In addition to our ≈8 year old cat "Peanut" who we adopted from the NHSPCA, we have just added "Indie"/"Indigo" to the family. Indigo is a 12 week old puppy we adopted through the SweetPaws animal rescue program based in.

Indigo's name is really a combination of two similar names:

• Indiana, "We named the dog Indiana", from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• Indigo, as in the color before violet, puns are strong in our family.

Well, things didn't go as planned... Damn Covid-19. FIRST Robotics Regional events were cancelled while we were flying over the pacific ocean. We had one good day (without much rain) on the big island, we visited a black sand beach on the far side of the island (2 hour drive), stopped by the volcano national park briefly, drove around the other side and over the top of the volcano in the dark, and visited Honolulu for a day and a half of mostly rain before cutting our trip a week short to head home and hide away from everyone as we shelter in place due to Covid-19.

For more info about the FIRST Robotics season, check my other page about it here.

David also brought us into the building where he works, and in the lobby is Neil Armstrong's Apollo mission space suit! This held a special meaning for my father, as when he was not long out of college, he worked at Hamilton Standard on the space suit program. He helped design some of the features of the backpack that was used on the moon.

Just before we had to leave, as a ULA rocket was preparing to launch that afternoon, David brought us on the "Astronaut Walk", a special walk that not many people get to see. We followed in the footsteps of every manned mission launched from KSC, by starting at the crew quarters, where the astronauts would be held in quarantine for up to two weeks before a launch. We then walked through the old hallways, down the old elevator and out the doors to the ramp in all of the famous photos of the various crews are taken, just before they board the van to the launch pad.

To finish out this amazing day, we went and enjoyed a relaxing dinner. We then headed over to the beach in front of our hotel just moments before the ULA AFSPC-11 mission was launched. Unfortunately, I had not asked our friend at ULA early enough about getting tickets to the VIP launch observation area, however, it was still an impressive sight from 12 miles south.

The following Monday, David had even arranged for our family to attend the SpaceX TESS launch in the special visitor location at KSC. However, at the last moment, the launch was pushed out 48 hours, and our flight was the following morning. Maybe next time!