My Adventure

I'm in the midst of my journey home, and waiting to board my first flight, and trying to process this trip. It was a whirlwind. Very little sleep for several days, followed by a day of rest at the end.

Warning- this will be a drawn out post with much detail. I don't want to forget anything, and also people have asked me for details of the trip, so here they are! Skip to the pictures if you just want to see the good stuff,

I will follow up this post with another once I get home and can upload my pictures.

My journey started out at 4am when I awoke and started the day by kissing my boys goodbye. Always a precarious venture in the middle of the night, but I deemed it worth the chance. Luckily no one woke and I tiptoed out the door to my waiting cab.

The boys all dressed up for Yom Yerushalayim. Ari sent me this pic in the morning of the twins singing the abc to G while he brushed.

I flew to Miami and then connected to Orlando. I was very fortunate and flew in first class. Some weird thing on the American miles system that made both economy and first the same amount of points. This was really lucky, because it's hard for my body to fly alone and carry all my belongings, not to mention the old, thin seats I spotted in economy. I had the bulkhead too, and so I could lift up my feet the entire time, and arrived in pretty good shape physically. I slept most of the way since I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before.

I waited for my friend, D, to land and we headed out to Disneyworld. I haven't been there since 2nd grade, and it certainly was an experience. Again, we were very lucky, and there were virtually no lines! We couldn't believe our luck, and joked about the power of the Jewish-Episcopalian force. We rode and walked a lot, and then headed over to the Epcot world pavillion for sunset. Finally we headed back to our rental car and drove to Cocoa Beach, close to Cape Canaveral and the motel where all the NASA people stay. It was fun playing spot the astronaut. NASA guys are easy to spot- khakis, polo shirts, straight backs, and hightop military haircuts.

We couldn't resist and ran out to the beach, only a few feet away. It was pitch black and the stars were gorgeous. I miss stars. I was tempted to grab a scientist and have them show me all the contellations, as I only recognize a few of them, but since it was midnight I did my best to control myself. We quickly took off our shoes, and rolled up our pants. The sand was smooth- no rocks or big shells, and the water was warm and the surf gentle. Such a difference from our Atlantic up the coast.

Finally we went back and got our bags from the car and settled in to our room and went to sleep.

The next day was one of those unexpected pleasures that take you by surprise for the sheer joy of it. I awoke to find that we had been joined in the night by a friend of my friend, K. I knew she was coming, but it was still funny to discover. D had left early for a day of press activities at Cape Canaveral and we were going to join her later in the morning.

K and I clicked immediately, and had a great time together. It was a great surprise and I quickly had a new friend. We suspect that D knew this would happen, and texted her asking if she knew we were essentially the same person. She laughed and said, yep!

We headed over to Cape Canaveral where reality of what was going to happen set in. There was an air of history in the making combined with sadness and nostalgia. K is a physicist who works on the Mars rover missions, and is the daughter of an astronaut who was on two shuttle missions.

We spent most of the day at Kennedy Space center, seeing the exhibits, rides, taking pictures, and listening. Everyone who worked there had concerns about shutting down the shuttle program before a viable substitute is in place. It's a dangerous place to be so dependant on the Russians, was the general consensus.

Toward the end of the day we were able to go to a Launch Status talk, and could see the launch pad in real time, and were briefed on what was happening with the fuel tanks, the orbiter, and crew 24 hours before the launch. It was really exciting to see how much was going on in preparation!

That night we got to hear D's stories about her day with the press junket, and her talks with the NASA brass about the future of the space program, as well as detailed information about the upcoming Atlantis mission.

I also spent a half hour trying to practice with Gavriel for his spelling test the next day, much to the amusement of K, who thought it was hilarious to listen to.

Friday dawned clear, with only a few clouds, and it looked like the weather would cooperate with the launch. The big question was whether anything else would cause a scrub. The window of opportunity was very small, about ten minutes. And the following day had a similarly small window. So we kept making jokes about what we would do if there was a scrub- mini golf, margaritas, etc. but what was unsaid was how big our disappointment would be if the shuttle didn't take off.

D left for the press pool. K left for the space center since she was able to get closer due to her father having some connections. She felt bad leaving me, but I did my best to reassure her that she earned any perks his status could get her. Having watched her father sit on top of a massive rocket not once but twice earned her the world in my opinion!

I had the choice of trying to get closer to the Cape or head to the beach to watch. By all accounts getting anywhere closer would be insane traffic wise, and the beach was definitely within viewing and hearing range, so I decided to stay at Cocoa Beach. I got myself a beach chair and an umbrella, slapped on a lot of sunscreen, grabbed my kindle and went to relax.

It was awesome. I had a clear view of the water, clear view out towards Kennedy, a cool breeze blowing on me, and a shady spot to watch the waves. It was pretty quiet, and I just relaxed. It was the best possible way to spend my morning.

Towards the launch time, more and more people crowded on the beach. The umbrellas emptied out as everyone walked down closer to the water for an unobstructed view. I followed the progress via twitter and saw they were dealing with a last minute loose ball bearing, and had a few tense minutes until they cleared it. Someone near me had a radio, and we counted down. Everyone stopped- on the beach and the water. Time stood still, only the sound of the waves touching us. Finally we saw a fireball low on the horizon, raising quickly into the sky. Everyone erupted into cheers and applause. White tails followed her, and we could see when the boosters burnt out and the flame changed to just the main fuel. She continued up into the clouds, and then, many seconds later, we heard the roar. The speed of sound had caught up with the speed of light.

The shuttle finally disappeared from our view, and the man with the radio told us she was at 19 miles up at that point. She was so bright, we had been able to see her 19 miles away! We could see the ships waiting to go fish out the boosters which was dropped into the ocean before the orbiter enters orbit, but didn't see the white boosters themselves.

A few minutes later NASA twitter announced Atlantis had acheived orbit. It took many more minutes before the white smoke trail dissipated in the clear blue sky.

And that was that. We had witnessed Atlantis' 32nd shuttle flight, and the 132 flight of a US space shuttle into low orbit, on due course to rendevous with the international space station.

The crowd dispersed, everyoen talking excitedly. About an hour later, I made my way over to the outside bar/cafe area, and watched while the NASA families slowly trickled in, wearing sts-132 shirts, and glowing with a job well done. They deserved all the praise and had pulled off a flawless pre-launch and launch. It was time for a break, and they would party for hours to come, hosted by the commander's wife, a tradition following every launch. I reluctantly took my leave and drove with K to orlando, to a nicer hotel for shabbat, wondering all the while if these amazing, proud americans would find a place in the new shuttle-less NASA.

We left the coast and headed for orlando, moving to a nicer hotel courtesy of frequent flier miles. My luck continued and we were upgraded to a deluxe suite, which was beautiful.

Then I discovered the sunburn, caused by accidentally rubbing off my sunscreen when I reapplied it after swimming in the ocean. Not a great way to finish out the vacation, but worth every minute on that beach.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. I learned many things, including the fact that the people down at Kennedy are very scared of what is coming in the future. I don't know what the policymakers will decide if our ultimate path in space travel, but if the caliber and dedication of the people I met down there is any indication, the future of NASA is in very good hands.

As for my boys, they were in even better hands, of my husband and our dear friend Dovid. I am so thankful to them for allowing my free spirit to soar, even though it left them grounded behind.

Taking off for home. Will add in pictures and video when I'm home.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry