Our fourth week brought us into the halfway point of our winter work! Kevin and I continued with our usual work schedule. However, I was given the additional responsibility of completing an accuracy check by myself. It was mildly terrifying to do this without any help, but now I feel pretty confident that I could do it again. For the family and friends asking if I really did fall off a bike during Week 2, yes, I did (and more than once), but I haven’t had a negative bike experience since Week 2, so things are looking up!

On Thursday, Kevin was given the positively thrilling task that is taking inventory! On Friday, things took a turn for the more exciting when he was put into the rigging department. He was taken on one of the many giant cranes in the NASSCO shipyard. First thing he did was climb to the top of the boom. Kevin impressed his supervisor by having no fear of heights and shaking the entire crane while at the top. He claims he could see most of San Diego from there. He brought this fact up about once every hour for all of Friday evening and the rest of the weekend. We can’t really blame him though (it is really cool).

On Friday night, we met up with our fellow NASSCO interns and Webb alumni, Nick Ratinaud and Megan Green, for dinner. On our way there, Kevin and I stopped to get donuts. We then got ice cream, so it was altogether a great night.

We knew that we were going to have another rainy weekend, so we planned to do some of the more “indoorsy” things on our bucket list. On Saturday, we went to the Birch Aquarium. We both absolutely loved it there! Unfortunately, the rain prevented us from touching any of the animals in the tide pools there, but we were still able to see tons of sea life. On the way back to our apartment, there was a downpour, and we got completely soaked (it was so much fun)!

Of course, we had to stop at a few donut shops on our journey to the aquarium!

On Sunday, I was finally able to drag Kevin down to Point Loma to the Cabrillo National Monument! The monument has been on my bucket list from the start, but we had to overcome quite a few challenges to get there. The park was closed the first three weekends due to the government shutdown (which I didn’t realize until we were halfway there), and then this week we discovered that the bus to the monument doesn’t actually run on the weekends. You can only imagine how ecstatic I was when I figured this out.

Despite these formidable obstacles, we did eventually make it to the park. It was well worth the trouble. The monument provided an incredible view of the bay, and we were able to learn a little more about those who explored and settled the Americas. I was also able to fuel my National Parks stamping addiction (Kevin laughed at me while the park rangers gave me weird looks).

This weekend was definitely our most eventful and scenic thus far. We both had an amazing time enjoying some of San Diego’s most incredible views. On to our fifth week!

-Juliette