T+2 minutes

The launch was great! We were maybe 3 or 4 miles away from the pad, and plumes were brilliant against the blue sky as the shuttle climbed. The photo above is just a few moments after SRB separation, at the full-res you can see the pinpoint of light as the shuttle races away from the 'dirty' SRB exhaust clouds. And if you zoom in, you can make out the SRBs tumbling away but they're only a few pixels big.

We're meeting some friends tomorrow and maybe we'll hang out on the beach near Canaveral. Mom and Dad have been emailing us some photos of Carina, and with those plus the ones Sarah put online we're managing to not call every day and see how things are going. :)