US trip

I'm back home in NZ after travelling to Canada and the US. The highlight - a visit to NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. And as our guide there said, this is a place of hope. To see what man is capable of, is truly inspiring.
My husband reckons my eyes were whirling the entire time we were there - and he was probably right. I have a photo with a genuine astronaut - Bruce Melnick, one of the shuttle astronauts. I saw the Apollo 11 capsule, spaceships plural - rockets and all, inside an actual launch control centre room, one of the shuttle launching pads. So much, and we only had a day to spend there, so had to miss out on a lot more. It's an amazing place, perched on the edge of the Atlantic, surrounded by a wildlife refuge ( we saw a bald eagle and alligators during the tour) and yet on this flat island, linked to the land by a huge bridge, you have the pinnacle of human engineering on earth. And yes, men are going back into space from there, our guide assured me.
There were other wonders, - the beautiful heart of Washington DC, the colours of fall in rural Virginia and Tennessee, the crisp clean air of Vancouver ( a lovely city), listening to upcoming country singers in Nashville bars, and both Americans and Canadians are wonderfully polite and hospitable people. But NASA was it, for me.

US excursion

We are travelling in the US at the moment. It's my first visit, and a fascinating time to make it. Just weeks before a presidential election. I now understand why the US has relatively low voter turn outs. I wouldn't bother voting either after months of the election ads and endless media waffle about just how the candidates held their mouth when they said something.
On the other hand, there is the US print media. The New York Times is a Paper that employs real Journalists. And yes, those capitals are intentional. It's commentary on the presidential debate was a joy to read. It discussed policy, what the candidates actually said, why they said it, what the context was. And  USA Today dissected the candidates more extravagant claims with a properly contextualised review of the real facts behind the claims. Including looking at more than what has happened in the last 5 minutes. America will not go down while such discussions flourish.
On a lighter note - paperbacks here are so cheap compared to NZ. I am going to incur some definite overweight charges on the way home - either that, or I may be forced to buy one of the fancy new kindles available here - and then I could download all the stuff that's off licence in NZ too. The wonders of travel!