Wow! Habana is a hip, hip, city. I can’t upload photos at the moment, but everything is decaying and stunning. We drove around with a guide (more about him in a future post) last night, a Saturday, and the streets were alive with people. Not in large crowds, but hanging around in the streets or outside clubs and cafes. There are old cars everywhere, many of them are also decaying, but they are look and sound amazing. The other striking things about Habana are the heat, which is almost perfect; and the sounds of the streets, which consist of cars, bikes, music, the occassional horse carriage for tourists, and chatter.

Anyone who wants to visit an amazing city should come to Habana.

Is unexpectedly really really cool!

I only have time to put up a couple of the highlights:

Mission Control (yep, that’s the real deal):

Shuttle and space station training centre:

The Saturn V was certainly the highlight. It is absolutely enormous. The first stage:

The second stage:

The third stage:

The top bit:

Apollo 17’s command module:

Mercury:

Gemini:

Next stop, Austin, Texas for South by Southwest.

At the Make party:

Another fancy party, this time for Frog Design:

Petey the Boston Terrier made us feel very homesick:

Tash Glen and Tash:

The next day I visited the Capitol:

Which has a Confederate memorial:

On the way back to the conference, I wandered past Barack’s Austin campaign headquarters:

SXSW was rockin’, but how about a little less swag? This is incredibly wasteful:

This sums up Vegas, the water in the fountain at Caesar’s Palace is dyed blue.

We got a chopper out to the Grand Canyon. It was a breathing trip, as we flew over Vegas twice, the Hoover Dam, and the Canyon itself.

The unmarked 737s with the red stripe take workers to Area 51:

The pilot and the Hoover Dam:

Over the canyon - none of the pics I took come anywhere near capturing its beauty:

On the canyon floor:

A blurry piccie of Vegas at night:

Also very cool! Even The King was there.

And Microsoft through a huuuge party at Tao at the Venetian. The view from Tao:

ETech was also cool:

More on that in a later post…

This is awesome! The new naval museum in San Diego aboard the USS Midway.

As I now have a USB cable I’ve been able to upload some photos.

San Diego is a cool town. Among the sites were the Pandas at San Diego zoo:

Then off to the Air and Space Centre. You’re greeted by the Apollo 9 capsule:

Apollo 11 unused food:

Phantom vs MiG:

SR71 Blackbird:

Giant magaritas in oldtown: