Time Spent In Ft. Pierce

Thursday, April 14 - It has been a busy week here in Ft. Pierce.  The weather has been great - in the high 70's and low 80's every day.  Considering the cold weather back in Illinois, the warmer weather is really appreciated!

We rented a car on Tuesday so we could do a little sightseeing while we wait for closing on our new boat.  (In a previous posting, closing was scheduled for April 28th.  After the survey we found out that closing could be moved up to the 15th.)  Harbortown Marina is a great marina since it has both a grocery store and drug store within walking distance, but a car is needed to go much further.  We wanted to have the flexibility of a car for a few days.

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Navy Seal Museum which is located in Ft. Pierce, Florida.  The predecessors to the Navy Seals (UDT "frogmen") started training in this location back in WW II because they had access to beaches that were similar to those in Europe (D-Day) and the Pacific (Iwo Jima).  The museum was very well done.  Outside the museum building were different vintages of landing craft and seal delivery vehicles (submarines as well as surface craft).  There was also an obstacle course similar to the ones navy seals train on (minus the smoke and real bullets, of course).  Captain Carey was able to complete about 1% of the course.  He says that he guesses they don't want overage,overweight individuals to apply.

                                                       Who Says Being a Seal is Hard?

We took a day trip to Titusville on Wednesday to visit the Kennedy Space Visitor Center.  The Kennedy Space Visitor Center is completed supported by tourists.  It was a wonderful day of seeing the various rockets, satellites and of course, the Atlantis Space Shuttle.  There was a bus tour of the grounds past the big NASA building where rockets and shuttles are assembled and also past the launch sites.  Things that we've been seeing for years on TV, but this was up close and personal.  After the bus tour, we went back and saw the main exhibits.  Seeing the Atlantis Space Shuttle up close was definitely the highlight of the day.

It should also be noted that that a wildlife habitat also runs through the NASA property.  Because the wildlife is protected, we saw at least 3 alligators in their natural habitat while on the bus tour.  This was the first time we have spotted alligators on the Loop!

Vertical Assembly Building.  It's so big that without a special ventilation system, it will have its own weather inside, including rain.

                        The Early Rockets Used for Manned Space Flight Were Small

                           Atlantis Space Shuttle - Up Close and Personal - Awesome!