Ricardo and My Summer Adventure: Capitola, Santa Cruz, San Juan Bautista

Hello Everyone! Ricardo and I took an overnight trip around Labor Day to the Begonia Festival in Capitola, then slightly north to stay in Santa Cruz, then inland to Mission San Juan Bautista the next day. Pictures follow.

First, the Begonia festival in Capitola. A more true small town America festival you could never find. The main event was the floats. Local group created floats out of Begonias (semi-tropical flowers in the red/pink/yellow/white range, mostly) and mounted them on rafts and then towed these by rowboat down the river that runs through the center of town.

The river actually never reaches the ocean. It ends when it meets the beach, which consists of a high dune of sand, so the river ends in this lagoon. So at no time are the pilots in danger from large ocean waves. I knew that would put your mind at rest. (The river actually does meet the ocean, just under the sand, but that is neither here nor there.)

My favorite pics from the festival:



See the little kids on the back on this turtle? You can see the folks in the park watching the action float by too. We stood on this hill high above the river, but we could see well.



A whale, one of my favorites. "It Came from the Sea" was the theme. One group came up with a great monster in response, but I didn't get a good picture.



"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!" Blatant pander to the crowd (we helped in the judging), but cute, no?



I just love this hotel room, right on the sand, so colorful, and a garden. Lovely. We didn't stay here (we lodged in Santa Cruz instead). I just thought it was so cute, and right off the pier.

(Continued below)

Middle of the Weekend in Santa Cruz

We stayed overnight in Santa Cruz. The next morning we walked up West Cliff Drive to Natural Bridges State Beach. It all reminded me how much I love Santa Cruz. I haven't traveled there enough since I graduated from UCSC.

We stayed in Beach Flats, which is actually a little scary because that is supposed to be one of the worst neighborhoods in Santa Cruz. Not bad for one night, though, and we could hear the revellers down at the Boardwalk. Scream down the roller coaster hill, hold your breath going up, scream once more. It has a rhythm, like waves at the ocean. We ate at the pier, which is right there. Good seafood.

Two pics:



The view as we started up West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. I loved the bikes locked to the fence.



Ah, the California Coast. So gorgeous. I especially enjoyed the watching the water rush into this sea cave.

A Visit to Mission San Juan Bautista

Here is the third part of our trip - a visit to Mission San Juan Bautista. Being a native Californian and having grown up with the name, I had never thought to translate it into English. It means Saint John the Baptist, of course, and they have a lovely statue of him in their alter wall. I've gathered some of the best pictures below. The darkness of the mission kept me from getting good ones inside, though Ricardo got better ones with his professional grade equipment (see links on right below). Here are some of my favorites:



Ceiling of the mission with chandelier. Cool light on this one.



I loved this side door into the mission, complete with obligatory vine. It was just as you'd expect to find at a California mission. It led out into the walled garden of the mission, where the chickens run free. Felt very authentic.



Ricardo took this one obviously. I almost wasn't sure he was really taking one but I thought I'd smile anyway. Didn't it turn out nicely?



Don't we look lovely? This is the mission garden I spoke of. The mission lies behind us. You can hardly tell how hot it was that day.

New Profile Picture

Did y'all see the new picture of me in the "About Me" section on the right (scroll down)? Mom took that one at Katie and Eric's wedding this summer. As you can see I'm wearing my summer garden wedding hat. Love that one; got it in Scotland you know. I'm so pleased with that pic - it is my Facebook pic now too.

I'm a Real Science Writer Now

Well I have been working at NASA Ames for the summer and it has been great fun. I feel like a true science writer now. They hired me to work on the FY06 and FY07 annual reports (from scratch) and I now am putting the finishing touches on the mock-up for the 2006 Annual Report. So I really did accomplish something this summer. 2007 is almost all done as well, though not laid out yet.

I did the lay-out in InDesign, which I have never worked with before. It is a powerful program, that is easy to use once you understand a few rules. I'm glad I have some experience with it now; that is a good skill to have in the job market.

I love my boss, and wish I could continue at NASA, but they told all us interns early on that they don't have enough money to hire us as real employees. In fact that is why they get so many interns: they are cheap and do good work at completing specific projects. Then they leave. It is fun while it lasts, though, and it will look good on the resume.

My department is SimLabs, which runs all the flight and air-traffic control simulation at Ames. Our VMS is the best vertical motion simulator in the world in about 100 different ways, and we are very proud of that. It is an amazing place.

I have learned a huge amount about translating technical documents into more of a marketing tone too, though what I am writing would go to potential customers, so hardly complete lay-people. In fact they know way more about the concepts then I do. But I have enjoyed interviewing the various engineers and becoming something of an expert for a day or two about these esoteric concepts, like pilot control loaders. Fascinating stuff. Ask me anything.

I even flew the Boeing 747 simulator. I crashed the plane. Flying is hard. :-)