3...2...1...

3...2...1... has a new home!

2013-07-07T11:35:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! For a while, I've been contemplating moving over to wordpress, and I finally have made the move. You can check us out at: stardustandsteel.wordpress.com.

All of our old posts are over there, but all of our new posts will be added there, like today's new post: "Slime and Tarantulas".

I really hope to see you over at wordpress!

STEM links of the week

2013-07-01T12:59:00.001-04:00

Quantum engines must break down
Current understanding of thermodynamics completely breaks down with small quantum systems, prompting the need for new research in quantum thermodynamics.

Engineering's Jukebox Heroes
A fun and quirky article of the history and engineering behind the beloved classic jukebox.

NASA Shuts Down Galaxy-Hunting Space Telescope
The GALEX telescope, a telescope that has helped find the biggest spiral galaxy, confirmed dark energy theories, and more has been officially decommissioned by NASA.

Atlantis attraction at KSC Visitor Complex
Take a virtual tour of the Atlantis Exhibit at Kennedy Space Center (or check out my post on it here!)

Special sneak peek tour of Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit!

2013-06-25T14:04:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday, June 22, my sister got the chance of a lifetime to tour the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center one week before it opened, thanks to the Missile, Space, and Range Pioneers.

It was a truly amazing exhibit. Outside, the twin solid rocket boosters and external tank, which launch the shuttle our of orbit, stand. They are HUUUUGE and are quite the site to see.

Going inside, there are quotes and incredible images dedicated to the space shuttle program. It leads up to an auditorium where an awesome (but short) movie plays, outlining the origins of the space shuttle.

Following the movie, you get to witness incredible launches, before the gorgeous ship that is Atlantis is unveiled.

I was amazed by the exhibit; you can get surprisingly close to the orbiter. There is a Hubble Space Telescope mockup, a space shuttle engine, and more.

My sister and I also got to meet to Atlantis astronauts, Bob Springer and Tom Jones. They signed autographs for us (my sister was so excited, as it was the day before her birthday), and I also got a picture of Jim Springer with Gus Grissbear (named for Gus Grissom, his adventures will be chronicled on this blog!).

After meeting the astronauts, we saw the rest of the exhibit. Several modules of the International Space Station were re-created, including the Tranquility module and C.O.L.B.E.R.T treadmill, as well as the beloved space toilet. (There's no gravity to assist up there).

The tires from Atlantis from the last shuttle launch, STS-135, were also on display for people to touch and move! Being that these are still technically space artifacts made it a special treat.

Seeing Atlantis before its opening date was a true treat, and was quite the experience for both my sister and I. We are both so grateful for this opportunity, and send a million thanks to the Missile, Space, and Range Pioneers for the opportunity.

Reaching for the stars: Astronaut class of 2013

2013-06-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

This week, four women and four men were announced as the new 2013 class of astronaut candidates!

From left to right: Josh Cassada, Lt. Cmdr. Victor Glover, Lt. Col. Tyler Hague, Christina Hammock, Major Nicole Mann, Major Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, and Dr. Andrew Morgan

These highly qualified individuals were picked from an applicant pool of over 6,000- the second largest application response NASA has ever had. Congratulations to each of you selected!

You can hear more about the astronaut selection and other events from this week at NASA from this NASA Television "This Week @NASA" episode!

The Missile, Space and Range Pioneers

2013-06-19T11:08:00.000-04:00

So I have been pretty excited to announce this, but I am officially a part of the Missile, Space and Range Pioneers, located in Florida's very own Space Coast! Funnily enough, the Pioneers found me through this very blog. I had attended a banquet of theirs last year and blogged about it (post can be found here), and a couple months ago, they found the post. They liked my writing and asked for me to write for them, as well as work to advance their social media presence. I absolutely love working with the Pioneers.

I will be sharing a lot of what I write for them on my blog, but check out their website, like their facebook page and follow them on twitter as well for more stories and exclusives!

Website: http://www.missileers.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpacePioneers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/missileers

Seeing beyond the visible light spectrum

2013-06-18T21:44:00.001-04:00

Recently, I discovered that NASA has a ton of multimedia available to bloggers about the James Webb Space Telescope, and as a space enthusiast, I knew I had to utilize these resources in a post.

Full scale JWST mockup

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a HUGE telescope slated to launch in 2018. It is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and has a different range of capabilities.

