(Hey, you ever hear that song, "Wear Sunscreen"? You really should do that.)
Our day starts off in sunny San Diego. I am pleased that today is the first Thursday of the month, but instead of attending a staff meeting, I will be touring the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier anchored in the bay. My first mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find parking. Hmm. It's harder than it would usually be, because they've cordoned off large swathes of parking areas, setting up for a Labour Day weekend "Festival of Sail." Fortunately, there's a pay parking lot alongside the Midway, which is somewhat convenient. Mission accomplished!
I park the car way on the far end of the pier, because it amuses us, then when I get out of the car, "Aargh!" For some reason, I'm miscalculating the angle of the door swing and I keep knee-capping myself when I shut the door. This is the second time I've done it. The first time, I blamed the bruise on an angry billy goat atop Mount Evans - "didn't you see that? He ran up here and butted my knee!" - this time, I blame it on an errant anchor that the Midway just put down. "I know they seemed stationary, but they just dropped one more anchor, and it was swinging a bit. Hit me right here."
$18 to get on the boat - what a bargain! Hey, what's this small print on the ticket that says "Congratulations, you've just enlisted." Must be a typo.
Welcome Aboard the Midway, all you with sturdy knees! They've got those porthole doors everywhere, so you're always stepping up and over. Makes you look like some foot-stomping square dancer. Anyway, it's a self-guided tour, with a recorded commentary you can listen to if you want to. After about two selections of patriotic music, lots of atmosphere and not enough get-to-the-point-ness, I decide against listening to the recording. Instead, we play "let's pretend we're in the navy!" Sadly, it turns out that I am an enlisted grunt, and Stephen is an officer with much better quarters than I. Figures.
But there's ways for me to move up. Jet fighter pilot? Check. Later, at an interactive display in Engineering, I try to balance the power output. The captain wants to fire missiles. I'm trying to reduce engine speed so he's got the other power, but that doesn't work, so I take it from everywhere else. I'm spinning the dials like crazy - the bridge calls back and tells me they have enough power, so "good work!" Problem is, the kitchen is calling me and telling me they have no power and they'll have to serve cold fruit or something, and some other guy is also beaking off because I stole all his power. "Oh, the hell with it. I fail."
I turn around, and there's a whole room full of spectators. (It was an empty room when I started out.)
Since I fail so spectacularly, I go to the brig, to think about where I've gone wrong.
Later on, someone realizes my vast potential for mayhem, and I am promoted to captain. At least, when we were on the bridge tour, the tour guide noted that I seemed like the bossy type - ergo, I got the big boss' chair. I immediately launched all active warplanes and ordered them to attack enemy surfers. (Sadly, there are no active warplanes on board. Mission aborted. For now...)
While we're on the flight deck, we spend some time just admiring the surrounding scenery from our vantage point. There's the Coronado Bridge (which I usually refer to as the "Simon and Simon Bridge"; however, for you fans of the movie Anchorman, this is also the bridge where Will Ferrell's dog is booted off of). It's a tall bridge - there are Navy ships and big cargo ships sailing underneath it.
There's also a lot of sailing ships coming into the harbour (for the Festival of Sail, we presume). BOOM! And they're firing their cannons! Kind of exciting. We don't see any spectator carnage, so presumably they're just using powder and no cannon balls.
Back to the Midway tour: It's a big big ship. And if they weren't cordoning off areas to herd us through in the right direction, you would have tourists lost there for days. We've already spent over two hours wandering around (and yes, it is really interesting. Lots of guides who actually served on these ships).
But the sailboats in the harbour remind Stephen and I that we also planned to tour another boat today - the HMS Surprise (it's the boat used in filming for the film Master and Commander and the Horatio Hornblower movies). So we get permission to go ashore, and we leave the USS Midway (and our military careers) behind.
Off we go, hot-footing it down the harbour. It's midday, and we want to get our tour before the crowds get too thick. Where's our boat? There's an empty space where it should be. Surprise! It's not there. The HMS Surprise is taking part in the Festival of Sail. It's one of the ones we were watching in the bay - probably the one who's shooting at everyone.
