3, 2, 1 LIFTOFF!

What a great way to end our Easter. On Sunday we decided to go ahead and head to the coast at the weeee hours of the morning to see Space Shuttle Discovery launch. The weather was going to be perfect, and living right here in FL so close why not go and experience it once before there are no more.

So I spent the night at my parents house with the kids on Sunday night. Jay had to work on Monday so we were very disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to make it. Good things is that he has seen a shuttle launch in person before so he was all for us going and experiencing it for ourselves. We still missed him. Anyway...we got up at 1:30am and were out the door with the kids in tow at 2:15am. It was a 1hr 20min drive to Titusville. At least this time it wasn't like 30 degrees outside.

We got to Space View Park by about 3:40am, well a side little part of it with the same view that most locals go to, its less crowded, but still packed! My Mom, Brinlee and I staked out a place and relaxed. We had over 2 hours to wait. Brinlee was really good and was a hoot! I wish I took video of her. Quinn, Bella and Gramps stayed in the van and watched a movie until later. They joined us on the blanket at about 5:30am. They both hid under their blankets for awhile then played some games on our phones to pass the time.

We had a wonderful guy next to us who knew a lot about the stars and launches and such. So we heard some great info. One really cool thing that he knew was that at around 6:08am the ISS you'd be able to see pass under the moon and over the shuttle launch site. TRULY BREATHTAKING! I swear I videotaped this, but for some reason my camera didn't. It looked like a start or plane moving across the sky really fast.

Then only a few minutes later Shuttle Discovery started it's journey. Words can not express what it is like to see it in person. So cool the way the sky lite up, my body was shaking I was so excited and in aww! (Part of the reason why I missed the first second of the shuttle actually taking off on the camera, I was trying to watch it!) Not until minutes later did you FEEL and HEAR the actual rumble from it taking off. You can hear it in the second video part if you listen closely.

I have always loved seeing the launches on TV or from our front lawns here in FL thinking that was amazing, but to be that close and see and feel the launch....AWESOME!! I am very happy we took the kids to see it. They might not remember it, but thanks to technology today I hope they will be able to watch it over and over again. To say they were there for one of the last few launches, have pictures and video will stay in history forever. The long journey home was horrible, but thinking back to why we drove out there to see the launch just brushes those 4.5hrs away to the waste side. Who cares!

So after reading this very very very long post, I do have pictures and video of the launch to share with you.