The City of Sparkling Lights

Well today got off to a good start waking up at 8:30 and doing computer things catching up on email, Facebook, and school work. Then had a wonderful breakfast with the handsome boy and did more hanging out and Skyped with Mommy and Midnight until we headed to JPL for a tour.

This tour was epic! Our first stop was the Mars Yard where they test out the test rover that is still on earth. One of Allen's friends who works at JPL showed us the rover and explained some of the amazing things it does. One awesome thing that it does is dril into solid rocks and suck up the fine grit, almost the consistency of flour, for testing. After that we got to see one of the rooms that they used to control the real Mars rover durring landing. We also got to see one of the ways that they test their systems before sending them. They set up all of the separate boxes on shelves connected to simulators and in some way simulate problems such as just randomly pulling cords or messing with what the simulators are telling the boxes. Then Allen took us to see his project the CubeSat and explained how it is going to work. It was amazing to see what he is doing and learn all about the most recent Mars mission. For those who may not know much about it I was told to youtube "7 Minutes of Terror" and "Where Were You When Curiosity Landed on Mars?." I will be watching those as soon as I finish writing.

After our tour we went out to dinner with Allen and Rachael at a lovely Mexican restaurant and then went up to the Griffith Observatory to enjoy the beautiful view of Los Angeles. It was amazing to see the beautiful shimmering lights of the city at night. I found it extremely funny to look over and see someone starring at their phone instead of the view. 

The plans for tomorrow are still in the air but Allen and Rachael are going to figure that out and since it is 11:30 here Drew and I are going to crash.