Today we made a trip into the wilds of old Florida in Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. This was a fascinating place, starting with the Visitor's Center where they introduced the concept of the preserve and the sort of things to look for, starting with an example of a small wetland that you can set up in your own backyard and ending with suggestions of where to go in the overall preserve itself.

We drove down a road called Bio Lab, why its called that I have no idea but we were looking for wildlife and especially for croc-a-gators to show Kayte and sure enough we found a couple. That's the photo that accompanies this post. Later we went to one of the beaches. It was too chilly to actually go down and stay there but at least we can say that we were there.

When we finished with that we went to the Astronaut Hall of Fame which was really fascinating. For instance, did you know that there were more female astronauts that flew more missions than men, specifically 7? Did you know that at one time NASA thought about putting a woman into space before men because they were lighter and had a greater resistance to a number of the physical and mental challenges that were to face manned space travel, and actually recruited and trained it a number of ladies to do that, but in the end the culture of the time wouldn't permit them to do it? I didn't, but it is clearly brought out in this museum.

Then o was brought back to the boat so the women in my life could head out on another shopping trip. At least I got a DVD out of the deal.