Florida Week 3

Kennedy Space Center
After we dropped Newel off at the airport, we headed to Orlando and spent the night at the Romeros.
I think it's so funny that my children get so excited to see their cousins, even when they saw them the previous day.
The following morning, we got up early and headed to Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center.
Now that my children are older, going to amusement parks and other places is so more fun and easy.
This was such a fun place...not only fun, but educational. We learned how it feels to be inside the space capsules.
Arden and I went inside a simulator and it was so realistic, as the ceiling opened in our 'space ship,' Arden asked me if we were really in space.  Maya, who couldn't ride in the simulator, stayed back with my mom, and she also thought we had gone into space.
We also met a real astronaut and had a chance to ask him questions.

Captain Karen?

We saw a Star Trek live show...I didn't know my mom really liked Star Trek.
What a Trekkie!
We learned about lots of other space things, too.  
Our day flew by and the kids were so amazingly good!  I really liked spending that time with my mom, too.

Meeting a real astronaut

Suit up

We were so busy at that park, we didn't even get to go to the Astronauts' Hall of Fame.  We ended up getting season passes, just in case we decide to visit FL this winter or even next summer.



Ringling Museum
I knew our time was coming to an end soon. So, I wanted to take advantage of the time we had left, but I found it kind of challenging finding places for our kids to go that aren't too expensive or that we haven't visited already.  The following morning the children and I went to the John Ringling Museum.  It's been years since I've visited the museum, and they've totally leveled up!  I thought it was pretty good then, but now, wow, it's even better.
We checked out some outdoor sculptures, but we mainly tried to stay indoors, since it was so stinking hot!
I had forgotten how much nudity there are in old paintings.  Arden noticed some of the nudity, too and made him feel kind of uncomfortable, so we rushed past some of the galleries.
I've always loved the museum's grounds, and this time they have steroided golf carts that took us around. 
We checked out the Ca'd Zan and out of all the furniture and rooms there, my favorite was the kitchen.  So pretty.
We enjoyed some of the bay breeze, but there wasn't much of it.
After Ringling's house, we had a delicious cold lunch and walked to the circus museums.  There are actually two of them now.  One of them is the miniature version of the circus.  I remember when I went to see it, years ago...like when I was 13 years old, and it wasn't as cool as they have it now.  I even remember it being kind of dusty. This time I was actually interested in all of it. They made it so nice with miniature trains and all kinds of cool stuff.

Arden's lizard

Miniature circus

The kids also did a picture find and once they found all of the items in their booklet, the got a clown nose.  Arden really liked his nose...Maya refused to wear it...she probably wanted it to be pink. After the miniature circus, we went to the life size circus.  That was pretty cool, too.  We checked out more of the museum's gardens. I thought this was going to be a short trip to the museum, but I think we ended up spending about 4 or 5 hours there. 
Afterward, I drove the kids to my old USF campus...I guess this is a sign that I'm getting older when I start showing my children places of my youth.  I remember my parents doing that when I was a kid. 

Sunsets at the beach

Since my parents are busy working during the day and they don't like going to the beach during the hot hours of the day, we would go with them to the beach at sunset.
These photos are from one of the late afternoons we went to the beach.  A lot of these are my favorites from that day.
I love going to the beach at this time of the day.  The natural light is beautiful and it's so nice to be there.

Photographer Maya

Maya trying out the camera.