Well, here we are. The end of the Space and Sea blog. I wish I had a grand adventure to tell you about for today, but mostly we have been sitting in the airport.

We thought about storing our luggage somewhere and exploring Orlando for a few hours. There was quite a gap between our disembarkation time and when we needed to be at the airport. Back when I booked the flight, I wanted to leave us plennnnty of time because I had no idea how long it would take to get off the ship, and what if the ship got delayed, and blah blah blah. Dear Christine from the past: you didn’t need that much time! Sure, the airport was forty-five minutes away from the cruise port, but that was less than an hour! Silly me. I’ll know for next time.

When we got to the airport, we were told there was space on an earlier flight, and we could go home early! Score!! So we went through security and hustled to the gate. I was so excited to get home early to see Rex and the dogs and even evil Elsie. To our dismay, the gate agent told us the flight was full after all, and there wasn’t space for us. Whomp whooomp. So we were now stuck in the airport for the whole day instead of exploring a city. Not nearly as fun.

I was really dejected about it. My mom was too, but she bought herself an ice cream and cheered right up. If you think I’m joking, I’m not joking. She said, “Ice cream will make me feel better” and was all smiles as soon as she got it. I was still a little sulky. Then again, I didn’t buy ice cream. This was probably the issue.

We shopped for a while in the Orlando airport, and they had a lot of theme-park shops. I wish I had the Quinn kids with me for the Harry Potter World shop (but not really, because I would have gone broke). Here’s the closest we got to Disney World.

It was busy busy busy at the airport, but we finally got on a flight to Detroit. Now we have to wait here for four more hours until we fly to Kalamazoo. Ugh. Such a long travel day, but Rex is at the end of it! Yay!

I tried to do some shopping at the Detroit airport too, but I failed. I went in the Body Shop and used this great-smelling tester lotion. I started rubbing it on my hands, and the lady said, “Ummm…that’s for your face” like I was a total MORON to think my hands could smell citrusy fresh. So then I rubbed it on my face, like obviously I knew it went there the whole time, and now my whole head smells like an orange. Therefore I decided to put away my wallet and come write to you instead.

Thanks for following along on this blog. Thanks for your comments and your support – it’s always so much fun to share my travels with people back home, and this trip was truly amazing. I loved Space Camp. I would do that again in a second, but I doubt I’ll ever have the opportunity. And the cruise was AMAZING. I hope I do have another opportunity to go on a cruise one day. When I got to the airport and they wanted me to pay for my food, that was pretty lame.

I think travel changes you as a person in a variety of ways. I don’t need to get all philosophical about how this trip has changed me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has. I met some great people and had some amazing experiences. I’m now going to read a kabillion books about space. I know how to navigate a cruise port. I know how to use citrus face cream. You know, those essential pieces of life.

Going home is always a little bittersweet. I’m sad the adventure is over, but I’m ready for real life again. Real life has pugs.

Since I didn’t have an adventure to share today, I’ll leave you with a few more pictures from the trip.

For example, here is the spaghetti that I’m already missing. If only your screen was scratch and sniff.

Here’s the beach with a fruit smoothie!

Here’s the photographer’s picture of my mom and me on “White Night.” Don’t worry, we did buy the picture! I didn’t steal this pic.

Here’s one more of the beach. Because…beach.

Thanks again, loyal follower! See you next time!

Today can best be described by a t-shirt I saw in the island shop: “Beach, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.”

It was a mostly lazy day, but I did wake up for 7 AM yoga. My mom bailed on me to sleep in this time. I decided the morning is my favorite time of day on a cruise ship. It’s so quiet! It’s like I have the whole ship to myself.

After yoga, my mom and I had breakfast and got ready to venture forth onto the private island again. It’s so beautiful here! We started by walking to the parts of the island we hadn’t seen yet, then I asked one of the employees which beach was best for seeing fish. I brought a snorkel and mask with me, but I hadn’t seen any fish while swimming around yesterday. I was hoping to see at least one today. We saw them when we were kayaking, so I knew they were around SOMEWHERE. The employee told us to head to Lighthouse Beach, so that’s what we did.

We hadn’t been to Lighthouse Beach yet, and it was awesome! They had colorful bean bags strewn about for lounging. Now, when is the last time you got to lounge around in a bean bag chair?? Somewhere around 2003? Me too. It was so fun to relax in the shade of a palm tree.

When I got in the water, I had a singular goal: find a fish. I wanted to see at least one little tropical fish. The water was so clear, I could see a long way in all directions. No fish. Lots of perfect white sand, bright reflections of the sun off the bottom of the sea, but no fish.

THEN.

I finally saw one! She was silver and yellow and probably about as big as my hand. I mentally named her Nina. Nina was lazily swimming along, doing fish things, and I followed her for a while. After all, she was my prized fish! She didn’t seem to mind me following her. She looked up at me every once in a while as if to say, “YOU CREEPER!” but she didn’t swim away. I followed her and followed her, having a blast with my one fish.

Little did I know, she was leading me to the fish motherload! She led me to a small reef near the edge of the swimming boundary, and there were hundreds of fish. I was thrilled – SO MANY FISHIES! Purple ones, yellow ones, blue ones, stripy ones, spotty ones, fish fish fish! I kept diving down to be eye level with them, and some of them got alarmed if I got too close. Some didn’t seem to mind at all. I was close enough to a few that I could have put out my finger and booped their adorable faces, but I don’t think fish would appreciate a nose boop like my dogs do (though, come to think of it, I’m not sure my dogs appreciate it either).

I also saw a sea anemone swaying in the waves and a conch scooting its way across the sea floor. Mostly, I saw fish. The water was so clear that I could see the colors of the fish as if I was looking through air. This may have been the clearest water I’ve ever seen.

After reluctantly tearing myself away from the reef, I went back to shore and hung out on my bean bag while I gave my mom a turn to use the snorkel mask. She saw some fish too, but I don’t think she went out as far as I did. After we both checked out the fish, we relaxed in our bean bags and had fruit smoothies. I heard the fire alarm go off on the ship, and I really tried to muster up some concern, but I was way too chill to be stressed. I thought, “Oh bummer, the ship will burn down and leave us stranded on this perfect island with our bean bag chairs and fruit smoothies. I’M SO DISAPPOINTED.”

