Week 2, Part 1

The first two days of this week were typical work days. On Wednesday, we had the flights to Houston, and flying with a dozen other people is always a fun adventure, but it's especially fun when the flight is on a tiny plane (three seats across). Several of us got to sit in seats that were the aisle and the window at the same time. Fancy.

So we successfully rolled into Houston around 3pm, I successfully convinced the admin to let me drive in Houston (I love driving in H-town), and I got us all to the Hilton. We had enough time to spare that after check-in and carrying bags up, I hauled everyone over to Space Center Houston (where badges = free admission and gift shop discount) for about an hour of space-themed fun and shopping. I spent the least amount of money I've ever spent in a SCH trip (<$30), and got a cool new tank top.

After that we headed back to the hotel where I got to see Doug (O'Handley, Ames Academy Director) in the parking lot and Graylan (who was staff for my Academy last summer at Ames and is co-staffing the Goddard Academy) in the lobby. Like old times! After changing, we all headed over to Kemah to a delicious Mexican dinner on a dock/patio outside with all three Academies: Glenn (GRC), Goddard (GSFC), and Marshall (MSFC). Marshal (note the one "l") is the staff for Glenn, and was one of my fellow RAs at Ames (confused yet?). It was awesome to see him again when he showed up with his five RAs and Director from GRC. We're totally representing to the other Academies by having Ames folks taking over staff on ALL THREE other Academies.

There were about 50 of us total, which is a pretty impressive group. After dinner many of us headed over to the Outpost Tavern (as seen in space movies) for a couple hours of getting to know each other.