image via Kennedy Space Center
We’re headed to Florida for Spring Break and I wanted to share one of my favorite spots: The Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center. I’m sure all of you are familiar with the space center, and many of you have probably visited. However, I’ll bet you didn’t know that kids (and grownups) can actually climb in and play around the spaceships moored in the Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden.
And these just aren’t any spaceship structures.
These are actual spaceships that have been in space!
As it says on the Kennedy Center Website: “Here you can experience the very same Redstone, Atlas and Titan rockets that first put NASA astronauts in space, or climb aboard Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules – and get an idea of the cramped quarters America’s astronaut pioneers endured.”
What it doesn’t tell you is that the rocket garden is the coolest playground ever. We visited Kennedy Center on the first day of our last Florida vacation. We fully intended Kennedy to be a one day visit mixed with Disney/Universal. The Deal Kids had so much fun that we chucked all of our other plans and just bought the annual membership. We returned four days out of seven and none of us felt deprived. In fact, Deal Dad and I enjoyed the less frenetic pace.
Besides the standard tour (and awesome rocket garden) Kennedy has tons to do. Included with admission is a daily talk with an astronaut, which is must-do. No kid will forget asking an astronaut how he poops! (“Very carefully”, answers the astronaut, who clearly gets the question often). I also highly recommend “lunch with an astronaut” for a more in-depth experience if you have a real space kid.
If you’re buying annual membership, pricing is best through the Kennedy Center, I’d strongly recommend the annual membership if you think you’ll return for even one day over the next year.
Have you visited the Rocket Garden? Do you nominate any other cool playgrounds?
Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden: best playground ever!