Dawn arose, sending its gossamer rays across the land. She tore the night sky in twain, chasing the Darkness to the corners of the Earth, and announced the coming of the new day with a glorious display of light and color. In the east, our blazing winged Nike trumpeted the hope and promise of another chapter in what we call our NASA Academy, and burned her path across celestial loam. On this glorious morning, we all got to ignore her and go back to sleep.

When we finally did get around to waking up, everyone but Mike B decided to visit "Rick's secret beach" down in Santa Cruz. Our route from Mountain View: 101 -> 17 S -> 1 N and then five minutes or so on the 1, following some railroad tracks. It turned out that our secret beach wasn't quite so secret anymore, but everyone except Mike B still had a lot of fun. A lot of us (excluding Mike B) went up on the sandy rocks and got sand in our eyes, and also climbed onto the giant rocks on the shore. Our he-man Tommy decided to get some dramatic shots of himself with the wind in his hair and waves crashing behind him. At the end of our day, all the guys except Joey and especially except Mike B all stormed into the very cold ocean, and two memorable videos of our noble assault were captured on film. When we all got back we went to go see 'Get Smart' where Tommy spilled his popcorn.

Monday morning the Academy went on a tour with the Ames fire department. Apparently Jon and Joe Rizotto of the Moffett Field FD go way back, so we got some special treatment. The fire department was very happy to show off their fancy hardware. They serve both the airfield and the NASA facilities, so they have a set of airfield trucks as well as structural fire trucks. We managed to get a few great pictures of ourselves climbing all over the main crash truck. They showed us the spike on the crash truck designed to pierce the skin of an aircraft. We suspect it's also useful for taking down prey. We also had a chance to peer inside one of the two large redwood hangars on the other side of the runway. Inside NASA's attic were a former Blue Angels F-18, an army Apache, a few old one-of-a-kind research aircraft, and plenty of other things covered in a pretty thick layer of dust (with an occasional "2007 Ames Academy" written in it). Joe mentioned that the Mythbusters were in the very same hangar a while ago, and managed to fold a piece of paper 11 times. At the end of our tour, we got a chance to use a ~90 psi water hose. Mike B's excitement at handling the hose was visible afterwards. After all this, we had to go to work for the rest of the day.

Monday also happened to be Jon's birthday! He's managed to reach the ripe old age of 23. We went out to the nursing home to pick him up so we could all go to the Tied House. This was also David's first time driving the big van, and he performed with flying colors. We came back and had the RAP session before eating a DQ ice cream cake for Jon's birthday. Then, Tommy destroyed Mike B and Robbie at Halo 3, showing off his PhD in Pain and Masters in Disasters.

Today was a normal PI work day. Tommy, Anita, Courtney and Robbie all talked with Chris McKay about their idea for the group project. He liked the idea (quote: "brilliant idea") and gave many great suggestions. Instead of going out, we had leftover chicken for dinner and then went out for ice cream and DQ. The group met to discuss the group project, and by unanimous vote elected to do the Phoenix project.

Rolling Thunder: The guard at gate mistakenly identified the biker gang as a club - he was quickly corrected. The guard then commented on how bright our futures are and waved us in.

Another full work day. We had a lunch lecture with Alexandra Davatzes on HiRISE, the camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, while David and Mike B went out to SETI to hear Jon Rask and Erin Tranfield talk about the toxicological aspects of lunar dust. For dinner we went out to a gyro place in Mountain View and had an enriching Socratic seminar on how to pronounce "gyro". Also, we ran into an odd sight - ANONYMOUS protesting in front of a scientology office. They looked like they were all having a great time dancing in unison in their masks and costumes. Some of us also headed into a nearby bookstore and got some gelato.

At night we further discussed our group project. We divided into a science team, engineering team, and logistics/outreach team and elected a fearless leader: Tommy. This is history in the making here, people.

Rolling Thunder: Yesterday's prediction of the gang members' bright futures was fulfilled when 50% of the active Rolling Thunder members were elected to leadership positions for the group project.

The Academy began Thursday doing what we do best. This particular day (skies filled with smoke from the fires) the Academyites toured the Moffett Field flight center. The Academy was split into two groups. While one group looked at the control tower the other group was given a van tour of the airfield. Mike H convinced his group's tour guide to stop the van for a walk around of a Blackhawk that was being refit. This also allowed for a close look at the Google jet that was preparing to take off. Each group was also given another tour of Hangar 2. Right as the vans were about the leave the parking lot, Tommy and Dave finally got to ask the traffic controller the all-important question: what do you do if you have to use the bathroom? To which he responded: in the military they teach you to hold it in.

Friday morning the remaining members who did not take safety training walked Full Throttles in hand into the training building. During the morning all of Ames was shaken as an F-16 kicked on its afterburners while flying overhead. Later during lunch an F-18 (mistakenly identified as an F-16 by some noobs) did a flyby before landing. For dinner the gang went to Boardwalk, a restaurant known for its burgers and sandwiches. After dinner everyone came back to the lodge to watch Star Wars.

Saturday of Week Two was for the most part a free day. Everyone pretty much did their own thing in the morning. By the evening, the lodge was pretty much deserted. Mikey B, Rachel, Joey, and Sam went rock climbing, Sarah was away doing fieldwork, and Jon and Jenni went to the airport to pick up Emily. When Jon and Jenni got back from the airport many people watched Family Guy. Later Jon's room once again became a war zone for Cranium, where the guys and girls fought it out to see which gender is superior. Despite mistaking a Gorilla's nose for an Owl, the guys completely dominated the girls, who resorted to tactics like shouting out movie names instead of actually acting.

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