Monday morning the Academy-ites rose refreshed and a little sore from adventuring in Yosemite. At breakfast we were surprised to learn that most of the national park was now engulfed in raging wild fires. Stories of our daring escapes and the heroic rescues of women and children from the famous Yosemite fires of 2008 were immediately composed. The full day of work for our PIs was interrupted by a lunch time RAP session (yeah for multitasking!) where we were reminded of how little free time the week would have. That night the Academy went to Doug's for dinner and a talk from David Morrison. Following a gourmet Italian dinner and dessert, the group settled down to watch Dave and Janet's HD video of their trip to Antarctica. This combined with the interesting talk about Asteroids destroying all life on Earth that followed made the entire evening fascinating and enlightening.

After being worked to the point of exhaustion by their PIs, the Academyites decided that we'd had enough. Today would be the dawn of a new era: our employment at McDonald's.

To clarify, while the Academyites spent the morning at McDonald's, we weren't exactly flipping burgers. Instead, we sorted and labeled reels containing images of the Moon taken by the Lunar Orbiters prior to the Apollo landings. Although these images are the highest resolution photos of the Moon ever taken, they were never released to the public at their full resolution because the United States didn't want to the Soviet Union to know the full extent of our satellite spying capabilities. The data reels containing the original, full-resolution images were shoved into boxes several decades ago and narrowly escaped destruction on several occasions before their rescue by scientist/pirate Keith Cowing, who recognized that the images were too valuable to be ignored. Following the advice the Academyites have heard numerous times this summer, Keith decided to bend the rules rather than be ensnared in the tangles of bureaucracy. He used his private savings to ship the boxes of images to Ames and creatively set up his equipment in an abandoned McDonald's. Despite the vile stench of grease (which was partially concealed by the smell of thirty-year-old dust), McDonald's is a decent workspace, complete with plenty of tables and swivel chairs.

At 4:30, the Academyites piled in the vans for the trip to Lick Observatory. MikeyB and his co-intern Claire had the pleasure of riding with Dr. J, who we were all eager to meet. The observatory was fantastic. We began our tour with a walk around the facility to a vantage point from which we could see nine of Lick's ten telescopes. Lick Observatory was founded in 1888 and has been a popular site for researchers ever since. The Academyites (or maybe just the (astro)physicists) were thrilled to learn that the majority of currently known exoplanets were originally detected at Lick Observatory.

After our tour, we retired to the lecture hall for hot chocolate, dinner from Subway, and a fascinating talk about James Lick, the founder of Lick Observatory. The Academyites learned that the great observatory was motivated not by a love of science but by James Lick's desire to be remembered after his death. His initial plans were to build a giant pyramid in San Francisco or a colossal, Leninesque statue of himself, but he was later talked out of those plans when his friends reminded him that such monuments would be the first to be bombed if San Francisco were ever attacked. Fortunately for the astronomy community and the world as a whole, Lick was convinced to build an observatory instead. Apparently Lick still dreamed of a magnificent tomb, because his one condition was that he be buried underneath the main telescope. According to our tour guide, the presence of Lick's mausoleum makes operating the telescope alone in the middle of the night rather creepy.

Unfortunately, the dome of the large 36" telescope (the one under which Lick is buried) was stuck in position, so we weren't able to observe through the telescope. Instead, our tour guide showed us Jupiter and the Andromeda Galaxy through the smaller 22" "party scope." We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in lawn chairs and plotting meteors for Dr. J.

What? It's time to get up already? Even though Jon and Jenni were gracious enough to allow us to sleep in, 9 am still seemed far too early to be allowed on this particular Wednesday.

Nonetheless, there was a group presentation to give so after an extra health conscious breakfast of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and McDonalds the Academy stormed into to building T20G or as it was known that day…FAWKES central. Tommy, Anita, Emily and Mikey B delivered a life changing presentation which ended in wild cheers and jubilation from the audience….or something like that. Still full of victory adrenaline the Academy-ites attacked their individual projects that afternoon with renewed vigor.

