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USA East Coast
Florida 3
June 12, 2012
Moving to Orlando
Heading north, to theme park country!
After a good 2 hours on the road, we arrive at the second house we've rented, around 4:30 p.m.
We're a 15-minute drive from the entrance to the Disney parks. Here, the whole town is devoted to theme parks.
We're staying in a typical American "subdivision": fenced in all the way around, gate and guard at the entrance, about a hundred houses lined up in rows of 10. 2 types of houses available: the ones for the rich... and the ones for the not-so-rich...
A "clubhouse" offers residents "activities" (mostly for retirees), and has a big pool, a spa and a pool hall.
The upside for us is that we manage to find a place for 5 (tough in hotels) at a decent nightly price ($140 for all of us), with 2,150 square feet.
So here we are in Orlando. It's insanely hot. They tell you not to use too much water. Every house has its own pool. The clubhouse has its pool. The lawn is a fluorescent green. In short, it all makes perfect sense!
In the late afternoon we treat ourselves to our first steakhouse.
It's a totally standard restaurant, but once again, the way things are run is... very American: greeted by a hostess with an earpiece, handed an electronic pager so you can wait outside until a table opens up (which lets us sneak a smoke...)
After 5 minutes, the pager blinks and buzzes: our turn!
Great service. The food is good. Very pleasant.
Off to bed, everyone. Tomorrow, it's Cape Canaveral.
After a good 2 hours on the road, we arrive at the second house we've rented, around 4:30 p.m.
We're a 15-minute drive from the entrance to the Disney parks. Here, the whole town is devoted to theme parks.
We're staying in a typical American "subdivision": fenced in all the way around, gate and guard at the entrance, about a hundred houses lined up in rows of 10. 2 types of houses available: the ones for the rich... and the ones for the not-so-rich...
A "clubhouse" offers residents "activities" (mostly for retirees), and has a big pool, a spa and a pool hall.
The upside for us is that we manage to find a place for 5 (tough in hotels) at a decent nightly price ($140 for all of us), with 2,150 square feet.
So here we are in Orlando. It's insanely hot. They tell you not to use too much water. Every house has its own pool. The clubhouse has its pool. The lawn is a fluorescent green. In short, it all makes perfect sense!
In the late afternoon we treat ourselves to our first steakhouse.
It's a totally standard restaurant, but once again, the way things are run is... very American: greeted by a hostess with an earpiece, handed an electronic pager so you can wait outside until a table opens up (which lets us sneak a smoke...)
After 5 minutes, the pager blinks and buzzes: our turn!
Great service. The food is good. Very pleasant.
Off to bed, everyone. Tomorrow, it's Cape Canaveral.
Kennedy Space Center
Our trip into space!
We leave the house at 7:30 a.m.; the Kennedy Space Center opens at 9, and we're almost the first ones there.
We hop on the bus that takes us around the entire site.
The kids have their French audio guides glued to their ears:
"Which button do we push now? And now what number do we have to press?".
After driving past the huge building where the rockets are assembled, we first stop near a launch pad that's still in use.
The road leading to the pad is made of layers adding up to 6.5 feet thick (quite a change from the 2 inches of asphalt on our roads back home).
The Saturn V rocket was moved on a giant crawler whose every tread shoe weighs 1 ton.
Under the launch pad there's a "pool" where they blast water under pressure when the engines ignite, to keep vibrations and extreme temperatures from reaching the ground.
We get back on the bus to the Apollo/Saturn V Center: inside an air-conditioned building (we're still in Florida), a Saturn V has been fully reassembled, split into 4 sections, including the 3 stages that separate one after the other during launch!
The kids "savor" their burgers with their eyes glued to the rocket, sitting right under the lunar module!
We finish our visit at the Visitor Complex with a rocket launch simulator and an IMAX 3D movie about the International Space Station, all while enjoying some American ice cream. A great, packed day; Alice did manage to sneak in a little nap during the movie!
Back home, rice salad for everyone, then lights out.
