3/18/2007 For many years now I've been a member of the Northern California Chapter of the Mars Society a group dedicated on furthering the human exploration and eventual settlement of planet Mars. Just recently we were invited to cooperate with the NASA Ames Research Center, located on Moffett Field in nearby Mountain View, on a mobile robotics explorer project. As part of the project and to introduce the group to the types of research done at Ames Dr. Christopher McKay invited us to visit the center and learn firsthand about some of the research conducted there. The pictures in the first set give a glimpse into some of the research and operations being conducted there. The huge structure in the thumbnail below is the 80x120 wind tunnel inlet. During operation it is known to draw a wind of about 20 knots. Testing of the new crew exploration vehicle is currently taking place in the 11x11 wind tunnel. The supersonic 9x7 tunnel where a 3% shuttle model was tested again recently is capable of subjecting models to a 2.5 mach flow. Within weeks we started working on the robotic explorer, and as part of it we scheduled a briefing and test of the Senseta robot at the new Carnegie Mellon West building at Moffet Field. But before the meeting with Dr. Al Ali at CMU West we had a visit to the neighboring SETI Institute where Dr. Seth Shostak, our host, gave us a briefing on the current state of the search projects as well as the science that is performed at the institute. Founded in 1984, the Institute today employs over 100 scientists, educators and support staff. Research at the Institute is anchored by two centers. Dr. Jill Tarter, a model for Jody Foster's role in the film "Contact", leads the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Dr. Frank Drake, of Drake's Equation fame, is the Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. I remember being neighbor to the institute during the startup days of Epiphany Inc. at Landings dr. and just across Google's HQ today, Dr. Shostak tells us the new facilty (also in Mountain View but on the west side of 101) is much better equipped and the real bonus is space for the two wet labs which enable scientists to conduct their research without interruption. The Institute also operates the sophisticated Allen array, a set of radio telescopes north of Lassen peak in California formerly known as 1hT - one hectare telescope. The data is analyzed locally as the array generates several DVDs per second worth of signals, results are then transmitted to the observation room in Mountain View.

1/28/2007 Every once in a while we have guests from Croatia, this time around it was Gorana and Lucijan. Now, guests are a perfect excuse to go and travel somewhere, and given it was the end of December that somewhere better be a somewhere where it's warmer than the Bay Area. Although both Sara and I were on Hawaii several times already, it's never hard to decide to go again. The Big Island is big and there's always something new to explore. So we played good hosts, and took our guests for a short tour - A'a and Pahoehoe lava included at no extra cost. We spent most of the time on Hawaii, also known as the Big Island and 2 days on Oahu (the gathering place). Now if you scroll down on this page you'll see that in 2003 we had a mere 10 minutes walk to the lava flow from Pu'u O'o. This time it was more like 2000 and a good four and a half hour hike back and forth. However, this time around Pele was in good mood and did not cooperate. The flow was subterranean, creating new lava tubes, and it appeared only on 'the bench'. These lava benches are a no no, as they are known to collapse into the sea without warning. Moreover, even if we wanted to take the risk, we would need to scale down a vertical wall 15-20 m high. Definitely not something you would do without climbing gear. So this time our volcano chili was eaten lukewarm and we could only look at the flow from a distance. I bet that made the park rangers really happy though. It was not hard to compensate though, we went riding to Waimea and wave diving to Hapuna beach. Gorana's travel guide has the beach listed as the most beautiful in the US. It's nice, but I wouldn't go that far, Sara and I have seen nicer ones on Hawaii. Now the riding with paniolos was something, the horses were not typical tourist horses but working horses from a ranch, I'll tell you one thing, those horses are smart. I've never had such an easy ride, and so did Sara, the horses responded really well to all the commands without the need to apply any real force, just gentle pulls. We also went to the wet side, we've never been in Hilo before. It's worth a visit, despite the fact that you will for sure hit showers and rain in the afternoon.

