Thanks to Tom’s IHG status and a correspondingly great promotion, as well as Tom being really awesome at his job and winning a trip through a competition at Acquia, we were able to take a belated honeymoon in November.  We went to Cocoa Beach and Orlando Florida, and then on a cruise to the Bahamas.  It was such a fun trip and we loved our tropical getaway!

We flew out of Salt Lake the evening of Tuesday, November 6th, after dropping Isaac off with Kelly and her family for the week.  The flight was late and we didn’t get to Florida until around 1:30am.  It was kind of fun though to arrive in the Orlando airport and remember back to our weekend trip to Orlando two years ago when we were dating — pictures from then and now!

We had a meeting with IHG the next morning (Wednesday, November 7th) at 9:00am, which made for kind of a whirlwind first day!  During the meeting, they told us about their vacation club program, and even though we showed up thinking we were not interested, we actually ended up enrolling  and are pretty excited about it.  We look forward to being part of the program for ourselves and our children, but also as a way to help those around us.  It should be pretty cool and make for some fun vacations and memories!

The meeting took most of our day, so after that we went for lunch at a place near Port Canaveral and it was delicious!  Tom had the seared tuna sandwich and I had clam chowder and coconut shrimp, and then we shared a piece of key lime pie for dessert. (Seemed appropriate since we were in Florida!)  It was delicious and the weather is so warm there – it was nice to get away from the Utah cold winter for a bit!

In the evening, we went over to the actual beach and pier and it was so fun! We played in the water and took a bunch of pictures and just had a great time!

The next day (Thursday, November 8th) we went to Kennedy Space Center and that was awesome! Tom especially enjoyed it. We arrived around 10:00am and were initially thinking we’d just spend a few hours there, but we ended up being there until after they closed at 6:00pm!  We started off by just walking around and planning out the times that we’d visit some of the exhibits.

We ended up doing the bus tour first, and that was about an hour. It drove us all through the space center campus, and we even saw the launch pads! Near one of them, they actually had the assembly building open and we could see a rocket they were assembling. It was really neat! We also saw an eagles nest that was really cool!

The bus tour dropped us off at the Apollo/Saturn V display, and it was definitely one of the highlights of the day!  We were able to follow the tour and learn about many aspects of the space program.  The Saturn V that was on display was especially cool – it’s the first rocket that took men to the moon and it was huge! It’s humbling to think about how much work goes into those things and to actually see it up close and personal. It was incredible!

After grabbing lunch, we then went through the Atlantis display, which was also really amazing – they have the actual ship in there and it’s really big!  They actually start by showing this video about its journeys and how it was created, and then all of a sudden, this curtain opens and you can see it and it was really moving!  Tom even got to sit in a mock cockpit and then play a virtual game as if you were tethered to the outside.  It was cool!

In the Atlantis display, they had a ride called “Shuttle Launch Experience” and Tom was able to do that.  I unfortunately couldn’t because I’m pregnant, but I did get to watch!

We ended the day visiting the rocket garden and the Heroes and Legends gallery.  There was also an incredible sunset as we were leaving — it was so beautiful!

On our way home, we stopped at this little ice cream shack called Twistee Treat.  Tom got a strawberry twist cone and I got a butterscotch dipped cone, which ended up being so messy! I was dripping all over – not sure why I was struggling! It was super yummy though and we had some good laughs over it!