Lazy Sea Days and San Diego

Two very lazy days – got up late, had some breakfast, slept a bit more, had a drink, slept a bit more again, had another drink and a bite to eat, snoozed, got changed for dinner, watched the entertainment, had dinner and a drink and then went to bed. And slept and then repeated it all the next day.  Tough life!!

San Diego

Managed to get up in time to see us dock on the edge of downtown San Diego.  Not the cityscape we had been expecting – much more modern and high-rise with the airport almost in the centre of the town.  The old quarter is called the gaslamp district so we thought we would explore that a bit and then spends the rest of the afternoon on the USS Midway, which is permanently docked as a floating museum.

Off we set and it was hot, hot, hot.  We overheard someone say that it was one of the hottest days of the year.  The streets were wide and clean and we walked on the shady side as much as we could until we reached the gaslamp quarter.  Although the buildings were older than the glass and steel ones we’d just passed, they were mostly bars and restaurants and it would probably have had more atmosphere in the evening once it was dark and the old lamps were lit and there was a bit more going on.

We then walked back through a park to the USS Midway.  Commissioned in 1945 and de-commissioned in 1991 it has been restored by volunteers and now carries on its working life as a museum. On the flight deck it has a collection of aircraft from helicopters to fighters and we then explored below decks to see the crew quarters, sickbay, galley, ready rooms etc.  We also had a guided tour of the bridge, negotiating some VERY steep ladders in the process.

Although the ship saw the bulk of its action in Vietnam, it was from its bridge that Operation Desert Storm was launched in January 1991. 

We finished our day by wandering along the harbour side park before returning to the ship.  We set sail at 5pm and were escorted out past the enormous navy base by the US Coastguard who also kept smaller craft away from the ship – more as a Homeland Security measure I think than through any concern for their safety.