12/25/2004 It may sound absurd to those of you living in areas that get significant snowfall in winter months but when in December night temperatures in the Bay Area drop to the 40's (about 5 degrees C) it's cold enough for us to start pondering where to warm up our bones a bit. Helena (and Filip for that matter) were not really in shape to travel this time so Sara and I decided we would go on our own to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It was relatively easy to get mom to sign a duly notarized permit, both of us traveled this place for a month in late '91, mom knows the area and wouldn't let Sara miss the northern lowlands of the Maya. The place to fly into is Cancun, on the Caribbean coast, which is well connected with flights from the US. However, our base of archeological operations wouldn't be the pampering yet somewhat removed Zona Hotelera but the colonial city of Merida - the capital of Yucatan and a good starting point for exploring Chichen Itza and localities along the Pu'uc road (Uxmal, Kabah). We reached Merida by what we now call the big cat road arriving to our artistic little hotel in downtown Merida late in the evening. At the Galleria we made friends with the Flannerys, who currently live in Mexico, and with who's kids Sara had a couple of great afternoons. They also introduced us to Jorge, an astute yet kids friendly guide who gave Sara a leveled exposition on the significance of Uxmal and the legends and rituals of the Maya who lived there. In Kabah we met Jesus Delgado Ku, an excelling wood-carver artist from Muna, with whom we had an evening adventure from Uxmal via Muna to Ticul, in order to acquire his masterful rendering of the intensive Lintel 24 from Yaxchilan (which together with other heritage is now property of the British Museum). Incidentally, till January 4th the lintel was on display in San Francisco on an exhibition that once more gave us, along many of our neighbors of Mexican roots, the opportunity to appreciate the achievements of this intricate Mesoamerican civilization. Before returning home we did more country side driving, visited Coba and Muyil, and joined a small excursion that took us from Tulum to Sian Ka'an, a 1.3 mil. acre rain forest preserve. We landed with boats at Xlapak, floated down a Mayan intranet and snorkeled a cenote. Throughout Yucatan and especially in Merida we enjoyed comida excellente, gente muy amable and a lot of musica y bailes. Or for those of you who do not hablan the language, loving people, great food and lots of music and dancing. I did get to brush up on my Spanish and Sara also picked up some basics. Check out the pics and make sure you also get the unique perspective from Sara's journal.

9/10/2004 Ever since we moved to the US we've been pretty diligent about spending our summers back home in Croatia. Friends often ask 'What do you guys do over there?' Well, nothing much really, hang out with Family and friends, cruise among the islands of the Adriatic, eat good food, drink red wine and kickback for a while. We do notice change as well. Friends are getting older and busier and the place in general is slowly shedding the image of kickback paradise. Corporations are slowly taking over. And the country is for better and worse, becoming a copy of more developed cousins. Despite this, it's a good place to hang around. However, this summer was a bit different, in that both Helena and I decided to visit friends dear to us we haven't seen, literally, for many years. During our cruise Helena took off for Naples to visit Teresa, her colleague from the Antwerp days. Myself, I flew to Paris to visit Angelique and Fabrice. He was, to put it in unequivocal terms for my colleagues over here, the Head Humanitarian Honcho of Western Slavonia. Our small, yet geographically very important, UNHCR office worked for several years for the benefit of over 100,000 refugees during the wars of the early nineties. Now this was my 6th visit to Paris, and it does make a difference, in the photographs you won't see many of the usual landmarks. I took it to stroll around and just enjoy the streets and people in a way much different from one when you have a busy, first time in Paris sort of schedule. Of course, you are bloody never done with the Louvre, because the place is just out of proportion. So this time it was the Islamic collection, quite an appropriate one for current times. Always worth a visit is the Centre Pompidou which hosted a visually engaging exhibit of calligraphic looking hypnotic canvases by Pierre Alechinsky. One last note, on the sailing portion of the collection several photos are by Vidor or Jan (vf or jf in the jpeg name, thanks guys!).

05/15/2004 There are a few important houses in the USA. The White House in Washington D.C., the house of the rising sun in New Orleans, but probably the most important - the house of cool in Pasadena, California - Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This is a place were deep space missions are designed and controlled. In this respect 2004 has two really big ones arriving to their targets, the Mars Rovers and the international Cassini-Huygens which made it's way to Saturn. Granted, there is a lot of information on JPL's web site, but trust us, there is nothing like a stroll through the place of cool. JPL opens it's doors only one weekend every year, therefore we had this planned for sometime already. The 400 mile drive to Pasadena was worth every mile , I mean, how many places on earth have a room labeled 'Deep Space Operations Center'? We were allowed into Mission control where 18 interplanetary missions are currently being monitored (and no we did not mess anything up). Some of the tracked spacecraft, namely Voayger 1, are more than 14,000,000,000 kilometers away from earth, coasting through surrounding space at temperatures of -270 C. Information from it needs more than 12 hours to reach the consoles in Deep Space Ops. We saw some of the great results this missions return, many of them displayed in the corridors of fame in the Space Flight Operations Facility. It was interesting to learn about the many problems designers face and have to deal during the design phase of a mission. Finnally exhausted we topped the visit to JPL with a dinner at JLO's Madres a restaurant in downtown Pasadena. And of course what sort of a visit to LA would end without Disneyland.

