for dinner. We met up with our friends Tim & Lisa and their kids Emma & Joshua. Lisa and Edi worked together when we lived in the Orlando area. It was the first time we had seen them since shortly after we moved to NH. We had a great time catching up over dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. After dinner, we shopped and the kids enjoyed riding the carousel all together.
Our final day in Orlando was a bit shorter due to wanting to get back to NH with reasonable driving days. We got up and started cleaning up the condo and made our way to TBN's Holy Land Experience. Calling it a theme park would be a bit of an overstatement as it's more theme than park and not particularly large. We did enjoy the world's largest indoor model of the city of Jerusalem and our tour through the Scriptorium. The Scriptorium is a walking, timed audio-guided tour of museum-like exhibits of rare and old scriptures in an educational setting. Neat stuff. The kids enjoyed our visit and it was a good end to our lengthy edu-cation.
We cleaned up the condo and now we're on our way home, a little tired and hopefully a little smarter.
V-
We made our way back to Hagerstown and pawned the kids off onto Edi's mom for the next 3 nights. The next day, the 6 of us (Edi & I, the kids, Edi's mom and step-dad) went up to Gettysburg for a guided tour of the battlefields there. They offer a neat service there, where a guide will drive your car for you on a ~2 hour tour all over town. Our guide crammed in more information than we could possibly digest and that seemed to barely scratch the surface of his obviously vast knowledge of Gettysburg.
Our next day was supposed to be a relaxing day. The girls got manicures and pedicures while the boys started working on a model of Mt. Vernon, which was a good start to the day. But then Edi and I got tied up most of the afternoon and evening working on a business transaction.
The next morning before we left town, we stopped by to see Edi's grandmother. We managed to sneak a 4 generation photo in. Then we left town and went to Roanoke to visit with long-time friends Keith & Kim and their kids Ryan & Andy. Kim and I went to flight school together and worked at 2 different jobs together. She's now a captain for another airline. We managed to sneak a few airplane stories in, even though there were lots of other things to catch up on. Keith's mom made us a great dinner. In addition to enjoying their kids, our kids enjoyed their kids' hamsters. It was too short of a visit but we had a nice time catching up.
The next day we drove to Savannah for a short overnight. After that we made our way to Orlando but stopped in St. Augustine on the way. We didn't stay long but we did enjoy a couple of hours at the Castillo de San Marcos, a formerly Spanish fort, dating back to the 1500's. The kids (mostly Edison, really) particularly enjoyed another cannon firing demonstration. This time, it was done in Spanish and 2 cannons were fired at once. There was even a boat in the harbor which fired back a few minutes later. Hah!
When we were done in St. Augustine, we finished our drive down to Orlando. Once we were in the Orlando area, we had fun pointing out some of the sites from when we lived there. We pointed out the lake north of Sanford, general areas where we lived and worked and other interesting stuff. We settled in for our stay at a New Hampshire friend's condo (thank you Mike).
The next day our big outing was to Kennedy Space Center. Edi and I had been many years ago (in the early 90's) but hadn't seen it since then. We were pleasantly surprised with how much it has grown and how much more enjoyable it was for us and the kids. We were fortunate to be there on one of the rare occasions (and probably the last) when 2 shuttles were on launch pads at the same time. This was due to the upcoming launch not going to an orbit where they could dock with the Space Station in the event of an emergency. The other shuttle was ready for a rescue mission if need be. During the course of our tour, we learned that the shuttle program is about to end, that tickets for the closest shuttle launch viewing location sell out in 2 minutes or less, and that a new manned space program is already in the works.
There were a couple of highlights of our visit. The Saturn V rocket that was rusting away outside in front of the VAB has been moved and refurbished in a fantastic new indoor exhibit. The new Saturn V Center begins with a film introducing the first manned space programs and leading up to the first Saturn V launch. Then you are lead into the actual mission control center which has been relocated to this facility and made into a multi-screen/multi-media presentation of a Saturn V launch sequence. From there you enter an enormous hall containing the largest rocket ever made, the Saturn V. The rocket is even bigger than I remember and there are numerous other excellent historical pieces on display there.
We also enjoyed a briefing and Q&A session with Astronaut John Blaha. He was on 5 shuttle missions and spent several months in the Russian Space Station Mir. I couldn't resist asking him how it was to fly the space shuttle, and I couldn't resist getting jealous when he told me it handled better than anything else he had ever flown. Edison asked him when he would go to the moon and he laughed and said younger people would be doing that.
There's more to tell about KSC than can fit in a blog entry, so I'll leave it at that. I can't resist mentioning, though, our dinner on the way home. We stopped in at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville and pigged out on shrimp. The kids especially enjoyed feeding the fish afterward. Reminded us of old times.
Our next big day in Orlando was our visit to Epcot Center. The kids may have been looking forward to that day more than any other day. At the beginning of the day, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do. It required a heroic effort but we managed to squeeze in almost everything. We took in all the best rides and visited most of the countries represented in the World Showcase. We try to pay attention as we made our way around the countries, as this was a bit of a preview for a possible future overseas trip for the family. Our world tour started with lunch in Japan and a tour through most of the country. We also saw Morocco, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. Our dinner in Germany was quite authentic and included banquet seating, a polka band, and a lively atmosphere. We finished off the night with the best multi-media/fireworks show in the whole world.
We took a slight breather the next day and slept in. Once we got going, we drove up to Sanford to take a closer look around where I went to flight school and where we lived when we were first married. We started out with a tour of what is now Delta Connection Academy. I started there as a student in August 1992, nearly 17 years ago. A few things were the same or very similar and some things have changed a lot. It was amusing to see some old photographs, once of which contained my name on a white board. Our tour guide was a flight instructor there who gave us an excellent tour of both the facilities I was familiar with and a brand new building that didn't exist when I went to school there. They also have mostly new airplanes (Cirrus SR-20's), but there were a couple of airplanes there that I flew when I was a student and flight instructor. Edison and Erin enjoyed the tour and especially their chance to sit in one of the new airplanes. After our tour, we drove by our old house, church and apartment.
Our time in Sanford lasted longer than we had expected so we had to go straight to Downtown Disney for dinner. We met up with our friends Tim & Lisa and their kids Emma & Joshua. Lisa and Edi worked together when we lived in the Orlando area. It was the first time we had seen them since shortly after we moved to NH. We had a great time catching up over dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. After dinner, we shopped and the kids enjoyed riding the carousel all together.
Our final day in Orlando was a bit shorter due to wanting to get back to NH with reasonable driving days. We got up and started cleaning up the condo and made our way to TBN's Holy Land Experience. Calling it a theme park would be a bit of an overstatement as it's more theme than park and not particularly large. We did enjoy the world's largest indoor model of the city of Jerusalem and our tour through the Scriptorium. The Scriptorium is a walking, timed audio-guided tour of museum-like exhibits of rare and old scriptures in an educational setting. Neat stuff. The kids enjoyed our visit and it was a good end to our lengthy edu-cation.
We cleaned up the condo and now we're on our way home, a little tired and hopefully a little smarter.
V-