Did I mention it was HUGE?! And those are just the mirrors!

Unlike Hubble, it can see "past" the visible light spectrum and into the infrared range of the light spectrum. This is really important because plenty of things in the universe are covered with dust that isn't penetrable by visible light, such as newly forming stars and planets, the center of the universe, and more. Infrared telescopes can penetrate the dust, however, and allow us to study things that we previously could not. Webb's giant mirror, pictured above, also give us capabilities to see further back in time to the earliest formations in our universe! It's pretty exciting stuff. (In fact, I was part of a group project a few years back and we made a rap and music video for JWST...If I can locate the video I'll be sure to share it!)

Here more about the James Webb Space Telescope in the below video, courtesy of NASA.

STEM links of the week

2013-06-16T10:16:00.001-04:00

GE Opens Two Jet Engine Plants as Next-Gen Aircraft Get Ready for Take-Off
Submitted by Billy, this article details the new plant openings and talks about the LEAF and GEnx advanced engines.

Metals Become Molecular-Like at the Atomic Scale, Reveal Materials Scientists
An experiment by Harsh Deep Chopra and The State University of New York at Buffalo has shown that on the atomic scale, metallic bonds act very differently between a dew number of atoms than from when they are in a bulk material.

3D printing takes to the stars
The first 3D printing experiment is launched on a zero-g flight!

Meet the heir apparent to the U.S. Army's Blackhawk helicopter
AVX is designing the military's new attack chopper- and it's pretty rad.

Canada Seeks to Rove Beyond the Space Station

The Canadian Space Agency is looking beyond the ISS and is looking to send rovers to Mars.

Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference 2013

2013-06-11T10:06:00.000-04:00

Last week, I wrote how I flew to Colorado for NSRC 2013, the conference for all people in the suborbital industry. It was an incredible conference, and arguably the most valuable conference I have been to thus far in my career.

I flew into Colorado Sunday morning, and was blown away by the beauty of the state. Visiting states like Colorado make me realize how geographically "un-dynamic" Florida is.

The poster sessions and reception were held Sunday night. Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado opened with welcoming words, then the reception started. This proved to be a key networking night for me. I met many professionals from all sorts of places, such as NASA, Southwest Research Institute, "twitter" (I met one of my favorite space reporters). I met many students as well, from undergrad through post-doc, whom I spent much of my time with over the next few days of the conference. Sunday night I also had the chance to sit inside XCOR's Lynx mockup! It was pretty cool.

Monday was the first "real" day of the conference. Dr. Alan Stern started the day off, then Dr. Scott Parazynski spoke. He was very inspirational and cool; not only is he a medical doctor, but he was also an astronaut, and climbed Mt. Everest twice, amongst other things. We also heard a great deal from XCOR Aerospace that day; I learned a lot about what they are doing with the Lynx for researchers like myself.

Monday night there was a public event held by Dr. Alan Stern, as well, talking about the importance of commercial space flight, and it was really great, especially with so many people of the public there and asking questions. One young boy was sitting in front of me and he was so excited by the presentation; it was really heart-warming.

Tuesday was presentation day for me! I was the last presentation in the microgravity session. Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's space company, had a good deal of time to speak about what they were doing and how SpaceShipTwo will have plenty of space and opportunities for researchers to fly their experiments. I also heard from Masten Space Systems on their company and their vertical launch systems. Finally was my presentation. After some technical difficulties (and then more technical difficulties), I presented my research. I did well enough to get an offer from Zero G Corporation to help fly my prototype, which was more than I was expecting, so I will say that presentation was successful!

I also met a wolf on Tuesday. No lie.

Wednesday was the last day of the conference. Before hearing from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's (the Amazon guy) "ultra secret" space company, I listened to a panel on the research infrastructure at spaceports. This was very interesting to me, as Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fl is trying to gain spaceport status (and is only a couple miles from where I grew up). Then I heard Blue Origin, and for a tight-lipped company, I was quite impressed by some of the stuff they shared. They showed some really awesome test flights of their New Shepherd vehicle, which are available online here. NASA's Flight Opportunities Program and the Commercial Space Federation also spoke, before the closing remarks and closing "reception". This gave me a chance to say farewell to many of the amazing people I met over the duration of NSRC 2013, but my trip was far from over!