04/27/2004 Lava Beds National Monument is located in the northern, igneous, geological province of California. A landscape formed by volcanic activity; cinder cones, lava and tuff, basalt and obsidian. It is famous for the abundance of lava tubes; the largest concentration of them in the US, strange reminders that molten rock was making it's way through this area not so long ago. There is more tnan 500 of these subterranean passages totaling almost 50 km in length. Being tubes in the ground gives them a nice property in the semi arid California climate. Once the sun warms up the environment to sweating temperatures it's a real cooler to take the battery lights and walk into these natural A/C units, only to emerge in the late afternoon once the sun is more moderate again. This is not the first time we are at this place so we noticed the new and spruced up visitors center. Quite a change from the old small building by the mushpot cave, officially it wasn't even open yet, this will happen in July. It's really nice and the staff is eager and friendly. This excursion marks another milestone, I won't be the only photographer on trips anymore, Sara is starting to ask for the camera and also I am asking her to take a picture of me from time to time. I will end this introduction with a text by Gus Frederick a friend from the Oregon Mars Society chapter; in it he describes an interesting prospect for lava tubes.

03/06/2004 This field trip actually started in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian's institution exhibition on the Burgess shales. A Canadian formation rich in fossilized Cambrian flora and fauna. We bought books, they came in very handy. Now, Cambrian formations are not that common, there are not many places around the world with exposed strata dating back more than 500 million years. Well, lucky for us, one of those Cambrian beaches is actually only about a couple hours of drive from the current Pacific beaches. From the Bay area it takes about 6-7 hours of easy driving and pit stops to get to the Mojave desert. Now, we decided this time to go while it was still winter over there, we wouldn't like to do major digging in the heat of the desert. As it turned out the timing was ok, although the temperatures were climbing into the 95's around noon, in the shade it was nice and cool 75's. We based ourselves in Barstow, which is about an hour drive from the Latham shales, the formation that was once a bottom of a Cambrian coastal sea, unlike the more famous Burgess shale which preserves really well even softbodied species the same is not true for the Latham shales. However, if you look and have luck you may stumble into major finds. We ended with an intriguinlgy interesting specimen which I found in the first day's 2 hour scouting hike. It will be scrutinized with laboratory methods in the near future. Good part of the drive from Barstow takes place on historic Route 66, now mostly empty since there is a modern interstate highway about 20 miles north. We took Route 66 from Ludlow through Amboy and finally Chambless. From route 66 it's a very rough couple of miles to get to the base of the mountain. We missed the right dirt trail the first day, but I was able to spot it once got to the shale formation, so next day we had a much easier hike to the site. All in all, a very good desert experience that gave us a glimpse 560 milion years into the past, into a time when land was still barren of life. Much, much more, than Mojave desert today.

01/03/2004 Sara starts school and folks, it's time to switch the Sierra for the Capitol, the beaches for galleries and the small libraries for the big Library of Congress. Citizen Sara meets Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Jurassic, Picasso and Matisse, Apollo 11 and Arlington in no particular order. She hikes to the Cathedral and jumps off the White House fence. We are not switching nature for the capital just yet, but tons o' fun did we get. Now, starting with Tahiti below I have switched from using a commercial application to a program that I wrote myself which puts together the pages into a sparkling new look. Let me know if the navigation is confusing or not what you would expect. While you can flip through index pages with the [next page] and [previous page] links you can also flip through individual pics with the <<<< >>>> links at the bottom of each image.

