[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

I'm going to do a full and detailed write-up of this on my blog soon, but in the meantime I wanted to share some pics with all of you first.

To cut a very long - and boring to everyone else, I'm sure! - story short, I was emailed by Charles Elaachi (JPL) last year who told me that he enjoys my various Mars- and space-related scribblings, and he invited me to JPL for a tour, if I was ever in California that is. Well, as I have friends in northern CA, I decided to combine a holiday visit to them with a JPL visit, and so last week Stella and I flew over there and had a fantastic time. Everyone we met was just incredibly generous to us, and hugely welcoming, and we saw some truly wonderful sights and met some truly wonderful people, many of them personal heroes and heroines of mine, mega space geek that I am!

Ok, some pics... hope no-one minds me putting them up here, I figured a few people would be interested. I'll post a lot more on my blog but these are the main highlights, I guess...



That's me with MSL in the background - and no, I'm not feeling miserable, I just hate having my pic taken!



Oh come on, we had to pose beside that, didn't we!



That's Veronica McGregor (thanks Veronica, for everything!), Sharon (thanks Sharon!), Stella, me, Scott Maxwell (thanks Scott!) and Andy Mishkin (thanks for the book, Andy, and the lovely inscription!)



Amazing to see some of my poems on display in the hallowed halls of JPL...




Don't know who that guy is, sorry, just bumped into him in a corridor... (Seriously tho, it was an incredible honour meeting Steve Squyres... a real Wayne "I'm not worthy!" moment...!)



Coming soon to a frame on my wall...!

... and a few well-known UMSF members at a get-together the previous night...



Paolo...



Emily and Veronica...




(ElkGrove)Dan...



... and last but not least, Nick (nprev)

Great fun and an honour meeting all of you guys!