That night, I got to go on a late night tour of Colorado School of Mines, one of the schools I am considering for my graduate studies. Two of the school's most awesome students gave me a really good tour, and I learned all about their metallurgical and material science programs. I was very impressed by both the students and the school, and will definitely be applying when the time comes.

Overall, my trip to Colorado was extremely successful with the contacts I've made, as well as offers and opportunities presented to me. It was the most beneficial conference I've been to thus far in my academic and research career, and am definitely looking forward to NSRC 2014.

Calling all builders, designers, inventors, and creative folk!!

2013-06-10T16:09:00.002-04:00

As an engineering student, I love to build. As a person with a passion for space, I love NASA. As a person who is still a child at heart, I love Legos. What happens when these three glorious things come together?

~~Magic~~ Science happens.

NASA and Lego have teamed up in a contest for teens and adults everywhere (must be at least 13) called "NASA's Missions: Imagine and Build". This contest's goal is to design and build a vehicle based on an existing NASA Mission. Each design needs to be accompanied by a technical paper that describes how the existing NASA technology has been incorporated and changed in the design.

There are multiple ways to win, but the contest ends July 31!
You can read more about the contest here:
NASA and Lego want you to design the future of flight for them

Or read the NASA release, rules, etc, from the NASA site here:
NASA Partners With the LEGO Group for Design and Build Contest

Happy building!

A mile closer to space (NSRC 2013 pt.1)

2013-06-03T21:25:00.001-04:00

Greetings from Broomfield, Colorado!! I am currently at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC).

I'm presenting at the conference on my research at UNF, "Experiment for peristaltic flow in microgravity". It's pretty much a small-scale bioreactor to study bone cells in space. (I can talk more about this in another post if people are interested.)

I am so excited about this trip. I've always wanted to go to Colorado, and I finally have the chance. Colorado is such a beautiful state; the weather is wonderful and the mountains are breathtaking.

Not only do I get to attend and present at the conference, but my research advisor for my materials research has gotten me in touch with former students of our school who are now at Colorado School of Mines, and I'll get to tour there. School of Mines is on my list of potential grad schools, so this will be a very awesome trip.

The conference has been crazy awesome so far. I've met a lot of cool people in both academia and industry, and have heard a lot of inspiring and informative talks. I'll post more about the specifics of the conference proceedings (as well as my presentation!) in a later post.

STEM links of the week

2013-05-28T12:48:00.001-04:00

Old Mars rover finds more proof of possible life
The "old" Mars rover Opportunity has found a rock that could have favorably hosted life in the Cape York are in a time when Mars hosted water.

Astronaut Packs Crafts for Creative Space Station Trip
One of my favorite astronauts and idol Karen Nyberg is launching to the International Space Station for a six month stay, and is bringing her love of sewing with her.

Scientists identify the mystery killer behind Ireland's potato famine
The strain of potato blight that caused the notorious Irish potato famine has finally been identified by scientists, and it isn't the "usual suspects".

This Incredible Full Scale Lego X-Wing Is the Largest Model In History
An absolutely mind-blowing full scale replica of the Star Wars X-Wing spacecraft was constructed from over five million lego bricks. Reinforced with metal components, this beauty took about 4 months to construct.

Hubble Telescope Reveals True 3D Shape of Ring Nebula
New Hubble images show that the Ring Nebula is not quite ring shaped, but more "jelly doughnut" shaped.

STEM links of the week

2013-05-20T17:05:00.000-04:00

My regular readers may have noticed that I have not made a "STEM links of the week" post in quite a while, and I am really sorry for that. My semester had gotten so busy that I decided to cut back on my blogging, and I figured that if it came down to posting only one post a week (which oftentimes, it came down to that or less), that I didn't want this to be the only thing I posted. But now I am in the summer semester, and even though I am taking a couple of classes, I have much more free time to blog! Therefore, I feel that now is an appropriate time to bring back the "STEM links of the week feature"!

In addition, I would like to open my blog for my readers to submit articles they would like for me to feature as well. You can comment on any post with the link, and if you have a URL, I'll share that and credit you to have submitted the link. (This will also help keep these posts going if things get crazy bust again.)

Without further adieu, here are this week's STEM links!

Property of Rarest Element on Earth Measured for 1st Time
The ionization potential of astatine (atomic number 85 for those who are curious), was discovered by CERN physicists using artificial isotopes of the element.

