San Francisco part 2 - Alcatraz and Lombard Street

Of course, Alcatraz was a must-touristy-thing-to-do for our trip, so after Golden Gate Park, we hopped on the boat for Alcatraz

Bay Bridge from the back of the boat


The city


Alcatraz!


Father and son bonding time...in jail...


Not quite a 5-star hotel...


Checking out solitary confinement. The audio tour they have set up is very impressive. It was informative, not boring, and the perfect length. Well done National Park people.


The view from Alcatraz to the shore...roughly the end point for the Alcatraz Triathlon (different from the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon since you don't have to qualify for it, anyone can sign up). You jump off the back of a ferry at Alcatraz and swim to shore for the swim portion of the tri. I hope to swim this some day...and not drown...or panic...or freeze...or get eaten by a shark ( I KNOW they are there, despite what marine biologists might say).


Driving down Lombard street. Crazy amount of tourists here...and it was 8 in the morning! There was no way to get a really good shot without getting out of the car (not an option at the time) so I bought a postcard...an old postcard apparently based on the circa 1985 cars driving down Lombard :)

Kiddos

In July, I went back to AZ to meet my friend Lynn's new little addition, Brooklyn, and I also got to spend time my my bestie, Tima, and her little guy Aiden. I grabbed some pictures from their pages (since I didn't take any, how bad of an auntie am I!?) It is so much fun watch your dear friends become and be mommies :)

Brooklyn


Lynn's kiddos - Roman and Brooklyn

Aiden giving kisses


Me and Aiden


Practicing what Aiden's learned at swim class


This picture just makes me laugh a lot. It may become my new desktop.


Beautiful family. And I have this EXACT same picture - but with me and my parents :) (with cactus in the background too!)

Last launch of the Space Shuttle

Sorry for the delay on this post - I had technical difficulties with the video I took of the launch. I gave up and posted the footage from NASA of the launch.


I cannot believe I had the privilege to witness the last launch of the Space Shuttle.

My friend Lisa entered the lottery they had here at work for passes to park on-site at the Kennedy Space Center and she received a Turn Basin parking pass - about 3.5 miles from the space shuttle launch pad. And she invited me and two other friends to go with her. An 18 hour drive later, we were in Vero Beach, Florida and ready for the launch!

Launch was on Friday, July 8th at 11:26am. So we decided to leave our hotel at 4am just to make sure we got there in time :). They were expecting about 750,000 people, so we didn't want to get stuck in traffic. Since we were so early, there was minimal traffic and we had no issues getting on-site as we all had our work badges with us (which meant we also got free entry into the KSC Visitor Center later that day to buy more souvenirs :)). We were parked at our site by 6:30am.

Driving past the Vehicle Assembly Building (where the Solid Rocket Boosters and External Tank are attached to the Space Shuttle)



Atlantis - 3.5 miles away



We arrived so early, that the security wasn't yet setup around the press area, so we walked over to the official countdown clock and took some pictures.


Go Atlantis!!!


See the silver van/bus on the left hand side? That would be the AstroVan taking the crew out to the launch pad.



About 5 minutes prior to launch, my hands got all sweaty and my heart was beating fast. We were all laughing at how incredibly nervous and excited we were. My hands were literally shaking. And then, 31 seconds prior to ignition, I heard "failure" over the loud speaker. The crowd groaned and silence followed. It turns out the arm that has the vent cap (covers the tip-top of the External Tank) was showing data that made it look like it had not rotated away from the Shuttle, so they had to confirm with cameras that it was out of the way of the Shuttle. Talk about hair raising, stomach in throat moments. The launch window is only about 5 minutes long , exceed that time and it would have to be scrubbed and attempted the next day.

Launch Video

The launch control team did a phenomenal job and Atlantis launched only 2 minutes past her official launch time of 11:26am. I was able to see a launch last May, just before sunrise and was amazed by how bright the Shuttle is as she ascends. However, this time I was BLOWN AWAY by how bright she was in broad daylight!!! She had barely cleared the pad when I was overcome with emotion, not believing I was witnessing the last launch of a Space Shuttle. Ever. My hands shook as I held my little point and shoot camera to the side to try and capture the launch in video and tears streamed down my cheeks. It was over too quickly. My friends and I just stared at each other, cheeks wet with tears, trying to wrap our minds around what we had just witnessed. Discovery and Endeavor each put up a fight on their last launches, technical issues causing delays on both launches. Atlantis went out a graceful lady. Accepting of her fate and with a show I will never forget.