I think it was just a drill or something, because the ship did not, in fact, burn down. Maybe there was a kitchen fire somewhere that no one told us about. Who knows? We’re sailing again as I write this, though, so clearly the fire situation was handled.

Anyway, back to this morning. Around noon, we went back to the ship to get out of the sun for a little while and to grab some lunch. Then I took a nap while my mom read her book. It was so relaxing. After I woke up, guess what we did? I bet you’ll never guess…we went back to the beach!

NO WAIT – I have to tell you something – a “behind the scenes” vacation anecdote. After I woke up from my nap, what I really did first was check my e-mail. With no cell service, Rex and I have been e-mailing back and forth throughout the day. Guess what was in my e-mail? GUESS!!! Okay, you’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you. The first trade review for my book came in! It was from Kirkus, and they’re notorious for being mean to authors. But, to my shock, they LOVED my book! It was an absolutely glowing review! You could have knocked me over with a feather. KIRKUS liked my book?! I tried to get excited with Rex, and I tried to get excited with my mom, but neither of them had heard of Kirkus. Blast. I guess it’s just a publishing thing. I e-mailed one of my writing friends (Hi Kacey!) to be excited with me, and we had a small virtual party to celebrate my good review. Yaaaaaaay!! That was the cherry on top of this day, which is saying something because this is already a pretty amazing day.

Okay, thanks for humoring me and my e-mail aside. Back to the beach.

Before we got to Lighthouse Beach, we stopped into the tourist shops and bought a few last-minute souvenirs. Then it was back to the bean bags! My mom didn’t go swimming this time, but I did. I had to go say hello to all my fish friends again. I found even more this time, as I went all the way to the edge of the swim boundary. At one point, I found myself swimming in a school of black and yellow striped fish. They kind of side-eyed me, like, “Um, hello, get out of our school you weirdo.” I also found a section of tiny, teeeeeeny fish that were still tropically colored like the large ones but just miniature. I wondered if they were baby fish or something. Whatever they were, they were adorable.

I swam right up until it was time to get back on the ship again. We had to be back on board by 5:30 to leave and head back to the States. When we got back to the room, my mom and I got dressed up all fancy (again) and headed to dinner (again).

I could really get used to this lifestyle.

Dinner was amazing, and I’m really going to miss our two waiter dudes, Eduardo and Zimo. Any chance Rex will be waiting in a tux when I get home from work each day and say, “Welcome back, madam” like our waiters do? Nah, I don’t think so. I can let that dream die.

Now I’m writing to you while I wait for the 9:00 show that we are going to go see. It’s called Extreme. I’m a little nervous about it. I mean, what’s so extreme?? I think I’d rather see a show called Completely Chill. Anyway, it’s supposed to be acrobats and stuff. Doesn’t their balance get thrown off by doing tricks on a moving ship?? Well, we’ll see I suppose.

It’s now 8:42, and I’m in a hoodie (my new space hoodie!) and pajama pants. I’d better go put my show clothes on before I make us late.

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY of my trip! I’ll see if I can find an adventure and check in with you when I get to the airport. Bye for now! I’m off to see Extreme! I’ll leave you with this picture of the view of the island from our lunch buffet.

My mom is in her happy place.

She literally said that to me: “This is my happy place. Next time I’m sad and need to think of something happy, I’m going to pretend I’m back here, lying on this mat in the Caribbean.”

We hit the Linda Knasel trifecta today: she got to go kayaking, she got to relax in the water, and she got to watch a sunset. My mom is a happy camper.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a great day today too. I did! It started bright and early with morning yoga. We arrived right as the class was about to start (my mom and I sleep until the last possible minute. It’s a thing). I was afraid the class would be full. After all, there are a lot of people on this ship. Imagine my surprise when the yoga class had only three people, and that included my mom and me! “Well,” said my mom. “I guess we learned something about cruise intentions. Most cruisers aren’t into early morning workouts.”

It was great being just the three of us, because it was like we had our own personal yoga instructor. The view out of the yoga room windows was amazing. We got to see the ship pull into Ocean Cay, a private island owned by this cruise company. When the instructor told us to close our eyes and relax, I wanted to say, “NO WAY, LADY! HOW CAN I MISS ONE SECOND OF THIS VIEW??!” I didn’t want to get kicked out of yoga class, though, so I closed my eyes. I may or may not have peeked. Please don’t tell my instructor.

After yoga, we headed to the buffet for breakfast. Yummy! Nothing like putting on way more calories than you just burned. Oh well. We had more exercise ahead of us. Today was our kayaking day!

If you know my mom well at all, you know she loves kayaking. She’s in a club of ladies who call themselves the “Happy Yakkers” because they like to kayak and chat. Today I booked us a couple of rented kayaks, and you’d think I booked us a moon rocket. My mom was practically bouncing around our room. “I’m so excited to go KAYAKING!!!!” She really said it with four exclamation points. Trust me.

We disembarked and started wandering around this completely gorgeous private island. The water was so blue it looked like a swimming pool, minus the chlorine and dead frogs. There are palm trees everywhere, lots of tropical flowers, and very few people because only the people from our ship have access to the island. We feel very cool about this.

Once we found our way to the kayak rentals, we got checked in and hopped into our two-person kayak. My mom had so much fun regaling me with tales of all of her other kayak adventures. She mostly helped paddle, except when she would get too absorbed in one of her stories or too excited by taking pictures of the scenery. Then I’d splash her in the face to remind her to help.

Just kidding. I didn’t do that. But “I asked nicely” doesn’t sound as exciting.

At one point I was watching the floor of the sea, and I saw a huge stingray floating along! It was probably about fifteen feet below us, but I could see it perfectly because the water was so clear. We also saw some fish. I wanted to throw on my snorkel and abandon ship, but I didn’t bring it kayaking with us. We just kept paddling and watching for wildlife. It was a ton of fun.

We went back to the ship for lunch and to cool off. Then it was time to hit the beach! I rented us a beach umbrella and two pink floating mats. The pink looked so beautiful against the electric blue of the water. We floated along and relaxed. The water was the perfect temperature, the sand was white and soft…it was like someone dropped us into that popular screensaver from the early 2000’s. Let me see if I can find the one I’m talking about… oh yes! Here it is!

