Space Coast

June 14, 2009

Space View Park



Space Coast

After 18 years in Florida, one of the things that I have always wanted to do, but just haven’t ever gotten around to, is to go up and witness a Space Shuttle launch. In fact, I have never even been to Kennedy Space Center, though Kathy has been once previously. With the Space Shuttle program winding down, there are only 8 more scheduled missions, it seemed like a great idea to go and watch the Shuttle Endeavour blast into space.

Kathy

The fact that the launch was scheduled for 7:15 am on a Saturday morning, meant that Kathy & I could travel up and not miss a lot of work and come back on Sunday. It is about a 6 ½ hour drive from Key West to Titusville. There was a group of families from the Preschool that was going up to watch the launch from the official viewing area at the Space Center, but those tickets sell out in minutes, months ahead of the launches, so we opted to just head up to Titusville and get a spot along US1 or at Space View Park, which is the closest and best non-NASA viewing site.

Shuttle Launch Pad

We drove up to Titusville and checked into the wonderful Super 8 hotel (another reason not to book Shuttle viewing trips at the last minute), then headed to beautiful downtown Titusville to scout out a viewing location for Saturday morning. People were already camped out along US 1 and the first few rows of the Space Park were full as well. Amazingly, we ran into more Key Westers at the Space Park. Our friends Rudi , Anja & Jane were all in town to see the big launch as well and just happened to be scoping out locations at the Space Park at the same time as us.

Rudi, Anja, Jane & Kathy



The Space Park itself is pretty nice. It offers an unobstructed view across the Indian River directly at the launch pads at Kennedy Space Center. It is a long way about 11 miles, but the view is the next best thing to being there. Our plan was to get some dinner, go shopping to fill the cooler with launch supplies and head back to the hotel.





For dinner, we decided to go to the “World Famous” Dixie Crossroads restaurant. The huge place was packed with hundreds of shuttle tourists. Known for their seafood, Kathy & I both enjoyed the delicious rock shrimp. The food was really good and the price was reasonable, especially when compared to Key West prices, though the place is really touristy.





Dixie Crossroads Restaurant

Space View Park