"Good Day Sunshine"

 There was a SpaceX launch during the day and it was a sunny so I headed on a visit to Port Canaveral. Good Day Sunshine! Here are a few of the photographs I took on that day, Sunday, September 14, 2025.

Even though I have a pass for Jetty Park at Port Canaveral, I usually get there early for a launch because parking can fill up. Arriving about two hours before launch, I had some time to waste. I spend it by taking a lot of pictures. One great subject I like are the cruise ships departing. I think they were leaving a little earlier than usual because of the 6:11 launch time.

The ship leaving as I entered the park was the Disney Magic. It is bigger than a school bus.

There was a dredging barge in the port channel. It was taking a break as the large ships passed by.

I like to walk out to the fishing pier along the Jetty. There were more than just fishermen because of the launch. And it was a beautiful day.

That is when I saw that a ship had already left. It looked like a Carnival ship.

The next ship to depart was a Royal Caribbean ship named the Stars of the Sea, that is currently the largest cruise ship in the world, tied with its sister ship, also from RCL, the Icon of the Seas.

Although the cruise ships were all departing, the Victory Casino boat was returning from its afternoon cruise to no where. Actually, they go far enough out in the ocean so you can gamble.

The last ship to depart was the MSC Seashore. Look how tiny it is...

The pilot  and pilot boat was busy with four cruise ship departures. 

The MSC Seashore passes the end of the Jetty.

There is wildlife too at Jetty Park. Lots of turtles feeding and birds all around.  A sea turtle getting a breath of air.

A seagull and a sandpiper on the jetty rocks, scavenging for food...

A heron...

A crab under the water. I was hoping it would come up out of the water so I could get a better picture.

I went looking for some gopher tortoises which I have seen along the dunes. They have added a nice mat to walk on between the crossover and the beach,

There was a dragonfly who posed for me.

Sadly, they were tearing down the restaurant store at Jetty Park. It has been closed from just after COVID started. I guess they could get no one to take it over. I bought many a beer and soda at this spot, and ate a few times in the small restaurant. Not sure what the plan is for the spot.

They have built a new store that serves both the Campground and the Park. I visited and bought a soda but found they do not take cash. I had to use a credit card for one soda. Not a fan of that...

Another angle of the old store being torn down...

And then it was time for a launch. They had moved the dredging barge back out into the middle of the channel and they started to dredge again. I caught this shot of the liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon rocket carrying a container with supplies to the ISS (International Space Station).

Sometimes I can catch the launch and a bird at the same time...

I always like the contrail at liftoff...

An osprey almost crossed into the contrail but turned at the last moment.

On this launch, the Falcon 9 rocket was returning to land at the Port. It is usually about 8 minutes after the launch that it comes back with a first burn to slow it down. I was taken a photo of the contrail mixing with the clouds and actually caught the burn in the upper clouds.

As the rocket returns, it shuts off the rocket and freefalls. For some reason it was leaving another contrail.

As it approaches the landing, it reignites the rocket to slow it down again. As it approaches the ground it slows down a lot.

And then it lands just out of sight. There was a girl talking to her mother on her phone, and I told her to hold up her phone for the sonic booms. Since the winds were coming off the ocean, it was very loud this time. Always a great feeling deep into the soul...

To celebrate the launch, I stopped at Rising Tide for a beer. The orange tap is Orange Blossom Pilsner. The owner of that brewery and designer of OBP, passed away this pass week. It on the TV, the Eagles were beating the Chiefs this time, unlike the last Super Bowl.

It was a sunny day, a great launch, and a fun day for four large cruise ships full of passengers. Sad that Tom Moench died, that the store is being torn down, and that they would not take my dollar bills for the soda. But it was a Good Day Sunshine!

About Title

"Good Day Sunshine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. McCartney intended it as a song in the style of the Lovin' Spoonful's contemporaneous hit single "Daydream". The recording includes multiple pianos played in the barrelhouse style and evokes a vaudevillian mood.

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"Good Day Sunshine" has been covered by the Tremeloes, Claudine Longet and Robbie Williams. McCartney re-recorded the song for his 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street and has regularly performed it in concert. The song was used as the wake-up music on the Space Shuttle mission STS-135. In November 2005, McCartney played it live to the crew of the International Space Station as part of a concert link-up to the space station.

Paul McCartney wrote "Good Day Sunshine" at Kenwood, John Lennon's house in Surrey. Drawing inspiration from the sunny day, McCartney composed the melody on Lennon's piano. He later said that Lennon helped write the song, but "it was basically mine." Lennon recalled that the song was McCartney's and that he perhaps "threw in a line or something".