Now doesn’t that look a little bit like where we are now??

I don’t have a lot to say about the afternoon because “we relaxed in the perfect turquoise sea” can only be said so many different ways. When it was time for dinner, we reluctantly headed back to the ship.

Dinner was, once again, delicious. I ate this weird appetizer that I couldn’t pronounce, but I ordered it because why not? I wish I had a picture of it for you. It was a weird rice ball with some cheese and peas…I’m making it sound gross, but it was actually really good. Like a mozzarella stick, but the outside is crispy rice, and there are some peas in it.

Yeah, I’m not going to be able to describe it well. Sorry.

When I was finished with my dinner, the waiter came up and asked if I wanted another plate of it. Ack!! I think he was teasing me because of last night, but I think he was also half serious. He’s probably like, “These cruiser fatties eating all the plates of dinner. THEY DISGUST ME!” Sorry man, sometimes I’m hungry! At least I ate all the food I ordered.

After dinner, my mom and I took a walk on the beach at sunset. I was shocked at how few people were out. Like, HELLO PEOPLE!!!! TROPICAL SUNSET OUT HERE!!! GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND COME TAKE A LOOK! My mom took a gazillion pictures, so if you want five million pictures of what tonight’s sunset looked like, talk to her.

There was a light show after dark, and we were lucky enough to be able to watch it from our balcony! It was great. I feel really happy that we’re on the island side of the ship, because the other side people are just staring out at the water (which is still pretty, I’m sure, but the island view is awesome).

Now I’ve got to get some sleep, because I’m going to get up for morning yoga again. Have a good night! Dream tropical dreams!

Let’s start with a quote from the middle of this post, just so you can see where we’re headed: “So then my mom bought a white XL wife-beater style men’s tank top, and that completed her fancy dinner outfit.”

It’s been quite a day.

When I woke up this morning, I pulled the curtain back and was awed by the beauty of the ocean.

It’s still hard to believe that I’m here cruising. I hung out on the balcony for a little while watching the world float by, but I couldn’t stay long because we had things to do!

After a delicious breakfast, we did some more on-board shopping. We both bought fancy new purses to wear to tonight’s dinner. I mentally tried to channel my fashionable sister Cara and choose the one she would choose. I’m pretty sure I chose correctly. Mom also bought a new necklace. Then it was time to work out! *cue “Sexy and I Know It”.*

We rode the exercise bikes as the ship pulled into port, and it was super fun to watch. We pretended we were propelling the ship forward with our bikes. Then, after a quick lunch, it was time to head into Nassau!

Just as I predicted yesterday, we shopped until we dropped. I didn’t realize the Caribbean is so well known for diamonds, but there were a lot of jewelry places. My mom kept trying on ridiculously expensive jewelry in store after store. “Look Christine, this chocolate diamond is regularly $36,000, but I could get it for $8,000!” Oh boy.

I tried on a $6,000 ring just for fun, but I was afraid I’d sneeze on it or something. I felt much more comfortable in the chintzy souvenir shops, which probably says something unflattering about me as a person.

My mom finally did buy some “diamonds,” and she told me to tell you she got them for twenty-five. If I just say “twenty-five,” you might think twenty-five thousand or at LEAST twenty-five hundred…but no. They’re costume jewelry diamond earrings that cost twenty-five dollars. They’re pretty, though, and I’m sure glad I didn’t have to run an intervention on her buying an $8,000 chocolate diamond (I would have done it, too. I would have thrown down right there in the store and been like, “MOM!!! DAD WILL KILL YOU! I’LL HAVE TO BE ON DATELINE AND EXPLAIN HOW IT ALL HAPPENED! DON’T DOOOO IT!!!!” It would have been embarrassing for all involved.).

I bought a new bag at the Straw Market. It’s all tropical and fun looking. I had to bargain with the lady to get a good price, but my dad and I have plenty of garage sale experience that has prepared me for that.

The other item we looked for while shopping was a white shirt. Tonight is “White Night” on the ship, you see, so everyone is supposed to wear all white. I brought a white dress, but my mom only had white pants and a white lacy swimming suit cover up. We figured if she could find a white t-shirt, she could put it under the cover-up and have a perfect outfit. Unfortunately, nowhere seemed to sell plain white t-shirts. They all had designs on them or giant letters spelling out phrases like “BAHAMA MAMA” (though she bought that shirt too, obviously). Finally, we went into a fancy menswear store. They sold white tank tops that men wear under dress shirts. Perfect! They only had size XL, and the shirts were really odd looking, but it would work! So then my mom bought a white XL wife-beater style men’s tank top, and that completed her fancy dinner outfit. I bet that’s not what that shirt had envisioned for its future.

After shopping all day, we got back to the ship and had smoothies out by the pool. Yum! Then it was time to get ready for dinner.

We got all dressed up in our white outfits (me in my white dress, mom in her men’s tank and wannabe diamonds). For throwing the whole outfit together in a day, I think she looks really nice! As the sign in one store said today: “Life isn’t perfect, but your outfit can be.”

Dinner was delicious again, but I do have one teeeeeeeeny tiny complaint: the portions are gourmet, which is code word for small. For example: I got the chips and guacamole as my appetizer, and it looked very beautiful. There was an artful blob of guacamole in the middle with six chips sticking out of it in lovely fashion.

Six. Chips.

Six chips is what I feed Elvis while I’m eating a normal human number of chips.

My spaghetti bolognese was also kind of a small portion, but it was sooooo good. I was wishing I could have had about twice as much. Then I had a brilliant idea: why not ask for another plate of spaghetti? My friend Krista had given me the cruise advice that you can order more than one dinner. I hadn’t tried it yet…but could I order more of the same dinner? I mean, the worst they could say was no, right? So I tried it. I felt like Oliver from his namesake musical: “Please sir, I want some more.”

The waiter guy smiled at me and said something like, “Of course, ma’am.” I don’t know if he believed I could put down a whole second plate of spaghetti, but I wanted to say, “Sir, I may not be a Webb by birth, but I am a Webb by marriage, and I have to make my family proud. The six chips portion sizing just WILL NOT DO!”

