Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Last chance Florida activities

We had a great last full day in the Cape Canaveral area. 1st stop was Kennedy Space Center to hear from the astronaut of the week at Astronaut Encounter. After some final shopping in the Space Shop we went up to Titusville and had lunch at the World Famous Dixie Crossroads. (Check out their recipes.) I had some delicious Indian River mullet, like I had seen jumping out of the river on my kayak trip, and Rock shrimp. We felt like we were having desert before (and after) the meal when they brought out their 'bread.' It was really the delicious Dixie Crossroads Corn Fritters. When we left they gave us each a small container of fish food. We stood out on the bridge and were amazed at the number of fish and turtles in their pond who loved going after the food.












Then we did our last visit to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to watch the 20 minute introductory video, walk the little trail again and get some things at the gift shop. The kids got to pet a live snake, wash their hands, and the park ranger also gave them some activity books.









Our last stop was the Astronaut Hall of Fame to check out the exhibits and ride the simulators and play the games one last time.





We beat the storm home, but didn't have too much time on the beach before the clouds become too threatening. Over 4000 lightning strikes in less then an hour is pretty impressive to me.

On the way out of Florida we stopped by Lego Imagination Center. This Lego store has more pieces and sets then any other. The kids enjoyed the play/build area. Elizabeth used pieces to tell the 3 Little Pigs story. A great feature about this Lego store is that you can build your own mini Lego person: three for $10. It included head, torso, legs (with springs - something I had never seen), hair/hat and an accessory. Our accessories include things like a veterinarian bag, small green frog, flaming thing, etc. While driving home after leaving Lego World there was an unusual request from the youngsters in the back to turn off the music. They were using their Lego people to play and tell stories.












Here is a link to an interesting connection between building with Legos and and the Kennedy Space Center.

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