Right before commencement, I went south with my mother for a few days, staying in Warner Springs, and checking out Palomar, Julian, and the general surrounding area. It’s a nice place, sort of away from the city, and pretty hot, but not yet really the desert. The hot springs were pretty nice, too, and just driving around and seeing the area was a great couple of relaxing days.
I guess they’re saying “come on in”
They have, as the name suggests, hot springs here, and they take care to warn you that they are, well…hot.
You all take care now, you hear?
But then they basically put it in big swimming pools. That smell slightly sulfurous. It’s kind of an interesting experience, one that I hadn’t really had before.
Laughing and playing
We also took the opportunity to drive up to Palomar while we were there. It’s a pretty stark change to go from the scrublands into the pine forest; something I definitely associate with driving up into the mountains in California.
Posed in front of the dome. We caught a random worker on the way in and asked him to take the shot for us.
And closer up…for scale, you see
It was pretty cool inside, too. Very old-fashioned looking control rooms (well, I guess with the rate technology moves, it’s not all that old…but it feels old. But seeing the telescope in there was just pretty awesome.
Here you can see some of the controls, and also, the schematic of the telescope layout, cause it was just too big to get into a single shot.
On the drive back down, we stopped at a beautiful view over the valley where the springs were, and with this view of Lake Henshaw.
The ability to see the changing landscape as you go down the hill is kind of cool.
And then we came back and…I formally graduated. It feels almost unreal. They really gave me a degree!
And then I graduated! (and so did Jenny..yay to all of us 😉
Thanks, Caltech committee. That’s the way I want to think about it 🙂
