Michael and Kaylyn's Adventures

25 May 2006

Birthday Trikke

For Michael’s birthday this year he bought a Trikke.

What’s a Trikke? Loads of fun, that’s what! It’s a three-wheeled cambering vehicle, which means that your leaning back and forth makes it go forward. Add in turning the front wheel, and reinforce your leaning with some leg action, and you have one sweet ride! You’ll fly on the flats, downhill is of course a breeze, and uphill just takes a bit more work.

(Can you tell Michael likes it? )

First he had to assemble it. Sebastian helped.

Go Michael go!

22 May 2006

Space, The Final Frontier

One day we jaunted over to the Kennedy Space Center.

Michael was very much looking forward to seeing a Saturn V rocket. He had hoped to stand right next to those giant exhaust cones, but alas the rocket was mounted too high overhead for that. He was still awed by the size of it all!

This is the Vehicle Assembly Building, where they put the Saturn V rockets together for the Apollo program and where today they mate the Space Shuttle to its boosters and main engine. It’s the tallest single story building in the world! To give you an idea of its size, the Statue of Liberty would fit through its doors with ease. And those red stripes on the US flag are wider than a tour bus!

We took this picture from the observation gantry for the two shuttle launch pads. Lucky us: the Space Shuttle had crawled out to its launch pad just the day before! Seeing the shuttle Right There was the coolest!

Here’s a closeup. It was Right There!

We always thought of the Orbiter (to use its proper term – the Space Shuttle is the entire package of Orbiter plus the Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank) as huge, but it’s actually not that big – only about as big around as the plane we flew down on, in fact, and not nearly as long. It is still pretty impressive though!

This is the view from the VIP Viewing Area. The structure on the left is the launch pad where the Shuttle was; the structure on the right is the other launch pad. Not nearly as nice a view as from the observation gantry!

This is the view from the secret locals-only (and visitors-who-overhear-guards-talking) viewpoint: the Cape Canaveral National Seashore north of the Kennedy Space Center. That’s the launch pad on the left and the Vehicle Assembly Building on the right – quite a distance to haul the Space Shuttle, no? Especially at one-half mile per hour and forty feet per gallon!

It was Even More Right There!

Epcot Hunters

Michael received a free ticket to the Disney parks for speaking at the conference. Plus he could buy a second ticket for cheap. So we spent an afternoon at Epcot. We did a couple of the rides, but mostly we wanted to go around the world. Where else can you see Germany, France, and Morocco all in just a few hours?

The United Kingdom. Complete with street performers. (Not visible in this picture, so stop looking for them.)

China.

Germany.

Japan from across the lake. Those hulks in the water are the platforms for the nightly fireworks.

Japan again.

Norway. Lefses are super yummy!

We stayed ‘til closing so we could see the nightly fireworks show. The show was pretty cool, but we think the night sky was even better.

Speech! Speech!

Some people visit Orlando for the theme parks, but we went because Michael was speaking at STAR East. To hundreds of people! (That’s him on stage, not that you can tell.) AND, the unlive version of his talk won Best Paper! Way cool!

Twonky Twosomes in Tampa

Florida’s peninsula is not very wide, and Orlando is smack dab in its middle. So it was just a short drive over to Tampa, where we saw the Gulf and Tampa’s…interesting, let’s say, architecture.

We never found out what this building is.

This is the Henry B. Plant Museum on the University of Tampa campus. It’s a fair-sized building, and the entire thing is covered with spires and minarets and lacework just like this. Tours were closed the day we went, unfortunately, so we can only imagine how cool the inside must be!

Heat, Humidity, and Hunters

Last week we went to Orlando. (The one in Florida, not Oklahoma or West Virginia or Kentucky.) Our kids figured out long ago that when we start piling clothes on the bed something is up. So of course they want to be directly in the middle of the action.

Orlando is rather different than Seattle. Seattle rarely gets humid; Orlando often does. Seattle spends much of the year under cloud cover; Orlando spends much of the year with nary a cloud in the sky. One thing they have in common is spectacular sunrises.

Eh? They wanted to put something else on this lot, so they simply flipped the building onto a neighboring lot?

Kaylyn is never going to take Michael anyplace again, if he’s going to behave that badly!