The space shuttle lift-off!!!

We had the most amazing experience this morning - we saw the space launch!!! Not up close and personal, which you can do by anchoring outside of Canaveral, but from our anchorage here, 100 miles to the south. At the right moment, an area of the horizon suddenly burst into flames, a huge swath of land and sky all aglow. Then, slowly and surely, a glowing orb lifted skyward.  The take off picture is a little confusing--- the shuttle itself is the white orb in the center, with the reddish line underneath being the reflection in the water. The other 2 white lights are from the bridge just in front of us.

As we watched it arc, after a few minutes, we saw the burst of light indicating the booster separation and then watched as the boosters themselves fell away from the blue flame of the shuttle itself. An hour later, the vapor trails were still obvious.

 AND - the noise! We didn't hear a thing when it lifted, but suddenly, 6 minutes later, the roar of the takeoff reached us. What an errie feeling.
We could see the shuttle for about 15 minutes total. I have to say, it was quite moving. Now I want to time our next trips to include a lift off!
(no Shell 101 today - this doesn't count as a regular blog entry...)