We overhear dock guy telling someone else that when it comes back, it won't be available for tours today; no tours until tomorrow. Woe.
So, back to the Midway parking lot to retrieve our car, and we decide to drive out to Cabrillo National Monument (sounds like free admission with our magic park card!) at Point Loma. This is out on the little peninsula that stretches out between the Pacific Ocean and the San Diego Bay. The park pass gets us in, and there's a statue and a visitor center on the side looking towards San Diego. The old Point Loma lighthouse is up on the hill (which is very windy). And there's another set of roads that will take you down to the tidepools on the side facing the Pacific.
We spent a lot of time following the trails by the tide pools and the cliffs, watching the waves come crashing in.
After that, we drove back to Mission Beach to get some supper. It's a lot harder to find parking in the afternoon. I think most people come out in the morning, park their cars, and spend the whole day at the beach. We eventually found some parking about three or four blocks off the beach, and we walked back. Bright and sunny.
I want to eat some fish here before we go, so we go to Joe's Crab Shack, where we have a table facing the ocean. The Maui Mahi I have is freaking delicious. Our waitress is a surfer girl, and she explains to us that although the waves are much higher than usual (apparently, a storm in New Zealand has caused this?), they're not good surfing waves. The sandy base of Mission Beach is too shallow, and so the waves collapse too quickly. Fun for jumping around in, but not surfing. You need a rocky bottom, like the reef shoreline at La Jolla, so that the waves can hold their shape. (And now I've learned more than I'll ever need to know about surfing.)
Some lifeguard is scooting around on a sea-doo in the water, back and forth, and he seems to be herding people inward - apparently, they've had about 5 shark sightings in the last week. But no one's been eaten yet.
By the time we've finished supper, we suddenly realize we've been sitting in the hot sun for a long time, and hey, who forgot to put on sunscreen today? Uh oh. Too late now, the damage is done. That broiling sensation we feel is our skin.
So, it's the end of our stay in San Diego, and we've got a little souvenir to take with us: our San Diego sunburn. Doh!
Off we drive to our Econolodge in Anaheim (making a stop at the local WalMart so Stephen can buy some Aloe Vera lotion).
Goodbye, and stay classy, San Diego. ;-)
Our day starts off in sunny San Diego. I am pleased that today is the first Thursday of the month, but instead of attending a staff meeting, I will be touring the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier anchored in the bay. My first mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find parking. Hmm. It's harder than it would usually be, because they've cordoned off large swathes of parking areas, setting up for a Labour Day weekend "Festival of Sail." Fortunately, there's a pay parking lot alongside the Midway, which is somewhat convenient. Mission accomplished!
I park the car way on the far end of the pier, because it amuses us, then when I get out of the car, "Aargh!" For some reason, I'm miscalculating the angle of the door swing and I keep knee-capping myself when I shut the door. This is the second time I've done it. The first time, I blamed the bruise on an angry billy goat atop Mount Evans - "didn't you see that? He ran up here and butted my knee!" - this time, I blame it on an errant anchor that the Midway just put down. "I know they seemed stationary, but they just dropped one more anchor, and it was swinging a bit. Hit me right here."
$18 to get on the boat - what a bargain! Hey, what's this small print on the ticket that says "Congratulations, you've just enlisted." Must be a typo.
Welcome Aboard the Midway, all you with sturdy knees! They've got those porthole doors everywhere, so you're always stepping up and over. Makes you look like some foot-stomping square dancer. Anyway, it's a self-guided tour, with a recorded commentary you can listen to if you want to. After about two selections of patriotic music, lots of atmosphere and not enough get-to-the-point-ness, I decide against listening to the recording. Instead, we play "let's pretend we're in the navy!" Sadly, it turns out that I am an enlisted grunt, and Stephen is an officer with much better quarters than I. Figures.
 |
| Ready for action! (Except for sunscreen, that is.) |
I turn around, and there's a whole room full of spectators. (It was an empty room when I started out.)