I, predictably, finished all of that second plate. And my key lime pie.

Hey, I worked out today. Stop judging me.

Now I’m back at the stateroom waiting for tonight’s show, which starts at 9:00. It’s something about Paris. I’m not sure what to expect. Should be fun, though! Then my mom said she wants to look at more on-board gemstones. Uh oh. I’m buckling up for that throwdown.

Tomorrow we’re going to Ocean Cay, a private island owned by our cruise ship. Beach day with my fancy new beach bag! I can’t wait! I’ll leave you with the view from our balcony as we pulled out of port this evening.

A couple weeks ago, I asked my sister-in-law for advice about how to cruise correctly. Her family does a lot of cruising, you see, so I thought she might have some good tips. She talked to her sisters, then got back to me:

“It really depends on your intentions,” she said. “Like, what are your intentions with this cruise?”

Uhhhh…what are my options? What are my intentions SUPPOSED to be for a cruise? I had a mental flashback to episodes of The Bachelor where the girls cry and lament the fact that “She’s not here for the right reasons!!” I mean, is that me?! Am I not cruising for the right reasons? What are my intentions with this cruise??

She must have noticed my blank stare. “For example, if you want to get a good tan, you need to wake up REALLY early to get the best tanning chairs,” she said.

While I’m sure that’s great advice, sleeping will probably win out over tanning.

“And if you’re there to party, you need the drink package.” She looked at me doubtfully even as she said it, but she was dutifully passing on advice from her sisters.

I’m not doing that either. Though I guess I didn’t check with my mom…maybe she wants to get cray. Paaaaaarty with the Bahama Mama!

What are my other possible intentions?! Were those my only two choices? So I sat down to consider it. What are my intentions with this cruise? I decided on two things:

1. Have fun.
2. Hang out with my mom.

Is that okay? Does that qualify as “good intentions”? Ahhh! Hopefully no one kicks me off the cruise for being here for the wrong reasons.

I am now sitting in my stateroom, so that means boarding went okay after all! Phewf!! I was so nervous about it. We had our paperwork checked several times, and every time I was scared they’d find something I did wrong and say, “NO CRUISE FOR YOU!”

Here we are being very excited while waiting in line. My mom said, “Don’t you dare put that picture on your blog!” but I talked her around to it.

When we finally boarded, our room wasn’t quite ready yet. We sat in the lobby area for a while (what’s it called on a cruise? Lobby feels like the wrong word. Lounge? Giant living room? Whatever. I’m new here). It was very sparkly. I was missing Rex, but I also found myself thinking that he might not love a cruise. After all, there were a lot of people at check in, and the sparkliness doesn’t feel like Rex’s jam.

I felt that way until I went to lunch.

Guys. YOU GUYS. The lunch buffet was insanely great. I am a bit of a buffet snob, too, after living in Las Vegas. They have some amazing buffets. But this was WHOA nice. Lobster ravioli, chicken cacciatore, eggplant something-or-other, pasta pasta pasta, salads, fruits, desserts, pizza delicioso…SO MUCH FOOD. My jaw was probably on the floor when I walked in. The employee guy handed me a plate bigger than my face, and I realized that Rex wouldn’t hate a cruise so much after all. Where can I buy those plates for a Webb Thanksgiving??

By the time we were finished with lunch, our room was ready. Yay! I really like our room. We have a balcony, so we’ll be able to watch the sea float by.

We have been exploring the ship for the last couple of hours. We stopped by the spa for free massage samples, and that felt great. We also stopped by a presentation about shopping in Nassau, the port we’ll be visiting tomorrow. I think my mom is ready to invest in Caribbean diamonds or the bamboo mattress they told us about, but don’t worry Dad – I won’t let her get too out of control. (Hey – is that our intention with this cruise?? Shop till we drop? That seems like a valid cruise-themed intention. I’ll run that one by my sister-in-law).

Now we’re getting ready for the safety drill. That sounds exciting. Oops, it’s starting. Gotta go!

***Time passes***

Oof, okay I’m back. It’s almost eleven o’ clock PM now. What a day! I just got back from our evening adventures. We saw a show called Dancing Queen, and the singers and dancers were super talented. After the show, we had a fancy dinner at the Black Crab Restaurant. It was delicious…but I’ve already bragged about the food here. I’m envisioning a Webb family cruise one day where the brothers Webb do some WORK at these restaurants. I regret that I have but one stomach to give to this cruise. Everything looks so yummy!

We went shopping after dinner and bought fancy lotions at the type of place that has bags with rope handles. Charge it to the room, dah-ling! *happy clink of the cash register* Now we have matching fancy lotion, and if that doesn’t scream “mother daughter bonding,” then I don’t know what does.

I’m not sure what’s on deck for tomorrow (literally – heh heh), but we just got our daily program delivered to our room. I think I’ll peruse it a while and find out what adventures we can discover!

Good night for now. Talk to you soon!

P.S. I’m not seasick yet. 😀

The pouring rain outside my window felt right this morning. It reflected how sad I am that yesterday was my last day of space camp. I didn’t realize how sad that would make me. I thought I’d have the usual disappointment that everyone gets when something ends, but I felt really down about it. Not only have I had some really cool, once-in-a-lifetime-if-you’re-lucky experiences this week, but I’ve met some awesome people that are now going to be scattered all across the country again.

I felt sad walking through the rocket garden on my way to class yesterday morning because I knew that it was going to be my last time doing that. Even if I switch jobs one day, I don’t think I’ll ever have a job that lets me walk through a ROCKET GARDEN every morning. Walking by all the magnificent rockets retained its awesomeness (as in, literally causing awe) all week. I don’t know how many weeks of space camp I’d have to do before those got boring, but I think it would have taken a really long time.

After a lecture about technology’s relationship with wildlife and some of the challenges of building a space center in central Florida, we were off to the Merritt Wildlife Refuge. I was very excited about this, as I’ve been in the city all week and miss nature. I was a little disappointed that we mostly got to explore only on the bus. It’s like taking a hungry person through the aisles of a grocery store and not letting them buy anything. The nature was so close! I could SEE it! I wanted to go walk around so badly.