8/25/2003 Helena and I have been sailing for over ten years now. It started out of nowhere in the middle of a war in Croatia, in between humanitarian assignements, when the roads were empty and tourist crowds were far and away from the coast. Fast forward ten years, we live in the Bay area now. The Pacific is across the hills from the Bay. We've been invited and called to sail either with acquaintances or as activities. But we never sailed the Bay, it just doesn't compute. Now when Greg said that he could use some help navigating open ocean, not fooling around a frigid Bay but doing serious nautical miles across the Pacific, well, that is something quite different. I am not going to spill words over here because I have an extensive video diary which works better for this kind of voyaging. Think about it, at one point we were 1600 km from the closest patch of land way beyond the distance LEO orbiting astronauts in the Space Shuttle are from earth. You may say, well but astronauts went to the Moon, sure, 3 days away - peanuts ;) - We are talking Hawaii to Tahiti, 14 days away, a crew of three just like Apollo with plenty of watches to keep not dozing while Houston processes the telemetry. While crossing the equator we were almost hit by the incoming first stage of a satellite launch rocket, no ships or vessels of any kind in 10 days but almost hit by space debris... yes that is the Pacific my friends.

10/12/2003 Have you ever seen a computer the size of a building, running on 50,000 vacuum tubes powered by 1.5 MW of electricity and a 288 kW air conditioning system. Neither have I, but I do own a logic module from it and the computer museum in Mountain View has large portions of it. Nonetheless, they won't try to power up the system. Without a DOD sized budget it seems very impractical. It was the SAGE, Semi Automatic Ground Environment, a predecessor to many things in computer technology. Well after a couple of years of collecting I got my invitation to display some of my finds (saves) at the Vintage Computer Festival version six point 0. I have one word for it, Nerdistan. This is the largest physical assembly of ultra-nerds I have ever witnessed in a confined space. Look, we live in the valley and computer professionals are all over the place, the place lives on the challenges, dreams, hacking and research that it's inhabitants do. I've been at conferences, lectured at some, but this is beyond, this is stardate 98567 point 7. This is as close as you can get to people who breathe TTL logic, eat obscure tapes, drink symbolic algebras, practice APL and exercise their health moving thousands of pounds of obsolete iron. And trust me, these computers were big and slow and do little in today's measures. But they flicker, whirr, talk and punch tape with astounding noise, respect them, they were the stepping stones that by trial and error brought us to the place where all of us are now. Three of the exhibits in my display were older than anything around at the exhibition, the museum has some that measure but this display did not include any of the museum artefacts. All of the stuff in this photoalbum is technology collected and owned by the vintage people. I've taped 2 hours of interviews and arranged a followup with half a dozen people who were attracted to the things that I brought. They include an early Intel engineer, a gentleman who worked on the design of the Pioneer 10 computer system, the proud owner of the PDP-5, a programmer for the SDC. Last but not least one of my pieces changed the origin date of modular technology for early vacuum tube computers, this landed me an invitation to spend time researching the CHM archives which are still in their infancy. All in all, a pretty solid weekend. For those of you that are curious and have the bandwidth, here's that SAGE computer, featured in an early IBM video SAGE.

01/31/2003 Alenka and Jan, finally, made it to the US! After a couple of days of time zone adjustment in Foster City and SF, we are airborne again and flying to Oahu. As opposed to last time, when we only passed through Oahu on the way to the Big Island and Maui, this time we decided to spend a couple of days in Honolulu. Sara - aka The Dolphin Kisser - had a big day with dolphins. The next day We went to Pearl Harbor to check out the Arizona memorial and the battleship Missouri. The last day on Oahu we toured the large Polynesian collection at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. After Oahu, to the Big Island, Hawaii. I went again to the volcano, this time we decided to take Sara and do the grueling hike to the lava flows. The last time we were here, in 2000, the flows were about 5 mi from the end of the chain of craters road. However, to my astonishment, the lava flows moved and are now about half a mile from the end of the road (talk about luck with Sara). So instead of a 3 hour tough hike across rugged terrain, it was really a moderate stroll which she did all by herself. There is a drawback to the easy access though, in 2000 we were practically alone at the flow site, there were 4 other people besides Helena and me. This time it was crowded, even after sunset. I miss the old, more remote, flow. To compensate, this time we did some volcano cooking, our "Volcano Chili" draw a lot of attention from the visiting crowds "... oh, my, why didn't I think of it!" was a comment we heard more then once from hungry tourists. Next day it was, from sea level up to 14,000 ft. to the summit of Mauna Kea and the observatories. Although the pictures look nice and calm, the summit is brutal. Temperatures are low and intensified by 80 km/h wind. And although we did some acclimatization at 6000 and 9000 ft. it's easy to perceive the lack of oxygen. Next day we took it easy on the black sand beach. After the big Island we flew to our last destination - Kauai, it's a totally different world unlike Hawaii or Oahu, all green, small. Full of stray roosters. Jan and I did some flying. It's a great perspective to see the Island from an open cockpit and 6000 ft. altitude. Birds in Paradise does a great job at letting you experience Kauai from a different perspective. We had a great afternoon with Gerry Charlebois who aside from running the company does a lot of video work and has published several DVD's - the latest is Extreme Kauai. He also did a demonstration of the Mosquito, a flying contraption built around a wing, one's own legs as takeoff and landing gear and a Husqvarna chainsaw engine.

