General comments I want to make and share with friends.
Got up early to get dawn shots across the water and around the Inn…
Lots of color out there and the first few flocks of pelicans heading for the beach. Once the sun came up behind the clouds things got spectacular for a time. Very pretty place to sit and watch the sun rise…
Before the launch actually happened, we were looking for the launch site across the water. In the end, the actual launch site wasn’t visible from here, but I’ve included a couple of shots of things that we initially thought might be the launch site.
A drone was hovering over the bay. Not sure whether that was in any way connected to the launch itself, but I’ve shared some pics here anyway.
It was interesting to see that the pictures get more dramatic as the falcon 9 gets higher. Lower pressures outside of the nozzle and thus much greater expansion of the plume I’d guess.
As we headed onto the beach this afternoon we saw two pigeons picking through the soft sand and various gulls that seemed perplexed by these two city-folk poking around their beach.
That last shot came out surprisingly crisp so I had to share…
We went out to walk the beach and saw the fantasy coming into port. It just finished a short yard period and we’re heading out on her for a two castaway key short cruise later in the week.
When we got back to the room, Lorna mentioned that she had heard people talking about a launch from the space center at 5:30 or so. I checked and it was an Inmarsat on a falcon 5 being launched so I found my way up to the deck where people were looking on and took some shots with my new lens. I’ll post those as soon as my earlier beach expedition finishes importing…stay tuned.
We went swimming and as we were heading in to the shore the pair of pelicans that had landed thirty feet further out from us took off into the air. A short bit after that something rather large went past us. It looked dark brown with lighter brown spots and rather large (though surprise can magnify things). I only saw it for a moment looking like a curved edge like a manatee’s tail (but clearly not as they don’t move that fast. No idea what it really was…I expect it was looking for a pelican snack and after missing them it cruised past us and decided we didn’t look interesting…
Later in the day Lorna heard that there had been manatees seen around the pier down the beach. Scary when it happened, but it now looks like we had a close encounter with a manatee.
Now for a couple of days at The Inn at Cocoa Beach to relax after the usual whirlwind of activity at Disney.
…and breakfast…
Soon we head out and frolic in the waves 🙂
Checked out of the wilderness Lodge and waiting to grab breakfast at the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. Somehow, my mind is automatically in ‘end of vacation’ mode even though I know we’ll be on the Disney Fantasy in a couple of days and back here at Boardwalk for a final weekend.
Cell phone shots as the computer is stored ?.
Fully post processed images will have to wait a couple of weeks.
Got pics with Chewbacca and Kylo Ren followed by the dessert party. Had a nice chat with Eddie from the Dakota’s about engineering and vampire robots. Definitely need to get photos post processed and up here as soon as I get home. Reminds me that the site needs to be loaded up in advance.
Just a few shots from this trip.
Spent the morning and early afternoon walking the worlds and sampling the food at the garden show that is going on there. Lorna had a easter egg hunt that she picked up at the pin trading kisok that we did along the way. Nice afternoon, good food and a pleasant walk.
Tonight we’re going over to hollywood studios for star wars dessert party with the fireworks. We’ve done this once before. Tasty desserts and a reserved spot (last time there was no seating though) for the fireworks show. We’re just finishing up getting ready to go…need to hit the bus by seven or so.
Almost at half-way through the vacation. Feels a bit more that that as we’re going to be doing a short cruise nextr week and thus will be leaving Orlando and the parks for a chunk of time.
Having a blast so far. Looking forward to the rest…