We did get to get out at an overlook called Manatee Cove. It lived up to its name for sure, as there were dozens of manatees! I would tell you, “I’ve never seen so many manatees in my life,” but that has very little significance since the first wild manatee I saw in my life was on Tuesday while kayaking. Anyway, I tried to snap a picture when they would poke their little faces out of the water for air, but it was tough to get a picture of it. Here’s the best I could do with manatee pics (this is only one section of the river where all the manatees were swimming around). Too bad Rex isn’t with me. He would have had some great photos. Look at the tiny nose in the second picture! Too cute.

Once we got back from the wildlife refuge, we had lunch and then got geared up for a “Space in Popular Culture” trivia game. Now, I like trivia more than the average person, but I had to laugh when I saw we would be doing a space trivia game. I knew I was SUNK. These space people are huge fans off all things galactical, and before this week I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut. I don’t watch Star Wars or Star Trek (don’t tell that to my space friends). I don’t know much about ewoks, tribbles, or any other fictional space creatures. Basically, we were squarely OUTSIDE of my trivia wheelhouse. Plus, one of the guys here has been on Jeopardy, so he’s a trivia guru AND a space guy. I turned to Leslie and said, “I’m rooting for you.” Because if I couldn’t win, I wanted her to take home the prize. She knows a LOT about space.

Predictably, I didn’t do great. I did better than I thought I would, though! I scored around the middle of the pack – 16th or 17th I think (out of thirty-six). I made a lot of lucky guesses. Leslie didn’t win either, though she WAS the highest scoring girl. I learned a lot about space and pop culture, so I’m well-armed for any space trivia questions in my future.

After space trivia, it was time to wrap up for the day. It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone! We’d gotten pretty close. Leslie and I even bought these super cool matching NASA hoodies with the space shuttle on them.

Before we headed back to the hotel, Leslie and I explored the space center just a little bit more. Here are a few more things we saw that I haven’t already shown you.

Here’s a prototype of the type of vehicle that might drive on Mars one day. It has a detachable lab:

Here’s a piece of the doomed space shuttle Challenger:

Here’s the Mars rover made out of legos:

My friends and I went out to one last dinner together at a place called the “Long Dogger.” I had the key lime chicken tacos, which sounded a little odd, but they were DELICIOUS.

Then I went back to my hotel room and watched a documentary on the Space Race as I fell asleep. I’m becoming kind of a space nerd now, and I don’t even care! As I write this, I’m cozied up in my new space hoodie and wondering what books I can read about space. I feel like I’m 33 years behind on studying all about this! There’s so much to KNOW.

My mom is supposed to arrive later tonight, and we leave for the cruise tomorrow. I’m actually super nervous about it. I don’t know anything about cruises. I could navigate an airport with one eye closed. A train station? No problem. Road trip? No worries. A cruise port? NO IDEA WHATSOEVER. And there are all these covid regulations and everything… I feel like I’m missing something. I really hope tomorrow’s post isn’t titled “Stranded in Florida. What Do I Do Now?” but if that’s the title, you’ll know I messed something up.

I still have several hours until my mom arrives, so maybe I’ll go explore Cocoa Beach for a bit. If I come across an adventure, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, the next time you hear from me I’ll *hopefully* be on my first ever cruise!

Good news: I discovered how astronauts use the bathroom in space! I know you’ve been wondering about that all week. Believe it or not, it was in one of our lectures today. Dr. History (you may remember her as the very enthusiastic space historian from Day 2) was talking about barriers to women joining the astronaut program when it first started. One of the problems was that there wasn’t a bathroom system that could allow women to pee in space. You should have SEEN some of the weird schematics they designed to try to make this possible. Anyway, they clearly figured it out. Here’s one of the early astronaut toilets:

Here’s one from a space shuttle:

Apparently getting rid of waste in space is quite complicated. I won’t bore you with the details of how these work (though ask me later if you want to know). This has been enough toilet talk for one blog post. I’m QUITE sure this was not the point of Dr. History’s lecture. I do know a lot more about space and feminism from her lecture, though, so we can chat about that later too if you want!

I continue to learn a lot about space and history each day. It feels a little like some alternate-universe college: I get up in the morning, pack my backpack, and head to class. It still feels a bit surreal to walk through the rocket gardens on my way to the space education building every day, and I feel pretty cool not having to buy a ticket or wait in line to get into the space center. I just flash my pass, and ZOOM – right to the front. VIP status.

Today was especially fun. We got some more time to explore the space center, and my favorite exhibit was seeing the Atlantis space shuttle (the real one!). It was bigger than I imagined it would be. I also got to go on a shuttle simulator and feel what it would be like to be blasted off into space. Whoa!! This experience has been just too cool.

Our afternoon speaker was especially amazing. I’ll call him Dr. Launch. Dr. Launch was the launch director at NASA from 2000-2011 (the space shuttle program ended in 2011). He was the guy in charge of the whole ground crew for the launches. Now, blog follower, do you happen to remember where you were on February 1, 2003? I do. I was in eighth grade getting ready to go to some bowling thing when my dad was in his office and said, “Oh no! That’s so sad!” When I asked what was wrong, he told me the space shuttle Columbia had an accident, and the whole crew died.

Well, THIS guy – Dr. Launch – was launch director of that mission (and a bunch of other ones too). He talked about his job and what they do to keep the astronauts safe. He was emotional when discussing the Columbia mission, because he, in his words, lost seven of his friends that day. I know way more about that accident now than I did before this trip, so let me know if you ever want to hear more (I also know way more about the Apollo I and Challenger tragedies as well). Let me tell you – learning about a space tragedy takes on a whole new perspective when you’re learning from the launch director.

That’s sad. Let’s move on to something happier.

Oh, here’s something happy – I won Space Selfie Bingo! We had the opportunity to take selfies with different things around the space center and field trip locations, and if you got a bingo you got a PRIZE. Oh, how I love winning. And prizes. I got the E column completed:

Here are my selfies to prove it:

Here is my prize: SPACE STICKERS!! Now I have to find somewhere cool to put them.