After work the Academy met with Jessica Culler to discuss the creation of a collaborative intern outreach program between NASA CoLAB and the Academy. It was unanimously decided that CoLAB + Ames Academy = NASA Revolution, end of discussion. Without taking a few moments to rest the Academy traveled to Palo Alto where we met Academy alums Julie and Josh, who were kind enough to give us a tour of Stanford. After a very enjoyable walking tour of Stanford, the group ate a delicious dinner at Buca di Beppo's. Family size portions of pasta, parmesan chicken, and various salads were shared by all. With satisfied appetites, the Academy retired to the Lodge for the evening.

Today was a normal workday at Ames and the Academyites took advantage of the opportunity to devote themselves to their research. After work, we headed over to Doug's for another Thursday Evening Speaker-in this case, Speakers-five of them. The four members of Ames Center Director Pete Worden's think tank (Kevin Parkin, John Karcz, Robert Schlinger, and Will Marshall) were joined by Alex the economist to impart their wisdom to the Academy. Robbie and Heather prepared a delicious dinner that tasted suspiciously like Boston Market and then everyone enjoyed a make-your-own sundae bar before filing into the living room for the talks. The plan was to give each speaker about fifteen minutes to discuss their background, job, and connection to Pete Worden. Each speaker had a slightly different tale, but the underlying story was the same: NETWORK! Will Marshall gave the Academyites three tasks to accomplish: finish a PhD, attend the International Space University, and spend time working abroad for a foreign space agency. Somehow that seems harder and more time-consuming than it sounds...

After dinner Joey and Rachel set off on an epic weekend adventure filled with rock climbing, meteor watching, and camping on the beach.

The Academy slept in for an extra hour before heading to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, minus the "Research Institute" part. Who needs them anyway? At the Aquarium, the Academyites reverted to their five-year-old selves, eagerly staring at sea lions, otters, and thousands of glorious fish. After realizing that the penguins had nametags, Jon attempted to convince one of them to swim over to the glass. Clearly this idea was offensive to the penguin.

After raiding the aquarium gift shop, the Academyites grabbed a quick snack and hopped in the vans for the scenic 17 Mile Drive along the coast. We stopped for a few photos and suffered minor casualties: MikeyB's foot and H-Beem's leg. MikeyB and H-Beem quickly bandaged up their injuries and we continued on to Pebble Beach golf course, the site of the 2010 US Open. Regretfully, we were not able to actually play golf on the course, but we swung by the store to pick up a few gifts for H-Beem, who would soon be the big 2-1.

The Academyites drove on to Carmel, where we browsed art galleries before dining at Clint Eastwood's Hog's Breath Inn. Neither hogs nor hog's breath were detected.

After a quick round of shopping/ice cream, the Academyites returned to the Lodge for the first round of H-Beem's birthday bash. Dave, H-Beem, and Jon dominated Guitar Hero and the girls narrowly defeated the guys at Catchphrase.

Who needs sleeps anyway! A few brave souls (Jenni, Mikey B, Dave, Michael H, Emily, Tommy, and Sam) rose early on Saturday to return to Monterey for another dose of aquatic animals. Only this time it was in the animal's natural habitat. That right! Whale watching on the Pacific Ocean. There was some early excitement involving a Mola Mola which begged the question "what sat on that fish to make it so flat?" Unfortunately after that the group sailed for over an hour and a half on a not so friendly ocean before seeing our first whale- a humpback!. Our whale friend was sociable enough to spend about an hour spouting (coming to the surface to breath) and diving extremely close to the boat. We spent so much time with this particular whale that we named him Clyde and are pretty much bff now. On our return voyage we were lucky enough to meet a large gang of Rizzo dolphins which surrounded our boat. Dolphins were everywhere. Fortunately they were friendly and didn't demand our lunch money. Back on dry land Mikey B went to meet the birthday girl Heather while everyone else returned to the Lodge to eat and sleep.

The Academyites reconvened at the Lodge to celebrate H-Beem's big day once again. Shannon produced a delicious chocolate cake and H-Beem was treated to yet another rendition of "Happy Birthday." Happy birthday, Heather!

Wow, another day to sleep in. We might just get used to this type of special treatment. Most of Sunday was a rare time for the Academy to do whatever they wanted. Some people ate Hawaiian BBQ for lunch and explored Castro Street, some people went to work, and some people went wine tasting. Since her plans for dinner had been dashed the night before, Heather introduced the Academy to Chinese Hot Pot for dinner. After a busy week the Academy went to bed with the comfort that next week will be far less busy and the paralyzing fear that were are now only three weeks remaining.

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