Not long after I was discovered in this pond in Oregon and talked to Laurel (my finder) about my desire to travel the world, I took off to Melbourne, Florida with her to visit her fiance Jeremy. Now, Jeremy lives on the Florida "Space Coast" and gets to surf and see spaceships every once in a while. Melbourne is also not far from Seaworld, or the Brevard Zoo, but I'll talk about that later.
While I was down in Melbourne, some tropical depressions, storms and Hurricane Bill stirred up some good waves and so we took advantage of these waves on several occasions. This is a picture of me getting surf lessons from Jeremy up at Cape Canaveral:
I forgot to look (I was busy trying not to fall off the surf board), but Jeremy told me that when you're sitting out in the water waiting for a wave you could see the space shuttle!! (NASA was preparing for a shuttle launch you see.)
Now Jeremy has been surfing a few months now, and taught me about where to place myself on the board, how to paddle out through those big waves (ok, ok, so maybe they were only big to me) and how to balance on my board. I never actually got to stand up and surf a wave in because I kept falling off! Good thing that board is attached to your leg so you don't lose it!!
There aren't any pictures, but I did manage to ride in a few waves while laying on the board. Got a lot of sand in unusual places because of it too! I guess that's why surfers hop off their surf boards before running up onto the beach...you don't get sand weird places when you're still in the water. ;)
Anyway, that's it for my surf adventures on this trip. Apart from my few feeble attempts at surfing (at least I didn't lose 2 pairs of sunglasses like Laurel!) I spent most of the time with Laurel watching Jeremy and his friends catch some real waves. Next time maybe I'll be better.
So about that shuttle launch...
As you can see, there are two launch pads to my right. The one closest to me is Launch Pad 1, and the one farthest away (with the space shuttle on it that you could see from the water when we were surfing) is Launch Pad 2. Its hard to tell, but the space shuttle is actually there. You just have to look really closely.
I thought it was pretty cool that we were surfing so close to these shuttles (yes they are still far away but come on! how often do you get to see a real live spaceship?!?!
So anyway, when there's a shuttle on a launch pad, it's a pretty safe bet that there's going to be a launch. So I had Laurel check online (its kind of hard for me to type) and sure enough there was a launch scheduled while I was down! You can't imagine how excited I was...how often do you not only get to see a spaceship like I did but also get to see it take off!?!? SUPER excited. The launch was set for Monday, but because of weather or something or other it didn't happen. Then it was set for Tuesday (at 1:10 am) and we all piled into the car to go see the launch. We stood out on a seawall across the water from the launch and could see all of NASA lit up and blinking.
While we waited for the launch we watched the fish swimming in the water below. You could see them because the water lit up where they swam! Jeremy and Laurel said it was from phosphorescent plankton in the water (tiny creatures that light up when they are disturbed in the water). The coolest thing was two dolphins swimming through the water and making it light up. Even though it was really dark, you could see where the dolphins were even when they were under water!!
Well, it turns out the launch didn't happen that night, there was some problem with a valve or something like that, and so I never got to see the launch. It was rescheduled for today, and then for tomorrow, but I was already off on my next adventure. I hope I get to see another before NASA stops launching stuff up into space!
Anyway, those were some of my adventures while in Florida. Next stop...FRANCE!
While I was down in Melbourne, some tropical depressions, storms and Hurricane Bill stirred up some good waves and so we took advantage of these waves on several occasions. This is a picture of me getting surf lessons from Jeremy up at Cape Canaveral:
I forgot to look (I was busy trying not to fall off the surf board), but Jeremy told me that when you're sitting out in the water waiting for a wave you could see the space shuttle!! (NASA was preparing for a shuttle launch you see.)
Now Jeremy has been surfing a few months now, and taught me about where to place myself on the board, how to paddle out through those big waves (ok, ok, so maybe they were only big to me) and how to balance on my board. I never actually got to stand up and surf a wave in because I kept falling off! Good thing that board is attached to your leg so you don't lose it!!
There aren't any pictures, but I did manage to ride in a few waves while laying on the board. Got a lot of sand in unusual places because of it too! I guess that's why surfers hop off their surf boards before running up onto the beach...you don't get sand weird places when you're still in the water. ;)
Anyway, that's it for my surf adventures on this trip. Apart from my few feeble attempts at surfing (at least I didn't lose 2 pairs of sunglasses like Laurel!) I spent most of the time with Laurel watching Jeremy and his friends catch some real waves. Next time maybe I'll be better.
So about that shuttle launch...
As you can see, there are two launch pads to my right. The one closest to me is Launch Pad 1, and the one farthest away (with the space shuttle on it that you could see from the water when we were surfing) is Launch Pad 2. Its hard to tell, but the space shuttle is actually there. You just have to look really closely.
I thought it was pretty cool that we were surfing so close to these shuttles (yes they are still far away but come on! how often do you get to see a real live spaceship?!?!
So anyway, when there's a shuttle on a launch pad, it's a pretty safe bet that there's going to be a launch. So I had Laurel check online (its kind of hard for me to type) and sure enough there was a launch scheduled while I was down! You can't imagine how excited I was...how often do you not only get to see a spaceship like I did but also get to see it take off!?!? SUPER excited. The launch was set for Monday, but because of weather or something or other it didn't happen. Then it was set for Tuesday (at 1:10 am) and we all piled into the car to go see the launch. We stood out on a seawall across the water from the launch and could see all of NASA lit up and blinking.
While we waited for the launch we watched the fish swimming in the water below. You could see them because the water lit up where they swam! Jeremy and Laurel said it was from phosphorescent plankton in the water (tiny creatures that light up when they are disturbed in the water). The coolest thing was two dolphins swimming through the water and making it light up. Even though it was really dark, you could see where the dolphins were even when they were under water!!
Well, it turns out the launch didn't happen that night, there was some problem with a valve or something like that, and so I never got to see the launch. It was rescheduled for today, and then for tomorrow, but I was already off on my next adventure. I hope I get to see another before NASA stops launching stuff up into space!
Anyway, those were some of my adventures while in Florida. Next stop...FRANCE!
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