I took myself to Port Canaveral to get an up close view of a recent Delta IV rocket launch. The rocket went up right around dinner time, so it was a great excuse to try a new restaurant in the area. The winner for the night turned out to be Kelsey's Pizzeria in Port St. John.
If a restaurant is called pizzeria, perhaps I should have tried their pizza. Instead, I decided to get their version of Eggplant Parmesan. This dish consisted of breaded and fried eggplant rolled around ricotta cheese, topped with melted mozzarella and marinara sauce. The eggplant tasted good, although the eggplant slices still had skin which ended up being pretty chewy in spots. Also included in the price was a side salad, garlic bread, and a huge plate of spaghetti.
Overall, it was your average, middle of the road Italian food. Nothing creative or exceptional, but nothing bad either. The food was pretty much what I was expecting when I ordered...
And for those interested, here's my video of the rocket launch...
On August 28, 2009, the Space Shuttle Discovery was making it's third attempt to launch on mission STS-128. Although I can see the shuttle just fine from where I live, I decided to go out to Titusville, FL to get a closer look. I arrived about an hour before the launch and some sort of dessert seemed appropriate to pass the time.
I initially thought of going to this Ice Cream Truck. I've noticed that most ice cream trucks in Florida are pretty sad. They normally involve a guy in a van selling prepackaged ice cream bars out of a freezer. These are the same ice cream bars that you can buy a box of in the supermarket, probably for about the same price as one pop. Up north, they have soft serve ice cream trucks like Mr. Softee where they do more than pull a frost covered ice pop out of the freezer with a big markup. When I saw this particular ice cream truck parked on the side of the road in Titusville, I got excited. It looked like it was a soft serve truck. Unfortunately, when I walked over, it seemed the truck and another car got in a fender bender and ice cream was no longer being sold. The next dessert choice within walking distance was this Mcdonald's with appropriately decorated windows. I had a strawberry milkshake, which was okay for what it was and where it was from. It really couldn't compare to milkshakes from a soft serve ice cream truck though!
At 11:59 pm, the Discovery finally launched. I love night launches, especially when you can hear the roar of the engines! It's a shame the shuttle program is coming to an end pretty soon. I really hope NASA gets it's act together and goes through with completing the Orion Project, but somehow I have my doubts that we will see it happen any time soon.