Florida Spring Break

This is the building where they house and assemble the rocket ships. I would've liked to have gone in there, but apparently you need some kind of clearance badge. Since I haven't worked for the government since 2007 (as a Wisconsin State Employee with UWM Restaurant Operations) my government privileges have expired.

This is the back end of the Apollo rocket that sent several men into space including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Milwaukee native James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert (the Apollo 13 crew). I'm pretty sure that it is the actual rocket instead of a replica, but I didn't read the provided information to know for sure.

In the first picture that I took of me with the ass end of the rocket, I wasn't wearing my aviator sunglasses. That picture is not included on this page. Why you ask? It's because everybody looks cooler with aviators versus no sunglasses at all. With these reflective goggles, I actually look like I could be a pilot or a certified space traveler. There's just something about these shades that make you look cooler than you actually are. And since I'm not really that cool, I'll take cool plus 1 any day of the week.

The first picture in this sequence is purposely intended to be upside-down. I turned the camera towards me, then flipped it around so that the lens was on the bottom side of the camera. It resulted in the picture being upside-down. I though that it was cool at the time, but looking at it now makes me realize that I'm not as cool as I think I am. I then decided to turn the camera right side-up so that I could get a picture of me with the USA logo on the side of the rocket. I like the USA a lot, and as Coach Bombay said, we're Team USA, and we're going all the way!

We last visited the NASA Space Center when I was 16 years old, and I barely have any memories left from that trip. I blame all of the alcohol that I have consumed during the course of my life for killing off all of my important memory retaining brain cells. But there is one thing that I do remember - this odd walk behind a wall and put your head through the wall so it looks like you are an astronaut in a red space suit thing that is set up here. In an effort to be consistent with memories from the past, I did it again. Only this time it was sweeter.

The tour around the facility was pretty sweet, but one of the best parts was a tour of the pieces that make up the current International Space Station. You get to walk through these pieces and get to witness first hand the struggles that the astronauts go through while they are orbiting the Earth in these tiny structures. Although these pieces of the ISS look really big, the insides (as you can tell from the pictures) are pretty compact. The sleeping areas, living quarters, and research facilities are just big enough for one man (or woman) to get around in. I stand next to one of them (rather handsomely I might add) to provide a size comparison, because it is always easier to judge the size of an object when you have something to compare it to. It's science. There's no use arguing against it, because you'll always be wrong.