10/30/2002 We love Neuroscience! Turns out that mom really really, needed to expand on her research, exchange ideas, look for inspiration at the annual Neuroscience fiesta in Orlando. Sara and I well we couldnt miss the opportunity to tag along and travel and attend conferences of our own at Disney World and unlike almost 30 years ago - the Kennedy Space Center as well. This time Sara and I went for a full 2 days of space stuff. As if that was not enough, we added Animal Kingdom, Sea World and swimming in a warm (for a change) ocean at Cocoa beach. Now we almost had it all - including a Delta IV rocket launch, but drat, engine trouble moved the launch out of our window of opportunity. We are not mad, makes a perfect excuse for the next time we decide to visit. Since we missed the real thing, we took the next best, KSCs IMAX feature in full 3D Space Station. If it ever comes to a theater near you, dont miss it - its seriously spectacular in both the audio and visual spaces. In any case, it feels better to see part of the royalties shift from the Beverly Hills real estate market into the space program, right?

10/04/2002 First weekend in October, skies in California, even in the Bay Area look perfect. It's a good time to pack the telescope and hit the road again. If you want to hear firsthand about the real heroes behind quasar discovery, learn how to use a bicycle wheel to mount your secondary mirror, listen to arguments that call to stop attaching dogmatic labels to Ptolomaeus' system for prediction of planetary motions (he never heard about Copernicus, he was late 1400 years for a discussion) nor had access to his much finer observation data. Or maybe you just want to compare how NGC 273 fares in a 5 inch SCT vs. a 32 inch Dobs, or look at some star spectra or check out some cool new CCD imaging setups that let you observe mag. 13 galaxies with fine detail on a red attenuated laptop screen. Then the place to be is: San Antonio Lake, some 200 miles from San Mateo. And the time to get there: SJAA's CalStar 2002. Astronomy takes place only after 8 PM, gets vibrant with Saturn around 11, continues with Orion and M42 and goes all the way to 3 AM and Jupiter getting on stage. The rule for the reserved area of the Lake: ABSOLUTELY NO LIGHTS, except those that are dim and deep red. Daytime is for sleeping (note the soring absence of people in some of the pictures) and then swimming, barbecue or a hop to Paso Robles and some of the fine wineries there.

08/07/2002 Traditionally our camping season starts as soon as we get back from holidays, which we usually spend in Croatia. This year's icebreaker was Silver Lake. It's located southwest from Lake Tahoe at about 8500 ft. or 2800 m. We started out by picking up Sara on Friday afternoon and then drove to the sierra with a stop over at a camp in Pine Grove. The water was warm and we did swim there, the only headache was a wind that made getting out of the water a bit of a challenge. The high altitude of the place makes it a good observation spot, but it also makes it very cold during the night and since the sky is absolutely crystal clear you loose heat very quickly. We did have some quite nice views with the recently acquired telescope. I was looking at the Nexstar 8 but at 9 kg vs. 20 kg and a huge box the 5 is the preferred field choice. On our way back home we stopped at the 'Black Chasm Cavern' it is very unusual for it's huge number of helictites, strange crystalline forms that grow from the walls in an almost purely random fashion. Because of these crystals it's listed as a US National Landmark.

05/25/2002 This year's pre holiday excursion (memorial weekend again) was a visit to Death Valley National Park. It is a literally hot place, and if you are into geology or desert species it adds even more to the fun stay. Despite all modern amenities Death Valley in summer is a place where you quickly start to respect the physiology of the human body and the value of pure water. Any hike in the lower parts of the valley during searing periods of the day requires gallons of water at hand. Death valley is the lowest terrain anywhere in the US and the western hemisphere. Yet when we drove hwy 390 back to the Bay Area we passed the foothills of Mt. Whitney the highest point in the contiguous US, less than a 100 mi. from Death Valley. Throughout our visit we were reminded of things to be aware off, heat, dehydration, snakes, scorpions, even water poses a danger if one gets caught on it's way during a storm. The best witness for it's action are the polished walls of the Mosaic Canyon, definitely not a place to hang around if there's a chance of major precipitation. Devil's Cornfield, Devil's Golf Course, these are some of the names people gave to features in the area. Yes it makes sense. In any case, we had a good time and now we are well prepared for the upcoming summer highs on the Adriatic.

