Saturday, June 09, 2018

Saturday, June 09, 2018

SpaceX n JPL open house

Posted by Hippobean at 11:16 PM 1 comments
Chewing on a piece of grass
Walking down the road
....
You don't care, I know
Ventura Highway in the sunshine
....
You're gonna go I know
'Cause the free wind is blowin' through
Your hair
And the days surround your daylight
There
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air...

except we didnt go there! But we did, of course, play the song ...

Been awhile. always air smoggy, hazy, dry, hot but sunny. Always that headache. always in socal is like being in a different country. but always loved it.

The Courtyard at Marriotts was nice but rooms are tired and not very clean. No real restaurant, just a starbucks bistro, small pool, getting to the elevators one needed to navigate a maze. But location right in the old town Pasadena.

eye opening visits included the falcon 9 rocket booster that stuck the landing back on earth, showered and repainted, on display in full glory minus the top, in the spacex HQ on 1 Rocket Road in Hawthorne. Then a mad dash through notorious LA traffic to JPL in Pasadena, where 1/10 scaled down models of all current and past spacecrafts were on displayed, life-size Galileo, the Mars rovers Curiosity and Spirit, miniature Mars helicopters, and after an hour of waiting Disneyland style, the assembly facility, where the new Mars rover was being assembled. Another mad dash to see the operations room, empty and abandoned after 4PM. Extremely generous of the security guard who let us in. the rocket scientits was ecstatic, like a child, running here and there in a hurry, eyes wide open in total awe. so truly a space junkie.

No time for the Fahrenheit 2018 at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona, to see Mari's winning ceramic piece. But meals included a fantastically savory bone broth of noodles with beef, crab lumpia, chinese donuts and clams (salty over the top) and papaya salad at the Bone Kettle (loved this place, gotta go back for more food) on Raymond Ave, followed by a leisure stroll in Old Town Pasadena; for breakfast, Venezuelan coffee, my choice of the El Torero, with Spanish Chorizo, melted Gouda, eggs, spicy mayo aioli, tomatoes and greens. Lunch was simply frozen lemonade for the Hip and burritos for them. Last supper was with the kids, Chris who worked at SpaceX and his girlfriend, and Catalan scientist Ivan from Barcelona, who worked with sonars, at Malbec Argentina, in the new part of the city. No parilla on the menu, but they called them sausage platter I guess. I got the papardelle with beef and porcini mushrooms (except I couldnt find a single porcini). OK, not great. The rest has 8 or 14 or 16 oz of ribeye. The argentine malbec was smooth, full of flavors, and I did like it a lot. however, not so for the food.

In the last morning, we drove to the LA Port to sneak at peak the falcon 9 rocket booster landing platform (wooden plank the Hip called it) and T and A were caught on camera. The patrol just happened to drive by and caught them trespassing. well just standing on the rocks to photograph Elon Musk's Mr Stevens. The day before Ivan did the same and was caught as well. Their security was super tight and I guess, working!

Brunch at the 22nd St Seafood Bar and Grill, with direct view of the port, different size ships docked. Gorgeous day and here, next to the ocean, the air was a bit breathable. Quite enjoyed socal, as usual.

See SpaceX and JPL pictures:


 

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