ENDEAVOUR'S LAUNCH!!!!

by Robin

I'm so excited because it all worked out so beautifully this morning. If you've never been to a shuttle launch before, you need to get here in July for the last one - EVER!!!! It is amazing, patriotic, an engineering marvel and bittersweet, since it is all ending.

Like I was saying before though, I couldn't hardly sleep all night for all the excitement of getting up this morning (6am). We were blessed to be out the door quickly and didn't fight traffic like I feared. People were beginning to line the streets of US 1 and the Bee-line, but it didn't slow us down.



We arrived at the Marina at 7 sharp and was the first boat (not a crowd though) of boaters to be dunked in the water.



We headed under the bridge that takes tourists to the big cruise ships and then waited our turn going through the locks. In short order, we could see all the boats lined up, anchored and waiting for the launch time.



I entertained myself with photography of all the law enforcement. At least I didn't see any machine guns on these boats.






These "naughty" kayakers were escorted over to the crowds. I'm assuming they launched north of the "viewing line" and were greeted by blue lights.



I had momentarily thought about financial gain for taking viewers on our boat for the viewing, but these people actually did it. LOL



We looked at all the love bugs that died on our boat (& still continued to swarm around it).



We took family pics to record this historic day.









And then finally, we were off of the long hold and down to the T-Minus 9 minutes.

We all stood and waited for the count down.



And then Endeavour went up and everybody cheered!!!



And three seconds later, it went into the clouds and everybody collectively sighed, "Ohhh" from their boats.




Then, the rumble and sound hit us. That was FUN! Seconds later, people were pulling anchor and we filed down the channel back to the locks and our perspective 'homes'. All that preparation and positioning for 3 seconds of viewing. I'm not complaining though. I saw more than many folks who couldn't see it at all. It is always an honor to see a launch.

When we got back to the marina, there was a little excitement.



I saw lots of smiles so I was relieved that somebody wasn't injured. It was rumored that something electrical shorted in a person's car, starting a minor fire and the heat from that broke out the windshield. Poor person.

So, I hope you enjoyed our pictures and hearing about our day. My youngest didn't want to wake up early today but I'm sure than when he looks back on his childhood, he'll be very blessed to have these memories.

Take care!
Robin