Since I fail so spectacularly, I go to the brig, to think about where I've gone wrong.
Later on, someone realizes my vast potential for mayhem, and I am promoted to captain. At least, when we were on the bridge tour, the tour guide noted that I seemed like the bossy type - ergo, I got the big boss' chair. I immediately launched all active warplanes and ordered them to attack enemy surfers. (Sadly, there are no active warplanes on board. Mission aborted. For now...)
While we're on the flight deck, we spend some time just admiring the surrounding scenery from our vantage point. There's the Coronado Bridge (which I usually refer to as the "Simon and Simon Bridge"; however, for you fans of the movie Anchorman, this is also the bridge where Will Ferrell's dog is booted off of). It's a tall bridge - there are Navy ships and big cargo ships sailing underneath it.
There's also a lot of sailing ships coming into the harbour (for the Festival of Sail, we presume). BOOM! And they're firing their cannons! Kind of exciting. We don't see any spectator carnage, so presumably they're just using powder and no cannon balls.
Back to the Midway tour: It's a big big ship. And if they weren't cordoning off areas to herd us through in the right direction, you would have tourists lost there for days. We've already spent over two hours wandering around (and yes, it is really interesting. Lots of guides who actually served on these ships).
But the sailboats in the harbour remind Stephen and I that we also planned to tour another boat today - the HMS Surprise (it's the boat used in filming for the film Master and Commander and the Horatio Hornblower movies). So we get permission to go ashore, and we leave the USS Midway (and our military careers) behind.
Off we go, hot-footing it down the harbour. It's midday, and we want to get our tour before the crowds get too thick. Where's our boat? There's an empty space where it should be. Surprise! It's not there. The HMS Surprise is taking part in the Festival of Sail. It's one of the ones we were watching in the bay - probably the one who's shooting at everyone.
We overhear dock guy telling someone else that when it comes back, it won't be available for tours today; no tours until tomorrow. Woe.
So, back to the Midway parking lot to retrieve our car, and we decide to drive out to Cabrillo National Monument (sounds like free admission with our magic park card!) at Point Loma. This is out on the little peninsula that stretches out between the Pacific Ocean and the San Diego Bay. The park pass gets us in, and there's a statue and a visitor center on the side looking towards San Diego. The old Point Loma lighthouse is up on the hill (which is very windy). And there's another set of roads that will take you down to the tidepools on the side facing the Pacific.
We spent a lot of time following the trails by the tide pools and the cliffs, watching the waves come crashing in.
After that, we drove back to Mission Beach to get some supper. It's a lot harder to find parking in the afternoon. I think most people come out in the morning, park their cars, and spend the whole day at the beach. We eventually found some parking about three or four blocks off the beach, and we walked back. Bright and sunny.
I want to eat some fish here before we go, so we go to Joe's Crab Shack, where we have a table facing the ocean. The Maui Mahi I have is freaking delicious. Our waitress is a surfer girl, and she explains to us that although the waves are much higher than usual (apparently, a storm in New Zealand has caused this?), they're not good surfing waves. The sandy base of Mission Beach is too shallow, and so the waves collapse too quickly. Fun for jumping around in, but not surfing. You need a rocky bottom, like the reef shoreline at La Jolla, so that the waves can hold their shape. (And now I've learned more than I'll ever need to know about surfing.)
Some lifeguard is scooting around on a sea-doo in the water, back and forth, and he seems to be herding people inward - apparently, they've had about 5 shark sightings in the last week. But no one's been eaten yet.
By the time we've finished supper, we suddenly realize we've been sitting in the hot sun for a long time, and hey, who forgot to put on sunscreen today? Uh oh. Too late now, the damage is done. That broiling sensation we feel is our skin.
So, it's the end of our stay in San Diego, and we've got a little souvenir to take with us: our San Diego sunburn. Doh!
Off we drive to our Econolodge in Anaheim (making a stop at the local WalMart so Stephen can buy some Aloe Vera lotion).
Goodbye, and stay classy, San Diego. ;-)
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