I do feel lucky to have had that experience. I wish I could have seen the shuttle, but the time I was there for it, they had to postpone the lift off for some reason [probably weather related], and then I had to leave.
THAT would have been epic! But my son did take me ona driving tour through Canaveral and he also took me on a tour through the Vandenburg site in CA. He just happened to be in the missile program and was in the right places. :) I didn’t get to see one take off in CA, though.The launchpads are huge.
Neat that you got tours of Canaveral and Vandenburg. It’s a shame the Shuttle launch you hoped to see was postponed though.
I have friends (married couple) who worked on the Shuttle program and they said any time I wanted to see a launch, I was welcome to visit them. Just never was able to go, dang it.