Friday, September 21, 2012

Waiting to see the Endeavor Shuttle

Waiting to see the Endeavor, because that is what we did - wait!
 
They never really had a set schedule, but told the places it would fly by so we decided to go to Long Beach near the Queen Mary. We took the Harley so we could make sure to have good parking, which meant that we had to wear long pants. Even though summer ends today, it's not really ending in Southern California. Wearing long pants, even at the beach, made for a warm day. And the waiting took a bit longer that most thought it would. We heard it was because of fog in San Francisco.
So we sat on rocks at Shoreline Village - no room for chairs on the Harley. Sitting in the sun on hard lumpy rocks for about two hours was taxing but finally at about 12:30 the Queen Mary blew it's horn and everyone looked to the sky. It came from the south and flew between Queen Mary and Shoreline Village, then inland a bit then north.
And it was over. Some of us stood there a bit longer to see if it was going to come by again, but it didn't.
 
OK, so I bet you're waiting to see the pictures? Now you know how we felt. Even so I think the pictures are pretty good.
 
Sitting on the rocks. What a great day!
 
The birds came out too.
 
Lots of people came out in their boats; these guys on jet skis.

Everyone waiting.
 
The Queen Mary across the harbor.
 
Look at the crowds on her decks.
 
Behind it was a cruise ship with crowds on the deck too.
 
It's a bird, not a plane.
This pelican gave us something to watch.
 
Here it comes!
 
Closer.
 
Closer.

Closest!

 
Bye!
 
It was one of those once in a lifetime things that you can never do when you work, so now that we're retired there's no reason not to experience it. And there's something about being with a crowd of strangers with the same excitement.
 
Well, taking the Harley seemed like a good idea and it probably was, however I think we should wait for winter or at least some cool fall-like days before taking another day trip. By the time we waited for the shuttle, went to lunch and then headed home it was quite hot.
All in all we had a great time!
 

 

4 comments:

  1. I would have been right there with you! We got to see Endeavor in the Vehicle Assembly Building when we visited the Space Center last fall. The tour guide said to make sure not to miss its last flight and landing in L.A. :( I'm glad we got to see it there.

    K@

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  2. How neat! I didn't find out about it passing over Monterey until this morning, otherwise I would have arranged to take 1/2 a day off work or a long lunch! I would have loved to see it in person.

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  3. What an exciting and unique experience! So glad you did it! Thanks for sharing!

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