Biltmore Castle	Biltmore Castle - a smallish house	Frogs at the SC Artisans Center in Walterboro	St. Simons Lighthouse - January 30,2008
Sunset at St. Simons on January 29, 2008	Pastel sky at St. simons Island January 29, 2008	Sunrise in Sebastian, February 1, 2008	Flying Machine over Indian River in Sebastian

February 7, 2008

Today we went to see the launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle from the visitors center at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was scheduled for 2:45 PM under the threat of bad weather at launch time. Our admission tickets called for us to be at the center by 9:00 AM. We went through the security procedures and set up our lawn chairs on the open grass field to the left of the I-Max Theater. There was a large TV screen display set up that followed the events that were taking place at the launch area which is some 10 miles away from the visitors center. After setting up our seating arrangements we went to see a few of the center attractions like the excellent I-Max show on the space station. You watch it in 3-D glasses and really feel in the middle of it all. After lunch we only had an hour wait to see the launch. At 30 minutes before the launch there was an announcement that a thunderstorm was 45 miles away and that it was moving off to the northeast. If the storm would have got to within 25 miles of the launch area, we would have waited for nothing and would have to return the next launch day. Luckily the show was not stopped and at 2:45 all  hell broke loose when the air was filled with the roar of the shuttle launch. One second it was there above the tree line and maybe 20 seconds later it was out of sight with only a exhaust flume indicating that something had happened. Some people with better eyes could see the fuel tank separation but we only saw that on the large TV screen. About 2 minutes into the launch the announcement was that the shuttle now was 498 miles down range. I said that if this was the Indy 500 the race would be over. It was a terrific day. We had seen a night launch in 2002 from the beach in Cocoa Beach which was spectacular in that it lit up the night sky like it was 12:00 noon. However this launch was louder as we were closer.   

NASA Logo at the Kennedy Space Visitors Center	Dispaly of the Saturn I rocket - from the early years	Engine from a Saturn V rocket. these went to the moon	View of shuttle on the pad -Picture on the large TV screen	Launch photo from the NASA site-Feb07,2008
Atlantis STS-122 Launch Feb07,2008	Atlantis STS-122 Launch Feb 07, 2008	Off she goes into the wild blue yonder - Atlantis S-122 launch	STS-122-Atlantis in the sky	Atlantis STS-122, feb07,2008 - It is now just a speck

February 18, 2007 - Winter Park, Fl. Charles Hozmer Morse Museum

We took a ride to Winter Park to see the collection of Lewis Comfort Tiffany on display at the Charles Hozmer Morse Museum which is dedicated almost 100 % to the display of Tiffany's art works. According to the docent, only 15% of the museum's collection is on display at any one time. An impressive display it is. The jewel of the collection is the chapel that Tiffany designed and installed at the Chicago Exposition in the 1890's. The Chapel was really a salesman's model as Tiffany was interested in getting customers to build other chapels for wealthy patrons. After the exposition, tiffany donated the chapel to the Cathedral of St. John the Devine where it languished in the basement area until rescued by Tiffany and brought back to his Long Island estate. There it stayed until the estate caught fire and many of his works were destroyed. The chapel was once again rescued by the founders of the Morse Museum but careless transportation caused further destruction. Whereas the original chapel had 18 columns decorated with glass tiles in a Byzantine motif, the destruction resulted in only being able to restore 16 and then some of those only partially. The Chapel even it its restored state is a wonder to see.

The docent also explained why the Tiffany lamps are now so valuable. It seems that LCT made ten's of thousands of the lamps but many of the lamps became the victims of WWII. Towns organized "Smash Your Lamp" Days as a means of recovering the lead in the lamps to be used in the war effort. The Stained glass windows on display were amazing. Unfortunately photography in the museum was a no-no so the few pictures I have are from post cards. There were no post cards with the really spectacular windows on display.   

Tiffany Chapel in Winter Park - from a post card	Baptism Font in Tiffany Chapel - from a postcard	Stained Glass Window - daffodils by Tiffany from a post card	Stained glass window by Tiffany from a postcard	Sunrise on 2/20/2008 in Sebastian

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