3... 2... 1... LAUNCH!

The next day Aunt Chris was leaving town, heading to Lake Placid to spent the weekend with her quilting friends. Katie and I decided to leave that day as well, continuing our journey towards the keys. Before heading south however, we chose to spend the day again in Cocoa Beach and watch the shuttle launch from there as well. We figured that we would never get an opportunity like this again and it seemed our fate to be there. We got to the beach around noon even though the shuttle was not scheduled to take off until 5 p.m. Katie was nervous that since we had already seen people camped out for days, we would not be able to find a good parking

spot or a place to watch the shuttle take off from. When we arrived however, there was plenty of parking and room on the beach as well. After getting the car situated we finally made our way to Ron Jon's to browse through their extremely overpriced merchandise. On our way to the beach I decided I needed a new swimsuit. Not willing to spend over 20 bucks on this purchase, we headed across the street to some discount store where we picked up a cheap one there. We spent the rest of the

day walking the beach and stopping at restaurants that were either on the pier or near the beach, wasting the day away until the launch. About an hour before take off we set up shop on the beach, laying down towels and setting up our camping chairs. I went swimming for a bit while Katie read her book before joining me in the water a little later. We stopped

swimming right before the shuttle was just about to take off. Even without a watch we were able to tell that the launch was approaching. Soon all of the children were called out of the water by their parents. It seemed like everyone

there had a camera or tripod and all were beginning to get them ready in anticipation. All of our eyes were focused on a point out in the distance that we assumed was the launch pad. After minutes of restless waiting some shouted "there it goes" and pointed over in the opposite direction. Unfortunately the clouds had set in a bit and though we had clear skies all day, soon the rocket was draped in clouds. The noise was amazing and

more than being loud or in your ears, you could feel it in you body. A deep rumbling that at first was faint but continued to build until it consumed you. Everyone watched for a few minutes as the rocket skipped in and out of the clouds before disappearing from our view entirely. An old couple next to us, asked us if we

had gotten any good pictures of the launch and we began to talk to them. It turned out they were from Holland and they had seen the very first Discovery Shuttle take off some 30 years ago. Now they were back to watch the final one but though they had a tripod set up and everything, they missed the rocket completely. They joked that they would just have to buy a paper the next day and hope the front page had gotten a good shot of it. We didn't stay in the area long enough to find out whether or not the paper did a good job covering the launch or photographing it. After the shuttle had disappeared, we left the beach and headed to Charlie and Jake's Brewery in Melbourne for some dinner. We spent the night in a rest area on our way south to the Everglades.