Mermaids and rockets

On Monday, March 21, we headed to Weeki Wachee where there’s a mermaid show.  Live mermaids.  Woo hoo. 

We're going in.

This season the mermaids were performing their version of the Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Little Mermaid.”  The show has been performed since 1947, and it was a great time, and well worth the visit.  There are other things to do, too, like a boat ride and reptile show, but our reason to go there was to see the mermaid show.  Check.

Photos don't take well through glass and water, but you get the idea.

We enjoyed the show a lot.

We settled in Brooksville for the evening and went off in search of a walk.  We found a paved path that had been a railroad line.  The track and ties had all been taken up and a path paved for 40-some miles.  We walked about 2 miles one-way and then headed back.  But, we saw a wild pig off in the bushes.  That was a new one for us.  Plus we had a great walk.  And on the drive back we saw some turkeys.  We’d seen a few on this trip, but these spooked and flew when I tried to stalk them for a photo op.  They’re much smarter than they look.  But fun.

By Tuesday, March 22, we were headed back to Titusville as there was a rocket launch happening that evening about 11 p.m.  We were hoping the weather would stay clear, but the weather map didn’t look cooperative as it was saying it would get cloudy later in the day.  We continued toward Titusville, not doing a lot of dilly dallying. 

We got back in good time and decided to go back out to the Cape Canaveral National Seashore again.  We’d really enjoyed it before when we were in this area, and this time took the wildlife drive.  We saw tons of birds, including one we’d wanted to see in the wild, the Roseate Spoonbill.  Who knew it was there waiting for us.  What a beautiful bird it is, and to see them in the wild is truly thrilling.

These guys are such intent hunters.

We saw a variety of butterflies.

The roseate spoonbill.  Guess which one.

Tri-colored heron, a favorite.

The spoonbill is a bird in a class of its own.  There's absolutely beautiful.

Another cool thing was seeing baby alligators, and even one a bit older.  I’m not sure where mom was, although there was a large one down the little canal a bit, and we were told a much bigger one a ways up the other way.  We did not see that one.  There were about 8 babies or so that I saw, and that was something not everyone gets to see.  The drive was a must-do in the national seashore area, although we talked to a lady who said they’d been through a couple of weeks earlier and hadn’t seen anything.  We had timed it just right.

I'm really trying to do better with birds in flight ... but ...

Baby alligators don't like their photos taken ... these posed and posed and posed.

The male painted bunting is one of my new favorite birds.

I also can't resist a cardinal.

We stopped at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge where there are manatees.  We saw some tails

And some nostrils.  There were quite a few around this little area. 

But we wanted to get checked in to our hotel, and maybe catch a nap.  So off we went.  The Siesta Motel is just across the road from the beach … and just across the water from the NASA building … and the rocket would launch from that area.  We weren’t exactly sure from where, but knew we could see it just by walking across the road.  Or we could see it from the parking lot of the hotel if we chose.  Nope. 

We wandered across the street about 10:50 as the rocket was due to launch sometime around 11 p.m.  There were people lined up to watch, vehicles parked, lawn chairs out, coffee in cups (or maybe something stronger), cameras set up, binoculars, spotting scopes.  It was exciting.  And it was encouraging that people still love to watch these things take off.  Just as we were getting settled I looked up and there was a shooting star.  I don’t recall ever seeing one, and it passed so quickly I could have thought it a figment of my imagination, but knew it wasn’t.  It was bright, it was quick and oh, so fleeting.  I was figuring it would be a good evening.

This rocket, an unmanned Cygnus Atlas V, was headed to the space station to deliver 7,500 pounds of food, equipment and science experiments to the International Space Station, 250 miles over our heads.  The rocket should meet up with the space station by being snared with a 58-foot robotic arm when it pulls into range by 7 am. Saturday.  The rocket is the second of two resupply missions flown from Florida.  This summer the plans are to resume launching from Virginia.

NASA runs a tight ship.  Shortly after 11 p.m., all of a sudden we could hear people saying, there it goes.  Looking toward the vehicle assembly building, you could see a giant flare of light behind it.  Then, it was taking off … going up, up, up, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.  It was nearly bright enough to hurt your eyes.  Finally you could hear it … the rumble of the rocket, the sound of the launch … then you could feel the gentle trembling of the earth. 

Take off ... photo courtesy of Space.com.

We all watched it shoot up and make an arc before it disappeared into the clouds, reappearing momentarily and then vanishing in the cloud cover. 

Arcing off and into space ... photo courtesy of Space.com.

It was music to the ears of someone who’d never seen a rocket launch nor heard one in person.  What a giant rush to see, hear and feel something so massive leave the ground miles away from where you, a mere small mortal, stood.