NASA to Fest to Lesh

This has been a whirlwind of a week. As our time in Los Altos is coming to a conclusion we tried to fit in as much as we could.  We started Friday night off having dinner with a great bunch of people from Cisco, and we had a wonderful evening with new friends.  By the way...to all my friends in the East Coast...do you realize that there are no pesky mosquitoes here?  No need for screened in porches, those smelly candles, or my least favorite, bug spray!  

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and headed to NASA's Ames Research Center. I had read that they had a visitor center and I was so excited to see some rockets and old moon landing stuff! Below is just one of the hangers that are on their property and I could not wait to explore! I was such a NASA groupy when I was a kid so this was going to be a major highlight for me.  

As we drove up to the gate I was overcome with anticipation!  To my dismay....the actually center is not open to just anybody.   I swore they somehow knew who my cousins were and that is why we were turned away.  (Haha...only kidding Paul.)

They do have a visitor center and we were directed to that building. It was ... 

...a bit touristy!  However, we managed to have a little fun.  We did get to watch a live space shuttle launch from Japan that was taking supplies to the International Space Station.  

Our next stop on the day's agenda was San Jose for the Kraft Beer Festival. Always a good time. 

We ended the evening in San Rafael at Terrapin Crossroads. We headed there to see the band the North Mississippi Allstars. They were fabulous!  For those of you that don't know that my husband is a tried and true Dead fan, it was very exciting because the place is owned by Phil Lesh.   Kurt was in his glory...he actually met, shook hands, and had a quick chat with Phil at the show.  

To our surprise, both Phil Lesh and his son joined the band for the evening.  

We also met up with a friend from home. Our friend Greg was in the area visiting his family and we were able to hang out for the evening. 

Jam packed day...literally.