Picture Post: Contact, part II

[fritters]

Okay, wait, what? That's not people talking about brainy science things. That's two dogs looking at a cake.

Oh, but look at their little expressions, eh?

This was a poster in the walls of the Nasa Exchange Lodge and it was just too cute not to have a copy of. I took a picture of it Saturday morning, so I thought it would be fun to inflict it on y'all...

We ditched out on the morning stuff a bit to get some time to wander around the Moffett Field Museum. Before we went in, though, Martin got a shot of me outside of Hangar One. (I'd really follow that last link, if I was you...)



As the picture does not do it justice, here is a movie, with a truck for scale. Although, NOTHING can do it justice, with the possible exception of being there...

Click to view

For those of you who are bored by the hangar, let me point out this is a hangar built for zeppelins. Dirigibles. The Macon's main hangout, specifically. If you still don't think it's cool, I apologize for boring you. But dirigibles, man!

And here's Martin outside a cockpit simulator of a P-3 Orion. You will be seeing more of that.



While I took a LOT of pictures inside the museum, most were not things that translated well into a picture post. This, though, is an official certificate certifying someone to be an official Airship Commander. Is that like the BEST TITLE EVAR?? Airship Commander.



Remember that P-3 Orion cockpit simulator?? Well, a fine gentleman named Rodger not only took us around the entire museum telling us all the cool stuff, but he took us into the cockpit and showed us how to sit and where the headphones were and such so we could take Awesome Pilot Photos...





Some of you from the club may remember this lovely lady. We hadn't seen her in over a decade and it was great to spend some time with her ^_^



We ran back to the lodge several times and at one point got this great shot of one of the main buildings in front of Hangar One.



If I could take this moment to casually mention the Navy wants to tear down Hangar One, I'd like to direct you to the Save Hangar One website.

On Saturday night there was a mini-party thing before everyone broke off for dinner. This was the centerpiece of the food table.



We eventually, after much wrangling, wandered off to an Indian restaurant in the downtown strip of old Mountain View, with our new friends Debbie, Cliff and Randall.



They are all smart, cool people who you would probably like. And if obadiah comments to this post, y'all should know that that is Cliff, the guy in the middle, so y'all can poke him for giggles if you like ^_^

There was an after party in the second floor lobby of the lodge, just like pretty much every night, although this one seemed to be the largest. I can't remember everyone's names, but this is the best shot of the party, which bothers me, because Lara's face is covered and she's a cutie. It would have been a perfect shot if you could see Lara.



On Sunday morning, we ALSO drove around Hangar 1 and got more shots of awesomeness. Because we could. If we were there a week, we'd STILL have probably gotten photos of it every day.



We ditched out on part of Sunday's programming because despite being very, very close to it several times we'd never seen the bay. So we drove one exit north and climbed a hill so we could actually for once see Frikkin' San Francisco Bay.



Totally worth it. Those are poppies, California's state flower, in the foreground, by the way.

When we got back everyone had filed into the museum area to hear a phone call from a guy who has been at sea over 2 years. So, of course, while everyone was watching filler video and listening to the phone call, we were in the next room poking around the museum. They had a walk through shuttle simulation, although it was obviously just to give you an idea of it. I doubt they carry rhinos to space for the purpose of feeding them 0_o



...and don't forget your adult frog box!



There was video of frogs floating in zero G though, so that was totally worth it.

Then we shuttled off to the moon for a photo or two. You'd be surprised how easy that is nowadays...





Afterwards, pretty much everything was over. I still took photos on the trip home, though. There's a shock. For everyone who doesn't live around here, this is what central California looks like. Eat your hearts out.