Vacation update 2

 

Nothing exciting to report - which is the point of a vacation, after all!

We've spent a while on the beach, enjoying the pleasantly warm (rather than ridiculously hot) weather and the equally warm Gulf water.  To my unpleasant surprise, my difficulties with balance (due to my spinal injury and nerve damage) turn out to be magnified as I get into deeper water;  if I lose my balance when waves are pulling me around, it's difficult to get to my feet again.  I really don't like that, but there's nothing much I can do about it.  I'll be starting another round of physiotherapy when I get home, so I'll mention it to the therapist as another symptom to be addressed.

We spent a few hours yesterday aboard the USS Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was the last World War II-era carrier to be retired from active service in 1991.  This was my second visit to her, having seen her a couple of decades ago during a visit to southern Texas, but my wife's first.  Due to my mobility limitations, this time I restricted myself to the hangar and flight decks, where everything is on a level.  The ladders and stairs below decks don't lend themselves to using a walking-stick!  My wife went through them all while I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the flat bits.  We enjoyed our visit.

We've taken the opportunity to visit several local restaurants.  The fresh seafood is great - we both enjoy it.  (I'm sorry, but fresh water fish is not "sea" food - it's just fish, not sea fish.  The real thing tastes much better, IMHO!)  There's also a German restaurant in town, where we tucked into schnitzel, strudel and Black Forest cake.  So much for our diets . . .

We're thinking of driving down to SpaceX Starbase tomorrow or Thursday.  It's about three hours from here, making for a long return drive, but we're much closer to it now than we're ever likely to be again, so it seems like a good idea to take advantage of that.  The main road goes right past the SpaceX compound, so one can see almost everything going on around the launch complex.  Furthermore, the upper stage from Starship flight test 13 is due to return to Starbase this week, after splashing down in the Indian Ocean and being recovered intact.  It'll be great if we can see it coming home.  We're both big fans of SpaceX and Elon Musk.

The nicest part of this break is that we don't have to do anything.  We can sleep late, go where we wish, eat whenever and wherever we want, and ignore our normal daily routine.  Just what we needed!  Of course, come next Monday it'll be back to normal, with my wife returning to work and me heading for another physiotherapy session, but we'll take what we can get this week.

Peter