The highlight of today was at approximately 8:44 PM. By “approximately 8:44 PM,” I mean EXACTLY 8:44 PM. On the dot. To the second. That was when SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 rocket to travel to the International Space Station, and I GOT TO WATCH IT FROM THE SPACE CENTER.

AHHHHHHH!!!!

It felt so fancy to be at the space center after hours. It was a beautiful night to watch the launch, and we lined up by a river to watch. We’d been keeping an eye on the SpaceX Twitter account all day, nervous they would scrub the launch (that means cancel it – here at NASA we say “scrub.” Yeah, I’m fancy now). The launch can get scrubbed anywhere up to T-minus one second, so there was never a guarantee the launch was a go. This was especially true because we were watching a storm roll in. Watching lightning in the distance made my heart sink, because I thought for sure they’d scrub the launch. But NOPE! It went up exactly on time! Here are my friends being all excited and watching the SpaceX newsfeed on Michaela’s phone while we waited:

The launch was so bright – it was almost like trying to look at the sun. The rocket was steadily going up, up, up…and then something fell off. No one panicked, so that was good, because inside I was a little like, “Um….IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN?!” Of course it is, you newbie. That was just the booster falling off. DUHHHH. And, while we were standing there watching, the booster fell back to Earth and landed off the coast of South Carolina on a waiting barge. Space travel is so cool.

It would always be fun to watch a launch, but it was especially amazing with all these space enthusiasts. Leslie was even crying at how amazing it was. One of our professors patted her on the back, like, “I get it, man. Rockets.” I probably should have patted her on the back too, but I didn’t notice she was crying because my eyes were firmly glued to the sky. Rocket launches don’t happen that often, so it was a huge treat to be able to see one while I was here.

After it was over, we went to the sketchiest restaurant EVER to celebrate the successful launch (as if we had anything to do with it, haha). Here we are celebrating!

Now it’s once again after midnight, and I need to get to bed so that I can get up tomorrow and go to my last day of space college. I’m pretty disappointed that this is almost over, but it’s been amazing. I have so many more pictures and stories than what I can fit on the blog, so let’s chat over tea sometime if you ever want to know more about space. I think I’m hooked. I can’t wait to study more about all these topics.

I’m not going to say that tonight’s adventure was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life…

…but it’s on the list.

It’s 11:20 PM as I start writing this, and I may not be able to finish this post tonight. I have to start it, though, because I HAVE to tell you about this experience I just had.

Tonight – AFTER all the space stuff that I also need to tell you about – I went on a kayaking tour. I was pretty excited going into it because I like kayaking. My friend Leslie had never been in a kayak or a canoe before, and I admit I felt a little proud that I have a lot of experience in this area. Welcome to my house, space friend!

Our whole group was from the NEH program, so it was fun being with a bunch of other teachers for this experience. It was a 7-10 PM three-hour tour. Three hours have never gone by so fast.

Disclaimer: none of the pictures you’ll see here were taken by me. Our guides warned us that everything in our kayak would get wet, and the clear-bottomed kayaks are prone to sinking. I didn’t want to risk losing my phone. So if you’re the type to say “pics or it didn’t happen!” then none of this happened. If you’re the type to believe I’m probably not lying about this, then read on.

Leslie and I put our tandem clear-bottomed kayak into the water, and Leslie barely knew how to work the paddle before we saw MANATEES swimming in the water near us. MANATEES, y’all. Just hanging out near the mangroves. They were popping out of the water to breathe, and there were several swimming all around us. I was about dead of shock and awe. Then – okay, this gets a little weird, but stick with me – two were MATING. AHHHH!!! *insert inappropriate joke here*

How many people have seen manatees mating in the wild?! Well, I have. And I’ve barely gotten you through the first fifteen minutes of the tour. What cute little hippo dudes.

We stayed near the manatees to watch them doing manatee things for a little while, then we headed out to the open part of the lagoon. Out there, we saw dolphins swimming. I could also see the sandy bottom of the lagoon through the bottom of my kayak – it was awesome. We paddled around for a while before heading to a small island in the middle of the water. We pulled up our kayaks and started wading in the shallows to look for wildlife.

WELL. We found a lot of wildlife. I got to hold a horseshoe crab AND a spider crab. I also could have stepped on a stingray (but, for obvious reasons, chose not to). It was that close to me, though! Just floating along and being adorable. Here are the types of crabs I held:

At one point I motioned to a fin in the water. “Look, guys! Another dolphin!” Well, this fin didn’t bob up and down playfully like a dolphin fin. It stayed up.

It was a SHARK. I accidentally found a shark! Aaaaeeeeeee!!!! Run for cover!

Not really. It was pretty far off, and it seemed like a fairly friendly fin. We stayed in the shallows and kept looking at cool stuff.

After the sun set, it got dark pretty quickly. That’s when the real fun began (yeah, I’m with you. I thought the exciting part had already happened too).

Did you know Florida is one of the few places in the world with bioluminescent plankton? When we kayaked after dark, every time our paddle touched the water it splashed ELECTRIC blue. It literally lit up. If you put your hand in and swished it around, it looked like blue pixie dust was shooting out of your fingers.

At one point while we were still by the island, Leslie said she wanted to go swimming and make a snow angel of electric blue.

“Do it!” I said, thinking it would look awesome but not really wanting to go swimming myself.

“I don’t know…” Leslie looked at the water doubtfully.

“I DARE you,” I said, knowing that Leslie is a middle school teacher and would understand the severity of this challenge. She immediately began unbuckling her life vest. This, in my opinion, proves that she understands middle school culture well.

So Leslie made bioluminescent angels in a Florida lagoon while I splashed around and looked like I had magical powers. I’m telling you, this was completely unreal. I called Rex afterward and said, “I don’t know if you know this, but this experience is now on your bucket list. I added it. You HAVE to do this.”

You should add it to your bucket list too. I’m serious. It was completely breathtaking. Here’s a short YouTube clip (not my video), but it’s very accurate to what we saw. This footage was taken in the same place where I was tonight:

The video doesn’t even do it justice, if I’m being honest. It was SO AMAZING!

