Usually, just spending some time at Disney is enough for a good time. But sometimes I get a few bonus experiences that make it even better.
The first was last night - or early this morning. The space shuttle was supposed to take off Tuesday morning at 1:30 am. I managed to stay up, only to find out at 1:15 that it was scrubbed. It was rescheduled for midnight-ish on Tuesday, but it was again scrubbed, this time before any staying-up-late was involved. It was rescheduled for last night at 11:59 pm.
I had seen shuttles take off when we lived in Dunedin, Florida. From across the state, you could see a tiny bright light than you knew was the space shuttle. When the Challenger exploded, I had just taken Maribeth for her baby immunizations, and I remember thinking that the smoke trails were not normal, only to find out the reason when I turned on the television.
Once when Marilyn and I were taking the girls on a short cruise, the captain hurried the ship back towards Port Canaveral because a shuttle was planned to take off on our debarkation day. He needn't have hurried, as that shuttle date was delayed, and we ended up sitting off the coast of Florida, just floating our time away.
But this would be the first time I had ever seen a night launch - if it managed to take off before I left. Last night at 11:30, I headed out to the beach on Bay Lake because earlier in the week, a friendly Disney bus driver told me that was the best place to view the launch. Soon I was joined by many other guests, all waiting for the same thing. I didn't exactly know where to look and hoped it would be obvious. Soon some children behind me were counting down. When they said, "Blast off," I looked in what I hoped was East. There were clouds in the sky, and I wondered if it would hide the action. But we all kept looking, and soon saw one cloud turn several colors of orange. It continued to turn brighter colors of orange and red, and then suddenly we saw it - the bright flame that we knew was the space shuttle. Everyone burst into spontaneous applause, and I'm sure mine were not the only moist eyes in the crowd. We watched as the flame continued to burn, as two red dots that were the booster rocket thingies fall off, and until finally the flame turned into a dot and disappeared. It was a great moment, especially to be at Disney with people who really were as excited as I about this event.
It was a great way to end a vacation. At least until I got to the airport. As usual, my carry-on suitcase was packed to the gills, and my other carry-on had to carry everything that wouldn't fit into my suitcase. I got to the gate after pulling out everything to find my wallet, then again to find something else, then again - well, you get the picture. I decided to read, and pulled everything out once more to find my reading glasses. Unfortunately, there was no case and glasses to be found. I searched and searched, but to no avail. I figured they could be anywhere - from the bus to security to McDonald's to who knows where. Except who knows where did not include my bags. So I resigned to having to get new glasses (the case held my usual "don't want to wear my contacts" glasses plus my readers) when I got back. My plane arrived, and I waited for the "line-up" announcement. When it came, the announcement wasn't to line up, but that someone had turned in a glasses case, and the owner needed to come to the desk to identify them. Yes, they were mine.
So I guess sometimes vacations end with all the good stuff happening at the beginning or middle. But for this one, good stuff happened at the end. And in this case, it was really good stuff!
_______________________________________________________________________
Good stuff that makes today special: Watching the shuttle launch out on a Disney beach; glasses found; toddler throwing up in the seat behind me on the Magical Express, safe, smooth-ish flight, seeing Molly's new car, home again
No comments:
Post a Comment