1st Jan – Today’s plan was to visit Kennedy Space Center – the commercial visitor complex of NASA. We enjoyed the beach view from hotel room balcony for some time in the morning and then packed our bags and reached KSC by 9:30am. We even thought of extending the stay in this hotel but then decided not to for practical reasons. All day was spent at NASA exploring about shuttles, hubble – the telescope, took a close-up tour of a launchpad and experienced psuedo shuttle launch ride. For the shuttle launch, scary cat Adi came with me till the spot we were about to board the shuttle and then stepped back. So, we had to step out from the line. Then, later the day I tried it alone by myself while the rest of the family spent their time happily at angry birds encounter. I hope at least LHB will give me company in trying adventurous sports/rides after few years. KSC was worth a day trip and loaded with information.
We left KSC around 6pm and then made an impromptu visit to our friend’s home at Orlando. They have moved to Orlando from NJ few months ago and have a newborn. Had a nice chit chat and ate simple dal rice for dinner that tasted heavenly. Nothing can beat home food I say. We stayed at their home for the night.
2nd Jan – Started our sojourn back to home at 8am. We decided to drive as much as possible during daytime and then take a break if required. M drove most of the day, we had bagel/creamcheese/bread/fruit spread for breakfast and ice cold pasta/pizza for lunch (remember the leftover from pizza hut). Just took few short breaks whenever LHB was cranky and covered a very good distance by late evening. I learned to feed the kids lesser while in commute. I saw at least few breakdown vehicles and accidents en-route. It was scary. One honda odyssey was upside down and police was just off-loading the passengers from the upside down vehicle. By late evening, we were around 6 hours away from home and I didn’t feel like spending another night at the hotel. That will only extend our trip and make it hectic to prepare for the coming week. So, I tookover from M and drove the rest of the distance to home. We reached home sweet home at 2am and crashed on the bed.
Next day was Saturday and we saw daylight at 11am. The next two days was spent with washing, cleaning, cooking and preparing for the week ahead. And in no time, we were pulled into the boring aka routine life.
I don’t know if we will do a trip like this ever again and I have no clue what made us go on this crazy trip. But, after this trip I got a new respect for our car that brought us back home safe and sound. This will remain as one of the memorable family trip for many many reasons and I am glad that I was able to write the details down in this blog for posterity.
The End.
You all are freed now and thank you so much for reading this series 🙂
Please do email/comment here if you any questions on Cruise. I will try to help with my little experience.
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- Hotel with beach view from balcony
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- NASA
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- Shuttle
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- Shuttles launched so far
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- perfect kiss. I had to post this.
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- Adi posing with dolphin. Look at the perfect posture of the dolphin.
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- Feerless feeding the dolphin
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- Portrait on Captain’s night
Wow Ani you guys achieved quite a lot in those 9 days considering the long to and fro drive…. We are planning a bahamas vacation (dont know when) and then I am sure this series is going to be pretty helpful
If you go to Bahamas don’t miss out the dolphin interaction. The kid will love it hopefully if she is interested..It took us more than four years to materialize this plan 🙂 good luck to you to make the trip happen very soon..
Very nice. Loved the series.. have couple of things to check. Will email you
thanks Sri.. I will let you know any details that I know..
Wow, you drove the whole distance in a day, that’s impressive! And you did a lot in Orlando with a toddler. Sounds like an awesome trip.
Actually we didn’t do much in Orlando.. Just stayed at friend’s place but it was definitely challenging with a toddler..
I wanted to ask you for the captain’s night family portrait and here I see it – super 🙂 loved the Pic where LHB is kissing the dolphin – awesome only 🙂 Enjoyed this series as much as you enjoyed the trip 🙂
thank you so much GB 🙂 I was hesitant to put the LHB kissing dolphin photo as his face cannot be hidden but then I had to post it 🙂 so lovely 🙂
hi – i think i landed on your blog while researching Bahamas cruise options. Looks like you had a great trip. To enter the bahamas – do you need a visa? I have valid advance parole but no valid US visa stamp in my passport. Thanks.
Hey, you don’t need visa for Bahamas as long as the stay is not exceeding 30 days. There was only security and identify checks while going in and out ship every time. But, you need to clear US immigration to enter US while re-entering the US of A land after trip. Hope this helps!