While we were still playing in the magic, lightning started forking across the night sky. The storm was headed toward us fast, so we had to ditch the island and head to shore. Now, I know kayaking in a lightning storm isn’t the smartest idea, but since you have the spoiler alert that we all made it back okay, can you appreciate how AWESOME it was to have electricity buzzing above our heads in a lightning storm AND the electric blue below us in the water?! I have no adjectives for you. The English language is failing me. Please do yourself a favor and come do this.

Okay, now it’s almost 12:30, and I haven’t even begun to tell you about visiting the Space Force base today or watching the reveal of the James Webb telescope photos or all of the other cool space things I did! Ack! I’ll have to wrap that into tomorrow, because if I don’t get to sleep soon, I’ll be the kid who falls asleep in class. No one likes that kid.

See you tomorrow! Stop reading this blog and go book your trip to the Space Coast!

Before I got to the Kennedy Space Center, I thought I was looking pretty cute in my first-day-of-space-school selfie:

Unfortunately, my outfit was not quite up to par. One teacher showed up wearing a dress with a rocket pattern on it. Another showed up wearing a shirt with lunar rovers all over it. My friend Leslie picked me up (in her red Mustang, if you recall), and she was wearing sunglasses with stars on them and cool space shoes. When I complimented her shoes, she said, “Oh, thanks. Those are infrared patterns from the last eclipse.”

Right. The eclipse. She has eclipse shoes. Mine were nude flats. Let’s not compare coolness levels, okay?

So I am spending the week with some total space nerds enthusiasts, and I can’t even pretend to know anything close to what they do about space. For example, I wouldn’t tell this to THEM, but I can tell you because you’re a trusted blog follower: I didn’t know the USA is planning to send another manned mission to the moon.

Did you know that? Can someone please comment and say, “I didn’t know that either” so I don’t feel so completely UNINFORMED?! Everyone today was all jazzed about the Artemis Project. Artemis this and Artemis that. I guess Artemis is the twin sister to Apollo in Greek mythology, and that’s the perfect name for the companion to the Apollo missions because this project will be the first to put a woman on the moon. Neato, huh?? YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY, DIDN’T YOU? How did I not know this? *sobs a little* Oh well. I know now. This is one of those learning adventures. I’m learning.

Leslie’s cool. She knows tons about space, and I think she’s quickly caught on that I’m not quite as much of a space nerd enthusiast as she is. She’s really patient, though, and explains things well. She is a teacher, after all. At one point, one of the speakers showed us a website where you can look at a map and see where the International Space Station is at any time. Leslie pulled out her phone and said, “You can actually have the ISS text you when it’s over your house so you can look up and see it. I’ve had this app since 2016.”

I told you she’s into space. She even took this picture of my face when I first saw the Saturn V rocket, because she said someone did that for her and she wanted to make sure I had it. She’d already seen the rocket before, OBVIOUSLY. I couldn’t get a good picture of it for the blog, really it was too massive, but here’s my lame attempt:

The other teachers here are pretty nice (not the thirty-six meanest people in America as I’d feared). Here’s your weirdest small-world plot twist for the day: my high school computer science teacher is here! Out of teachers from all over the country, two are from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and one was my teacher?! How weird!! For those of you who knew Mr. Houtrouw back in the day, he hasn’t changed one bit. Like…not at all. Here’s proof: I snapped a picture of him explaining the binary system to another teacher today:

We had some great speakers during our lecture sessions. I don’t want to put their real names on here because I don’t want them to Google themselves one day and stumble upon this blog. Let’s call them Dr. History and Dr. Space.

Dr. History has her doctorate in the history of technological advancement, specifically focused on the space program, and she obviously loves it. She reminded me a little bit of Rex when someone asks him about grouse hunting. Her whole face lit up, and her lecture was really engaging. I learned lots about the Space Age. She talked like someone in love with her topic. Like, if she could marry the space program, I think she would. I’m serious. She loves it that much. When someone is that interested in their topic, it makes you want to pay attention even if the topic is boring (which doesn’t really apply here, because her topic wasn’t boring. But still).

Dr. Space, on the other hand… Well… I don’t want to say anything mean about his presentation. I’ll just say this: Leslie passed me a note partway through his presentation that said, “I’m falling asleep.” Then, a few minutes later, she whispered, “He still has almost an hour to talk. I THINK I’M GOING TO DIE.”

It wasn’t THAT bad, really. Here is the problem with Dr. Space: he is too smart. He is an astronaut (like, a real life went-to-space astronaut!!), and he wanted to talk about the science he did while in and around his flight to space. This is HIGHLY COOL STUFF, really it is. But how many slides like this can you look at without your mind wandering off?

I found myself wishing he would talk about things like how to use the bathroom in space or whether or not they really eat that gross dehydrated ice cream. Because apparently I have the maturity of a ten year old or something. When it came time to ask questions at the end of his lecture, I told myself, “DO NOT ASK HOW THEY USE THE BATHROOM IN SPACE! DON’T DO IT! GLUE YOUR HANDS TO YOUR CHAIR, CHRISTINE!” And I didn’t ask. So on the one hand, be proud of me. On the other hand, now you’re wondering about this too, aren’t you?

We got to tour a lot of stuff today, and I can’t post all the pictures I took. Here are a few, though:

I got to touch this moon rock! And okay, yes, it seemed very germy and unsanitary because lots of people were touching it, but it was like kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland. How do you pass up the opportunity, no matter how gross?? I immediately went to the bathroom and washed my hands three times afterwards, but I touched a moon rock! Cool!

Here’s the Apollo 14 capsule:

Here are a bunch of rockets. It’s hard to convey to you how tall these are. I took a picture to try:

Here’s the countdown clock they used for all the launches:

Here’s a shirt at the NASA gift shop:

Allow me to zoom in for you:

SPACE PUG!!!!! I feel like this shirt is really weird, but I kind of want it. Because SPACE PUG!!!

I took so many more pictures of space things, but I don’t have time to post about them now.

