Weekends are Fun
The past couple weeks have gone by pretty quickly; we are already at the beginning of our third week here! A lot has been going on, both at work and outside of it. While the first week at work was a little slow (as expected), Isa and I both got stuff to work on by Thursday (the 10th). On Friday, the 11th, we also got to go on a tour of the yard's new thin plate line, and the old BAL (Block Assembly Line).
The new thin plate line encompasses the process of creating panels for the shipyard, and is almost fully automated. The equipment and work progression was very interesting to see. Of course, I couldn't take any pictures of it, but you can read about it on the NASSCO website. The BAL wasn't quite as interesting, it being a lot older than the new panel line, and no where near as efficient or automated, but it was interesting to see the difference between the old technology and the new.
The first full weekend that we were here wasn't the best weather, and actually the whole second week was rainy, but that first Saturday we did try to go for a hike. "Try" being the operating word. We were going to go to Torrey Pines State Park, but when we got there, the trail was closed due to the rain eroding the path. We'll be trying to go at another time this winter, when it hasn't rained so recently. Instead, Kevin drove us around a little, to see some parts of San Diego we hadn't seen yet.
We stopped in La Jolla, and saw the Children's Cove, which is a cool little beach that the city built for children to play safely in the water, but which seals quickly overran. Now it's a seal beach all the time, although tourists visit to see them. Here's some pictures of the cove:
After driving through La Jolla, we went to Ocean Beach for the rest of the afternoon. None of us swam that day (it was pretty stormy, and I didn't have my wetsuit) but it was still nice to hang out on the beach.
The second week of work was rainy all the way through Thursday. Thankfully, Megan was able to give us rides when it was raining during our normal walking commute! However, it cleared up on Friday and was beautiful for the rest of this weekend.
At work I'm mostly still working with FEMAP. I'm helping one of the engineers with her project designing the structure around the exhaust piping on a tanker for the Navy. I'm enjoying it, largely because I'm becoming acquainted with a new program -- and because this FEA program is leagues better than the ones I've used before. Friday was a fun, and different, work day because Nick took us with him to swap test panels for the NSRP swage bulkheads project that he is working on. After that, he gave us a tour of the yard. He's able to take pictures there, but needs to get them approved for publication before I can have them to post on this blog. So, next time, hopefully, I'll be able to put those up on here.
Friday was also dinner at John Malone's house with the Webbies that were in town (that was the interns at NASSCO, and Kevin and Nick). It was really fun, and Mrs. Malone is a wonderful cook!
On Saturday we went to Pacific Beach in the afternoon with Nick and two other guys that work at NASSCO. I swam and bodysurfed, and Nick was learning how to surf. There's probably more lessons to be had, though. Here's a few pictures from the beach that day:
The new thin plate line encompasses the process of creating panels for the shipyard, and is almost fully automated. The equipment and work progression was very interesting to see. Of course, I couldn't take any pictures of it, but you can read about it on the NASSCO website. The BAL wasn't quite as interesting, it being a lot older than the new panel line, and no where near as efficient or automated, but it was interesting to see the difference between the old technology and the new.
The first full weekend that we were here wasn't the best weather, and actually the whole second week was rainy, but that first Saturday we did try to go for a hike. "Try" being the operating word. We were going to go to Torrey Pines State Park, but when we got there, the trail was closed due to the rain eroding the path. We'll be trying to go at another time this winter, when it hasn't rained so recently. Instead, Kevin drove us around a little, to see some parts of San Diego we hadn't seen yet.
We stopped in La Jolla, and saw the Children's Cove, which is a cool little beach that the city built for children to play safely in the water, but which seals quickly overran. Now it's a seal beach all the time, although tourists visit to see them. Here's some pictures of the cove:
After driving through La Jolla, we went to Ocean Beach for the rest of the afternoon. None of us swam that day (it was pretty stormy, and I didn't have my wetsuit) but it was still nice to hang out on the beach.
The second week of work was rainy all the way through Thursday. Thankfully, Megan was able to give us rides when it was raining during our normal walking commute! However, it cleared up on Friday and was beautiful for the rest of this weekend.
At work I'm mostly still working with FEMAP. I'm helping one of the engineers with her project designing the structure around the exhaust piping on a tanker for the Navy. I'm enjoying it, largely because I'm becoming acquainted with a new program -- and because this FEA program is leagues better than the ones I've used before. Friday was a fun, and different, work day because Nick took us with him to swap test panels for the NSRP swage bulkheads project that he is working on. After that, he gave us a tour of the yard. He's able to take pictures there, but needs to get them approved for publication before I can have them to post on this blog. So, next time, hopefully, I'll be able to put those up on here.
Friday was also dinner at John Malone's house with the Webbies that were in town (that was the interns at NASSCO, and Kevin and Nick). It was really fun, and Mrs. Malone is a wonderful cook!
On Saturday we went to Pacific Beach in the afternoon with Nick and two other guys that work at NASSCO. I swam and bodysurfed, and Nick was learning how to surf. There's probably more lessons to be had, though. Here's a few pictures from the beach that day:
Sunday was a beautiful day, too, and Isa and I decided to just explore the city a little bit more. We took the trolley and then a bus to Mission Beach, first, and walked along the beach walk there. Then we used those Lime scooters (which were really fun) to make it back to Old Town, where we got on the trolley to the Gaslamp Quarter. We had lunch there, and walked through a small art market.
I liked those planters a lot. They were hollowed plastic toy dinosaurs with small succulents in them! Very cool. I didn't buy one, though I wanted to.
Overall, a pretty fun weekend. I think that there's more to come. I'm not sure what we'll be doing this weekend, but maybe a hike or the San Diego Zoo.
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