Moon Explosion Sparked By Meteorite Crash On Lunar Surface, NASA Says
This article & video describes the March 17 meteorite crash discovered by an analyst at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Warp Speed, Scotty? Star Trek's FTL Drive May Actually Work
This article & accompanying video describe the theory behind "warp drive" and current efforts by NASA to achieve fast-than-light craft.

Scientists create world's tiniest drops of liquid in biggest atom smasher
Not only has CERN measured the ionization potential of the rarest element of Earth, but they have also created the smallest ever droplets of "liquid", quark-gluon plasma, in the Compact Muon Solenoid.

Let me know what you think of this week's articles! And remember, feel free to share any science, tech, engineering, & math articles with me, and I'll include them in next week's links!

Currently

2013-05-18T10:59:00.001-04:00

Good morning everyone! Hope everyone is having a fantastic start to the weekend. I hope you enjoy this month's "Currently" post! If you have any thoughts or comments, stop by the comment section!

Listening to: "Save Rock and Roll" by Fall Out Boy
Source

Loving: That it is summertime! Even though I am taking a couple of classes this summer, it is still a break, relative to the much heavier course load in the fall. The weather is also fantastic!

Reading: My circuits textbook. I know that may not seem like the most exciting thing, but I am still waiting for the library to get my copy of A Dance With Dragons.

Listening to: FALL OUT BOY! Their new album is amazing and perfect for summertime!

Anticipating: The NSRC conference! Not only am I presenting, but there will be plenty of other space-minded people like myself, as well as many cool sponsor companies. It will be an invaluable opportunity for me to network with others in the suborbital community.

Watching "The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius"
Source

Thinking about: My circuits homework.... Kirchoff's Laws, anyone?

Watching: I've been watching all of my usuals lately, but the greatest new show I've found is Kal Penn's Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius. It is a competition show of engineers competing for a cash prize and a one year contract at WET. As an engineering major, I think an engineering show like that is fantastic!
Working on: Finishing the design I'm presenting at conference, my presentation, and my circuits homework.

Wishing: For certain things to work out. If they do, I shall write about them later, (I don't want to jinx myself!)

UNF in pictures

2013-05-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

Today I thought I would share a photo post, with my school UNF, (University of North Florida), being the focus. These are all pictures I've taken over time since being at UNF for the past two years.

Enjoy!

Happy birthday Richard Feynman!

2013-05-11T20:25:00.000-04:00

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough."

-Richard P. Feynman

Happy birthday to the late Richard Feynman!

Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and an overall awesome man. He was very much an eccentric and cool character. He worked on the atomic bomb and made groundbreaking discoveries in quantum physics, but was also an artist, safecracker, bongo-player... he was very much a well-rounded and interesting character. Stories chronicling his crazy adventures can be found in his semi-autobiographical books "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" and "Classical Feynman". Feynman is one of my idols; not only was he absolutely brilliant, but he also knew there was more to life than just physics and math; he in fact said "Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is."

Again happy birthday to Richard Feynman, one of the most individuals to ever live.

Book Review: A Feast for Crows

2013-05-08T11:13:00.000-04:00

WARNING. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A FEAST FOR CROWS. PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

This is only the second time I have done a book review on this blog (I barely have time to read entire books nowadays for pleasure), but I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED A FEAST FOR CROWS. For my regular readers, or anyone who has read my "Currently" posts in recent months, know I have been reading this book for a long time, and I am very happy to finally have gotten through it all.

The other books in the ASOIAF series did not take me nearly as long, but for the longest time, I had trouble getting into this book. This book is actually the first half of two "sister books". A Feast for Crows had gotten so long, that GRRM split it in half, with the following book, A Dance with Dragons, running in parallel. Half of the characters, (and coincidently, all of my favorite characters), are not in Crows. But once I got through the first few chapters of each character, the book started getting much better, in my opinion. You get great details of new adventures, and a deeper look into many characters.

My favorite character to read about surprisingly became Cercei. Although I loathe her, Cercei is downright fascinating. She is very twisted and evil, but all with the interests of her children at heart, which lead her to do many crazy things. She is still plagued by her fears of Tyrion, thinking that she is the younger brother that she will die from (referring to the old witch's prophecy of Cercei's life), but the ending of the book makes me think otherwise. She is still very much alive at the end of Crows, but she is not exactly in power anymore at that point.