For dinner, the people staying near me went out together. We went to Rusty’s Seafood, and the view was gorgeous. Here are my people: Leslie (Tennessee), Bryan (New Mexico), Cory (Texas), and Jon (Pennsylvania). Rex would have been so proud of me – at one point, I asked Jon, “Pennsylvania…isn’t your state bird the ruffed grouse?” Ha! I’m ashamed that I get a solid week to go without talking about grouse, and I still had to bring it up. But when you’re conversing with total strangers, you pick odd topics. State birds were safer than “What was your favorite Apollo mission?” (another topic!!) because at least I know my state bird (and Jon’s, as it turns out). I don’t have a favorite Apollo mission (because…erm…I know so much about all of them, and it’s so hard to narrow down a BEST one. Right??). It was a great time, the food was delicious, and there was even live music. What a fun night!

Now I’m blogging before heading off to bed and dreaming starry dreams. We are scheduled for lots more space adventures tomorrow. Before I go, take a look at our cool bus – star seats and moon floor! Can’t wait to tell you more. 🙂

Rex dropped me off at the Grand Rapids airport this morning, and my stomach was a bit unsettled. It might have been nerves, and it might have been the Burger King breakfast. In reality, it was probably a bit of both. I always get a bit nervous before a big trip, especially when I’m traveling alone. Especially ESPECIALLY when I’m traveling alone to meet a bunch of strangers. Rex asked me what part of the Space Camp trip I am most excited about, and I said it’s the same part that makes me the most nervous: making new friends. Teacher travel grants have always been a blast, and I’ve met some great people, but what if this is the one travel grant where everyone hates me and is super mean?

I mean, out of thirty-six other teachers, I’ll probably make at least ONE friend. But still. They could have picked the thirty-six meanest people in America. I have no control over this.

The airport check in was fairly uneventful, except for the part when I had to run after Rex waving a pair of my black high heels. My suitcase was overweight, you see. (What’s up with a forty-pound weight limit??) I was close enough that taking out one pair of shoes made the difference, so I hustled outside where Rex was still parked so I could ditch the shoes. It’s not like I really NEEDED black high heels, but now I’ll be slightly less fashionable on Gala Night. Alas. Wait until you see pictures. You’ll think, “Wow, she looks nice…but she’d look a little nicer with black heels. What a shame.” And you’ll shake your head sadly.

Blame Frontier Airlines, not me.

Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the flight (which is great, am I right?? Who wants an eventful flight?!). I told Rex on the phone afterwards that the lady next to me was carrying a cute stuffed corgi with her, and he freaked out. “A stuffed corgi?! Why??” I wasn’t sure what about this was SO weird, but then it clicked. “Rex,” I answered. “It was a stuffed animal. Like for kids. Not a taxidermized dog.”

“Ohhhhhhh.”

*hard eyeroll* Who would bring a taxidermized dog on the plane?? Now THAT would be a whole blog post in an of itself, I would think.

I had over an hour to wait for my shuttle, so I explored the airport a little bit. I got some Panda Express (yum), and I found a candy shop that had some of my favorite difficult-to-find candies like sour coke bottles and candy eggs. I was very excited about this UNTIL…

I bit into one of the candy eggs, and it tasted like butter. Ewwwww. It tasted like I was munching on a pat of pure butter. WHY DID I PAY HYPERINFLATED AIRPORT PRICES FOR A BUTTERY CANDY EGG??? #poorlifechoices. It doesn’t even look that tasty, if you really look at it.

Luckily, the dark chocolate sea salt caramel was delicious, so I nibbled on that as I waited for my shuttle. No picture of that one because it is all already eaten!

I am very happy with my hotel. Look at the view out my window! I overlook the gardens.

And here’s a pic of part of the pool and one of the walkways:

When I got to the hotel, I had to decide how to spend the evening. The Space Camp teachers are on a Facebook group, and Bryan suggested that the people already in town meet up at a brewery tonight. I thought that sounded kind of fun…but no one commented on his post. He did say a place and time, so I could have showed up anyway, but what if it was just Bryan and me? I couldn’t even see if he looked creepery since his profile pic is a cat (which, depending on your opinion of cats, makes him very creepery or completely trustworthy).

I also saw that there was a Presbyterian church in walking distance of my hotel, so I could hit up the evening service since I missed church this morning due to being airborne. When it came right down to it, the blind date with Catman at the brewery had too many variables. And, well, it’s Sunday. Church felt like the right option here.

I’m glad I changed into a dress before heading to church, because this church was very old school. The guys were in suits and ties, the women in skirts, the whole nine yards. There were only about fifteen people in the whole service, so I stood out like a flamingo in a group of pigeons. Like, “HI! I’M CLEARLY NEW HERE. CAN I SIT IN YOUR PEWS EVEN THOUGH I’M A LITTLE SWEATY FROM WALKING IN 95 DEGREE HEAT?!” Everyone was super nice to me, and lots of people (well, a lot for a congregation of fifteen) introduced themselves.

After a great sermon on Daniel 7, I started walking home. I stopped for dinner at Kelsey’s, a fish-themed pizza place (yes, I was confused too). The hostess asked if I wanted my food for takeout or dine in, and on a whim I said “Dine in.” I don’t think I’ve ever gone out to a sit-down dinner with just myself before. I thought it would be a fun new experience, like it would be all transformational and I’d really get to know myself better and discover all the things about my inner psyche because I took the time to “date myself,” a phrase which I’ve never really understood.

In reality, I spent a lot of time looking at the empty seat across the booth and wondering if this would be a good time to resurrect the imaginary friend I haven’t talked to since I was about three years old. I should have done that. “I’ll have the main course, and Lucy here will have the side salad.”

In other news, look at the cool lamps that looked like they were being dangled from fishing poles!

Anyway, I don’t feel enlightened, but I do feel full. That’s worth something. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have new friends to eat with me, but if not then I guess there’s always Lucy. *shrug*

I’m doing a rideshare tomorrow with Leslie, one of the other teachers in the program. She told me that she’ll be here to pick me up bright and early. I’ll know it’s her because she’ll be driving a red Mustang.

A red Mustang?! Looks like I picked the right rideshare. I already like Leslie. NOT because of her car (that would be shallow), but because of her generous spirit in giving me a ride to the Space Center. She’s clearly a giving soul.

A giving soul who drives a cool car. That doesn’t hurt.

More tomorrow – wish me luck at SPACE CAMP!!!