There was a low cloud ceiling so we were only able to see her for about 30 seconds, but after Atlantis left our sight, we could see the shadow of her plume projected on the clouds...and hear her!


We were there.


The end of an era. But not the end of the American space program. With the International Space Station, we will maintain an American presence in space until at least 2020.

Tsaritsyno (Царицыно) Palace

After work today, I went with two of my coworkers to Tsaritsyno Palace. This was my first time there, so it was fun to see something new! The gardens were beautiful...it is tulip season here... we walked around for a good hour and a half I think, snapping pictures, gasping in pain (awe, wonder) as Muscovite women navigated the garden paths in 5-inch stiletto heels, watching brides have their pictures taken...

This is what you see when you first walk in the gates...up on the hill, hidden behind the trees is the palace, which was built for Catherine the Great


Pink tulips!


Yellow and dark maroon tulips


See the palace towers peeking over those trees?


Tsaritsyno Palace


Bread Gate


These guys were the architects...giving them a high five for a job well done


Church of St. Nicholas


I call this "the wedding cake building with lots of white stuff on it". Technical architectural verbiage Melissa-style.


Big bridge

There were a ton of paths through this park and I saw two gals running through it...I would LOVE to grab my running shoes and have a nice run through this park...but not sure if that will happen on this trip...that whole work thing gets in the way sometimes ;-).

Russian bread...sorta

If it's made in Russia out of an American mix, does that count? I find it kinda funny that I have to travel almost 6000 miles to finally tackle the gluten-free baking projects I've been wanting to test out, but better late than never.

So maybe pictures of making bread in my hotel/apartment room aren't exactly what you think I'd post when in Moscow, but hey, I get by with what I have :)

No measuring cups. So I used a 16oz waterbottle to see where the 2 cups of liquid measured out in a coffee pot (no real coffee here either, filters are very difficult to find, so I just do instant). The recipe called for 2 eggs, some oil, and then add water to make 2 cups of liquid...hence needing to know where the 2 cup line was on the coffee pot


The recipe also said to use a breadmaker or a standmixer. I interpreted that to say "stick your hand in the bowl and "hand-mix" for 3 minutes".


All mixed (yup, another fabulous Pamela's product)



Here, the dough is resting


Oh yeah, totally squealed excitedly when I walked into the kitchen and the dough had actually risen!


It said to bake in an oven. I suppose the toaster oven will suffice (sidenote: I was deathly afraid the bread would suddenly burst into flames so I kept checking it every 2 minutes...at least it felt like it).


Voila! Gluten free sandwich bread. And this stuff is downright tasty. And it's keeping really well in the refrigerator...no funky gluten free grainy texture yet...

Out and about...finally!

I switch to the morning shift today and was feeling pretty wide-awake after work, so I decided to mosy on down to the metro (subway) and hit up a few of the usual sites. I was excited to see that I could still navigate the Moscow metro, after all, it has been two years since I used it last :)

Love how they captured the Russian flag with these pansies. Appropriately patriotic for being just outside the wall of the Kremlin


This is always a mandatory picture - St. Basil's Cathedral


As is this...except for the fact that the guy didn't frame it right ::sigh::


St. Basil's, Lenin's tomb, the clock tower, and part of the Kremlin wall- money shot :)



The Bolshoi Theater - alas, they are all sold out for ballet tickets for the month of May. I checked.


Still my favorite - the old KGB building.

Working in the HSR in Moscow Mission Control

HSR stands for Houston Support Room. This room is staffed with NASA folks from the Houston Support Group (HSG) 365 days of the year (or pretty close to that). During mated missions (when the Shuttle is attached to the Space Station), my group sends two people over to help out. This is because mated missions can be extremely complicated and tricky from an attitude control perspective and from a paperwork exchanged between my group and our Russian counterparts perspective. We found it to be necessary to send two people out (working a shift apiece) to be able to interact face-to-face with our Russian counterparts and explain issues that come up, answer any questions, and do some of the digging around for information that the on-console team would normally take care of, but have their hands full with Shuttle stuff. We are basically an extra pair of hands (and maybe part of a brain :) ) for the on-console team.

The afternoon shift getting ready to head out...this was Sunday, which is jeans day...normally we are dressed in our professional best :)


Erin and I during shift handover


Doing some plan reviews