I also loved the greater look we see into characters in Dorne. Several new characters are introduced, and it is really, really cool in my opinion to see how the events in King's Landing are affecting the people so faraway in Dorne. Arianne Martell is also a new favorite of mine and I hope her role continues to grow throughout the series. She is a very awesome character and I would love for her to rule Dorne, or even be one of the heads of the dragon. (I know this is INSANELY unlikely, but she was technicallysupposed to marry Viserys, and the head of the dragon could be a spouse, as Jorah mentioned in the first novel. She would be prefect alongside Dany. They are like my OTP, in a non-romantic sense.)

Arya gets even more badass in this novel, but her storyline doesn't develop too much until the very end of the novel. The one storyline that absolutely BORED me, despite my love for the character, was Brienne's. Much like Arya's storyline, it didn't develop much until the end. Now, the ending was CRAZY and so fast, it was quite the head-turner and jaw-dropper, but I thought it was extremely slow and repetitive up to that point. I also hated every storyline related to the Iron Islands. They really don't interest me that much. Sure, the entire Euron-Victarion-Dany tie together was kinda interesting, but that won't be developed until later novels. I pretty much dislike all of the Iron Islanders though, so I am very wary of what will happen when my favorite character gets tied in with them. (Especially if one of them becomes one of the heads of the dragon. I'm thinking Jon, Tyrion, and/or Arianne are the best potential characters, but GRRM loves throwing in twists you never see coming.)

Overall, A Feast for Crows was another excellent piece of literary mastery by George R.R. Martin, although I would not call it my favorite out of the four I have read so far.

What do you think of A Feast for Crows? Do you agree/disagree on any of the points I made? I would love to hear feedback in the comments!

May The Fourth Be With You!

2013-05-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

Happy May Fourth and Happy Free Comic Book Day everyone!

Today, my sister and I went to Black Hive Comics for Free Comic Book Day! It was pretty awesome, despite the dreadful rain. Black Hive Comics is a pretty rad place over in the riverside area.

We waited in line for a while, but got a few comics each. I got these:

Planet Fall is a new comic made by a local writer. Part takes place here in Jax! It's about life on Earth after aliens have taken control.

My sister got these:

There was even free BBQ for everyone that got free comics! Later in the day, I got on a fancy hat and watched the Kentucky Derby with my family.

Overall, today was a really good day.

JEA Brandy Branch Trip

2013-05-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, the club I am now president of, ASME, went on a trip to JEA's Brandy Branch. It was really cool; we got to see turbines and really cool things that we learn about in school but don't necessarily get to see. Here are some pictures taken from the trip.

Help send me to the NSRC Conference by shopping with Thirty-One!

2013-05-02T13:23:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! I am raising money to attend the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) this June in Broomfield, Colorado. I will be presenting on the research I do at this conference. Right now, if you shop Thiry-One until May 15 at the link below, 25% of your purchase will go to me to help me make this trip a possibility.

TO SHOP:

Click this link and click "My Parties" then "Shop Now" at Chelsea's NSRC Fundraiser! Thirty-One

If you would prefer, you can also donate directly at this link: Send Chelsea to the NSRC Conference

Thank you for the consideration and support!

Geek Photo a Day: Weeks 3!

2013-04-27T18:09:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! Finals are over for the spring semester, and I have time to blog (and breathe) again! I'll talk more about that later, but for now, I present week 3 of the Geek Photo a Day challenge! I know it's a week late, but that's okay.

Day 15: Broken: My car was broken for a good part of the winter. Thankfully she is all fixed now!

Day 16: Favorite LOTR character: Aragorn! It's honestly hard to pick one character as a favorite, but Aragorn is pretty epic.

Day 17: Pilot: All of the kids who attended my science program at the library today were pilots! We had a paper airplane competition. We had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun.

Day 18: Alan Rickman: I love Alan Rickman, especially as my favorite Harry Potter character, Severus Snape.

Day 19: 90s Song: Bye Bye Bye. Nsync. Enough said.

Day 20: What I Wore: A wore that black dress to the UNF International Dance not too long ago.

Day 21: Book Cover: A Feast for Crows is still what I'm currently reading. I love this series.

