Montage Monday: Kennedy Space Center, Florida

A photo montage highlighting my favorite memories from past travels!

NASA's last shuttle launch after a 30-year run is scheduled for later this year but I was able to catch one of the last few shuttles launches in 2009, crossing off a major item on my bucket list! The day at Orlando, Florida's Kennedy Space Center was a fun-filled day of wonderment for this space geek and I'm truly sorry that I will not have any future chances of catching another shuttle launch. It really is an experience that's "out of this world!" For more details on the actual launch, please refer to my 3-2-1...Liftoff! post.

As you can see, I'm very excited to be "holding hands" with America's pioneering astronauts, the Mercury 7! All those years working for the US Space Camp Foundation and learning about space history culminated in this moment when I first walked into Kennedy Space Center. It really was a dream come true. 

As launch time starts getting down towards T-minus one hour, the crowds gather at the designated shuttle launch viewing areas. Luckily, a friend of mine and fellow US Space Camp Foundation alumni managed to pull some strings for me at the last minute and I was on a bus, heading off towards the Eastern Causeway, one of the closest places you can watch a shuttle launch without causing serious damage to yourself!

Space shuttle Atlantis and the crew of STS-129 are leaving Earth's atmosphere with only a rapidly disappearing trace in the sky to remind viewers that mere seconds ago, they were right there in front of our very eyes. I'm still on Earth but feeling so ecstatic, so excited, so emotional (yes, I actually cried) that I felt as though I was the one flying above the ground.

Have YOU ever been to the Kennedy Space Center? Watched a live Shuttle launch?

© Connie Hum 2011

Montage Monday: Boston

Take a walk down memory lane with me on this three-photo montage highlighting my best memories from past travels!


My friends and I spent a lovely day outside in Boston Commons. We were all pretty much out to have a good time and we ran around, jumping and laughing at things, eating, walking, wading in the pond. Everyone must have thought we were crazy, but we aren't (for the most part). We were just having a good time.


I love little buildings wedged in between much larger ones! I had a great time following Boston's Freedom Trail and taking in the historical sights.


Cemeteries have always held a morbid fascination for me and I was enthralled by this small cemetery we encountered in the middle of Boston. It was probably the first "old" cemetery I had ever been to in the US so it's decrepit state was intriguing to me. I spent some time there reading the different headstones. My friends all thought I was weird...and maybe I am.

© Connie Hum 2011

Montage Monday: Washington DC

Take a walk down memory lane with me on this three-photo montage highlighting my best memories from past travels!


I made it down to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival in 2008. It was my first time in DC and it was a spectacular Spring weekend. The sun was shining, the sky was clear and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Absolutely gorgeous!


Rekindling my love for space travel at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for a few hours. I was literally and almost figuratively over the moon! And yes, I am a space geek!


So I didn't do much else in Washington DC besides enjoy the sunshine, the cherry blossoms and relaxing on the grass. There's no shame in that! In fact, that's exactly what I had hoped to do!

© Connie Hum 2010

3-2-1...Liftoff!!!

Yesterday I accomplished one of my lifelong dreams of watching a space shuttle launch, LIVE! It was truly an awe-inspiring experience.

The day started early as my friend Randee and I left Orlando for the Kennedy Space Center at 6:30 in the morning. Luckily, there was little traffic and we made it to KSC in less than an hour. We met a friend of a friend who worked at KSC and received our visitor center tickets from him. Most of the sites were closing at 10 am in preparations for the launch so we rushed off the to Apollo/Saturn V Center.

I think I should pause and explain to those who may not know this, but NASA and space was, and still is, a big part of my life. I worked as a Space Camp counselor in California for 2 years and also for a summer at a Space Camp in Izmir, Turkey. During that time, I made wonderful friends, had thrilling experiences, met a handful of astronauts (including Buzz Aldrin, Gordon Cooper and Sally Ride)...in short, some of the best times in my life are connected to NASA and Space Camp.

You can only imagine my excitement when I entered the Apollo/Saturn V Center. It was better than Christmas in a candy store for me. There was a presentation on the Apollo program and the moon landing of Apollo 11 and I actually got choked up while I watched it, TWICE! Once when they spoke of the Apollo 1 fire and the death of my favorite astronaut, Gus Grissom, and the other when they showed the live footage of Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon.

Unfortunately, by the time we finished in the Apollo/Saturn V center, it was too late to go to the International Space Station Center. We returned to the main Visitor Center where Randee and I rode a simulator that demonstrated the feel of a space shuttle launch. It was really intense!

As the countdown to launch reached T-minus 1 hour, Daniel met us again and got us on the last bus out to the Eastern causeway to view the launch. This is one of closest places you can view the launch from! It was a perfect setting. Can you see the launch pad in the picture below? It's located just a little to the left of the center, between the two green islands. It's the gray speck.

Excitement built up as the countdown reached T-minus three minutes. At T-minus two minutes, everyone who had been sitting and reading, stopped and stood up. The crowd of people were all standing at attention, holding their breaths.

Finally it came. T-minus 10 seconds, 9, 8, 7, main engine start, 4, 3, 2, 1. Liftoff!!!

At first, all you could see was a thick cloud of smoke (it's really steam) surrounding the launch pad, but then through all the cloudy confusion, you finally see it. Space Shuttle Atlantis taking flight, higher and higher. As Atlantis broke through the thick clouds above it, leaving in its wake a trail of pure white smoke and lighting up the sky with its bright orange-red flame, I started crying. It was really one of the most spectacular and beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Before you even had the proper amount of time to process all the beauty in the launch, Atlantis disappeared into the atmosphere and all that was left was a clear and distinct trail of its path into space.

Everyone piled back onto the buses and returned to the main Visitor Center, the sense of excitement and awe clinging to us. That feeling is still with me now.

Thank you to Valerie and Daniel for pulling some strings and getting me and my friend tickets to the launch! You two are amazing! You have made one of my dreams come true!!!

© Connie Hum 2009