01/20/2002 It is always fun to take a drive from the Bay Area to the Grand Canyon, especially if it's your first time. A stop over in Las Vegas is almost mandatory,; after 10 hours of more or less desert drive;being able to;lunch in Venice, gamble in Paris and have dinner in New York before taking on the next leg of the trip is unbeatable. Moreover, this year we topped it with a stay at the Luxor, truly, a world of it's own. The Luxor stay included an exclusive view of the Area 51 air terminal, you'll note the airplanes without any markings on them. We were looking hard, changing shifts,;trying to spot alien forms;or other non earthly beings getting out of those planes, but to no avail. The only aliens arround remained Sara's grandparents. Grand Canyon was grand as usual, we sent the aliens for an aerial tour with Grand Canyon airlines, I was hoping to rent a plane there but there were no planes for;rent;at the Grand Canyon airport. The closest place where one can rent them is 30 miles away. We stayed at the El Tovar hotel, you can't get any closer to the canyon, it practically overlooks;it. If you plan a stay there, it's a good idea to call for reservations in advance. Next morning we started our return trip, but this time we took the north rim road. It's a bit longer drive back to Las Vegas but it pays off in scenery, and you get to dine in Utah adding a fourth state to the list already including California, Nevada and Arizona.

5/26/2001 Memorial Day weekend, time to get moving again. This time "La Ciudad de Nuestra Senjora La Virgen de Los Angeles", or shorter Los Angeles, or even shorter LA. Gotta keep the promises and this promise was, we'll go to see Mickey Mouse before we leave for our Croatian vacation. It's a total of 720 miles of Interstate 5 but it's well worth it. Saturday, the whole day, we spent at Disney Classic, the original one, not the Tokyo, Florida, Paris or what do I know what and where they have them nowdays. Even here in LA just across the first one, Disney opened a new park California Adventure. I guess to give tourists from all over the world a glimpse on California. We'll check it out next time, on Sunday we decided to visit the Getty center. Pictures will be coming up soon, in short it was well worth the day. Ah yes, finally unlike the last time, we were here this time there was no parking fuss whatsoever, we parked the car in the second largest garage building in the world. It has space for 10,500 cars. I took gps readings from oposite corners of the building (U11 & U21) you can figure the rest. It's absolutely huge.

5/12/2001 Bought new toy, Magellan MAP 330, and put immediately to a field-test. We took a trip from San Mateo to Point Reyes via Petaluma. The town of Petaluma among other things known for starring in the movie "American Graffiti". Had lunch at the Mystic and good Check beer on the way at Vladimir's (see waypoint FOOD2 :) Although, the tracking resolution can be set to 0.01 Mi I left it on the standard auto setting where it adaptively maximizes track length. Despite the lowered resolution, it could be .01 Mi, it still tracks the street accurately on a 120+ Mi trip (see high resolution SF image).

3/31/2001 The Sweeney Ridge is a protected area some 15 minutes drive from San Mateo. In less than an hour you can reach the top of the ridge from where you can look at the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay at the same time. There's plenty of indigenous flora in the whole area but also some of it introduced by eager military personnel (check the history note on the above link). After the hike we drove to Half Moon Bay, a small fishing harbour on the Pacific side, and bought fresh Yellow Fin Tuna filets and smoked Salmon. Later that evening some of us were ready to begin the feast.

Castle Air Museum is the newest addition to the site. It documents the flight from Palo Alto (PAO) to Castle (MER) and back, Lick Observatory near way point Bushy and the Castle Air Museum adjacent to the now decommissioned Castle Air Force Base. Flying to MER takes about 50 minutes from the Bay Area. The base, before decommission, was a former B-52 strategic bomber base. The runway is huge, over 2 miles long, you can literally land a C-172, stop, throttle up and fly out, and you would still have more than half of the runway left unused. Don't miss the panoramic images of some exhibits at the museum.