Day 22: Earth: An awesome view of Earth (the Atlantic coast, to be exact), taken by astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Geek Photo a Day: Week Two!

2013-04-14T18:33:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! I've been so busy preparing for finals that I haven't had much time to blog (this will be fixed as soon as finals are done!), but I am still keeping up with the geek photo a day challenge! Below are the images for this week:

Day 8: What's in my purse/wallet: I have very few things, including my wallet, my cards, lipgloss, a Tide stick, a headband, checkbook, gum, and a mirror.

Day 9: Portal orange: I don't own many orange things, but my favorite sticky notes are portal orange!

Day 10: Your patronus: My patronus would definitely be my favorite animal, a dolphin.

Day 11: Stripes: I LOVE STRIPES! My glasses and blanket are both striped, as well as many other things I own.

Day 12: Favorite Pixar film: UP. I love Up! It makes me cry every time, and it's too cute.

Day 13: Illustration: How is that for geeky? My little sister drew the Weeping Angel picture, as we are both huge Doctor Who fans.

Day 14: Board game: This was tough, but my favorite board game is Super Scrabble! Clue is a very close second, however.

Geek Photo a Day: Week One!

2013-04-07T21:23:00.001-04:00

This month, I am participating in the Geek Photo a Day Challenge! Every week, I will be posting my photos for the week. These are the challenges for this month:

Day One: Prank or Joke

"Bad wolf" written on a pole on campus. Sort of a joke for all of the Whovians out there!

Day Two: TV

Games of Thrones!

Day Three: Button

A cute button-button from my mom.

Day Four: Converse

I NEED THESE!

Day Five: Looking Up

Looking up inside the VAB at Kennedy Space Center

Day 6: Rain

Right before it started to rain during Hurricane Sandy

Day 7: Favorite Sci-Fi Couple

10 and Rose!

The Chris Hadfield Challenge

2013-03-31T16:52:00.000-04:00

Chris Hadfield is an awesome guy. He's a Canadian astronaut currently commanding the International Space Station. He's responsible for a lot of the awesome space photos going around, and during his time on the station before taking command, the Canadian Space Agency hosted the "Chris Hadfield Photo Challenge". Anyone can submit photos of a miniature Chris Hadfield cut out, and the ones with the most votes when various prizes. Here are pictures I have took for the challenge. Unfortunately, none won, but it was fun taking them!

Follow me on Bloglovin' !

2013-03-21T09:24:00.002-04:00

Since Google Reader is going out of the window, many people are switching over to following their blogs on Bloglovin'. So follow me over there! You can always find my Bloglovin' page by clicking on the "+" button in my button sidebar, or you can find me here: 3...2...1...

For those of you new to Bloglovin', it's an awesome site that allows you to follow your blogs. You can download the app and keep up with your blogs anywhere. It even conveniently allows you to import all of the blogs you follow on Google Reader!

Hope to see you all over there! Leave your Bloglovin' URLs in the comment section and I'll be sure to follow you back!

Exploring the nation's oldest city

2013-03-20T14:27:00.003-04:00

I started off this spring break by going to St. Augustine with a friend of mine from Georgia Tech. Our spring breaks lined up, and he flew down to visit. We took his plane over to St. Augustine since he had never been there (the flight was amazing!), and explored the city.

First thing was to walk around St. George street. We visited some of the shops, and made our way to the city gate.

Then a parade came through! It was the "Parade of Chariots", and it was really cool. There was a lot of singing and dancing and so many colors.

After the parade, we walked over to the Castillo de San Marcos and walked around there. The Matanzas was gorgeous that day.

We made our way over to Flagler next and accidentally crashed some sort of tour of the college. It was the last stop, and the guides thought we were with them and ushered everyone into a room. It turned out to be some sort of expensive tour (oops...), but it was a really cool little room. Everything in the room, including the drapes, were original to the room when it was the Ponce de Leon Hotel. There was even a clock made by Thomas Edison!

After that, we went to Scarlett O'Hara's to eat. It's right next door to Rhett's, and I felt at home with my floppy hat.

We flew back to Jax that night, and although I don't have any really good pictures, the view was incredible. I can't describe how amazing seeing all of the lights twinkle as you fly past is; it was like someone blanketed the Earth with stars. Thanks again Richard for the awesome trip!