Living history

As a child, my memories of the space shuttle program are not exactly pleasant. I remember the day so vividly that the Challenger blew up.  It was a blustery January day in North Carolina where we lived at the time and my sister and I were home from school because of the mere threat of snow. We decided to put on our dance clothes (I'm sure leg warmers were required) and crank up the music and jump around our living room. It was then with the TV on but the sound turned way down that we saw a Breaking News report flashing across the screen.  What had been promoted as a day to remember the first teacher going into space was now a day for mourning.  It wasn't exactly the Kennedy Assassination in magnitude, but for years I would remember that moment in time and the gut wrenching footage of the booster rockets all ablaze and knowing something had gone terribly wrong.  Fast forward to now and it's not exactly as if Elisa has any real idea of the space program or what if anything a shuttle does. But when we heard the Shuttle Enterprise would be doing a fly over of New York City on its way to JFK airport, we wondered if we might catch a glimpse. Apparently the shuttle will be housed at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum along the west side of Manhattan until they find it a permanent home. So today was the big arrival in our area and around 10:30 a.m. we decided to camp out and get the camera ready. Of course, Nacho is a bit of an aviation geek, so I think he was secretly excited to watch it fly by too...

The view from Elisa's window of the Manhattan skyline

Papa and Elisa get up close and ready for the fly by

With wind gusts up to 40 mph it wasn't exactly a smooth day for flying, but the skies were blue

Our first sighting of the shuttle on it's way up the Hudson on the west side of Manhattan

Getting a pass over the World Trade Center site and flying by the Freedom Tower

Climbing up and heading towards the end of the isle

Our last view of the Shuttle Enterprise as it headed towards JFK

Not a major life changing moment, but it was fun to capture it nonetheless. And Elisa thought it was pretty cool to see two planes on top of each other.  Hopefully someday she will recall this as her first memory of our nation's space endeavors followed by watching many more amazing trips through our universe.  A girl can dream.