Birds go flying at the speed of sound, to show you how it all began.

I was on vacation last week in Florida, visiting my parents for Easter down in Sarasota. Shortly after 8:30pm on Wednesday night, we were interrupted while watching a movie by a very loud boom. None of us knew what the noise could have been, and my dad went outside to investigate. It sounded like an electrical transformer exploding (which I encountered in college the night the lights went out in Woo) or even a bomb going off! I was concerned about him going outside, but there was nothing to be seen except the neighbors going outside to investigate too. At a loss, he came back in, and we restarted the film. (It was Enchanted, by the way. We all hated it.)

The next day we read in the paper what the noise was: the space shuttle Endeavor broke the sound barrier when it was landing. For a moment, I felt like I belonged in The Right Stuff!