Thanks to the MIT Club of Northern California, and my alumnus friend Mike, and through the gracious generosity of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, I was able to take a tour of the deep-sea research vessel Atlantis and the deep-sea submersible Alvin. This was awesome. There is so much cool work done on board the ship, just to support the research operations, I submitted my resume to one of the scientists. There's actually a surprising amount of EE work to be done, especially on the ROVs.
I've posted a bunch of pictures of the tour for your viewing pleasure. Just click the image below:
On a side note: I saw Tony Blair. Mostly I just saw his motorcade. Part of the tour included a lunch at the Delancey Street Restaurant beforehand. We were supposed to get there at 11 am, but had to wait for Mr. Blair to finish his brunch inside. There were cops and secret service (or the British equivalent) at every entrance up and down the street around the restaurant. We had just thought it was extra security for that morning's marathon, but looking back on it, the guys in the suits exuded far too much confidence to be rent-a-cops.
Interestingly, an ambulance, with sirens blaring, had to wait for the motorcade to pass before it could continue down Embarcadero.