Scrub!

Our first plan had been to get up at like 5 AM and get the kids out of bed and go find a good place to watch the launch before even having breakfast.

They say that the best laid plans sometimes fail.

I find that the plans that usually fail are too aggressive, kind of crazy, and not very reasonable.

So, we slept in. And then we watched the royal wedding. And then we had breakfast. Then, we checked out of our hotel and drove over to Titusville to find a spot at Space View Park to watch the shuttle launch.

I was determined to watch the launch at Space View Park, not only for the good view and shade trees, but because they also have a PA system that broadcasts a live audio feed from mission control, and there are large signs that display the countdown clock. These are the things that I figured Connor would be expecting, and I didn't want to disappoint. (Connor had also informed me when we were planning our trip that he wanted to eat chocolate donuts while watching the shuttle launch. He clearly had a very specific mental picture of how this was going to go down. And yes, we did procure the necessary chocolate donuts. Which kind of melted in the Florida heat.)

Anyways, Kevin was afraid that it would be really crowded. Something like 500,000 people had watched the previous launch, and the park isn't very big. I figured that we would just slip into the crowd and deal with it.

Well, we got down by the park around lunchtime, drove through at Burger King and got some lunch. Then, we found the perfect parking spot for *only* $25. We sat in our car and ate lunch. Then, we started packing up our stroller and sun-screening our fair-skinned children.

That's when we noticed the parking lot starting to clear out, and a kind stranger informed us that the launch had been scrubbed. Scrubbed!

I verified the information online. There was a problem with a heater on the space shuttle, so they decided to play it safe. I'm all for that. I didn't take Connor down there to have him watch a space shuttle blow up.

Sidebar: Here is our source for all things related to STS-134.

So, we explained to Connor that the launch had been cancelled, and that we would have to find something else fun to do for the day. Connor took it extremely well...and I think that the first postponement of the launch helped him to process the situation.

Lex, on the other hand, didn't take it so well. We had taken him out of his car seat, clearly gotten ready to go to a park, and then put him straight back into his car seat. He was devastated. He didn't care a darn thing about any shuttle launch. He just didn't want to be buckled back into his car seat again.

So, we watched a little bit of Poko on the DVD player, and set off to find something fun to do.