MsD

Great couple days in Paris with our Youngsters! We have been crazy busy. Our first day we were jet lagged so we struggled a bit with energy but saw so much. We visited Notre Dame and enjoyed a lovely uphill walking tour of Paris. We all basically crashed last night and woke up fresh this morning. Today we had a relaxed morning and enjoyed breakfast of French baguettes and got chocolate and then headed to the bus to see all of Paris. We visited beautiful churches, the Eiffel tower, Versailles palace and gardens, the burial place of Napoleon and so much more. We also cruised down the Seine river and watched the Eiffel tower sparkle at 10pm. To show how mature we are, we invented many inside jokes about how the word creppe sounds like crap ... read more

Did you know that the cure for trans Atlantic jetlag is to do everything in Paris in one day? I exaggerate, of course, in true Kimberly style, but we seriously did a crazy amount of things on precious little sleep. Arrived in Paris at 8am local tone, 2am eastern standard time. Immediately enjoyed an airport cappuccino which was quite nice actually. Was ready to prefer my usual Americano coffee but that just seemed wrong to do, like eating McDonald's in foreign countries. Anyway, we checked into our hotel and headed right to the louvre, no showers, no change of clothes, nothing . Enjoyed a lovely falafel lunch at a Moroccan place in the louvre's food court. Then proceeded to immediate get lost in the museum. I'm normally good with maps, but that place had me all ... read more

So, for the first time, possibly ever, I arrived at the airport with plenty of extra time. It feel nice to be just excited and not excited and in a blind panic. You'll hear from me again after a day in Paris!... read more

It is hard to believe that this week is coming to an end. At the same time, it feels like I've been here for 3 weeks because of all the information and experiences that I had in this short time. I'm ready to go home & see my sister, grandparents, kitties & friends, but I'm really sad to be finishing Space Camp (and already trying to figure out a way to come back next year.) Before breakfast we took the hot air balloons we all made the other day & launch time in front of the patfinder shuttle... it was awesome. To think that we could create such beautiful & effective flying machines out of tissue paper and glue sticks was unreal. It was really exciting to see our balloons fly and neat to see them ... read more

After breakfast (cereal, tater tots & a banana) today, Columbus group started with training for our 2nd (and last) mission - this time in the Atlantis orbiter. I was very excited to learn that this time I got my 1st choice in jobs - Mission Specialist. This means that I will be on the orbiter AND I will get to leave and do an EVA (Extravehicular Activity) - basically a Space Walk. My partner, Chris, and I will be suiting up in white space suits and getting into microgravity chairs to try and experience the sensation of weightlessness. Then, we'll have to try to stay connected to a structure and build a 3 dimensional tower. We had some time to practice without the microgravity & suits today & it was totally easy. Something tells me tomorrow ... read more