Friday, January 6, 2012

Day 24 - Talk to me Goose

Packed up the trailer (again) and headed off to meet Matt & Vicky in San Diego. I'd park the truck & trailer at a shopping mall outside the city, and take the trolley.  We'd spend the day taking in some sights, then trolley back to the trailer and drive down closer to the border to overnight.

Parked in a big space - nowhere near anyone - and headed off.  (Aside: when we returned later that night, we were nearly blocked in.  Matt had to stop some mall traffic while I expertly reversed the truck & trailer in a tight spot.  DOH!!!)  Arrived early, so parked myself at a seafood restaurant (closest place to the meet point) and had a pint.  Met up with Matt & Vicky, and walked up the block to some banks.  We needed to grab some Pesos for the trip.  Interesting that not a single bank would exchange money unless you had an account. Their loss.  Went to an FX kiosk instead.  Rate was pretty close to the bank, so not a big deal.
Had to take a picture of this. It was right next to the FX kiosk.

We then wandered down to the harbour front.  Took a few pictures from the convention center, and strolled the boardwalk.  Our main destination today was this.


There was a bunch of scaffolding & fencing going up on the outer break wall of the marina.  Looked like something interesting.  More on that later.


A few 'modern merchants' were scattered along the boardwalk.  This one rescued exotic birds.  They asked for money for pictures.  Another man balanced stacked rocks.  Same business model.


Right beside the warship was this statue of the famous sailor/nurse kiss in Times Square in 1945.  There were no female sailors encountered during out stay, so I couldn't recreate the reciprocal scene :(


This picture taken from higher ground

And we arrive

You can read more about the USS Midway here.  Construction was completed just after WWII, so it was not used there.  It did see action in both Vietnam and Desert Storm.  At 972' long, this boat was HUGE.
And here is the tour in pictures. Spend about 3 hours on the ship and didn't see everything.  We finally had to leave when they closed at dusk.

The hanger deck



The quarters were tight. Each bunk had personal storage below.

Uniforms were stored in an adjacent locker.
I'm just shy of 6' tall. If you're taller, don't join the navy.


Anchor room



Most of this cable was used for degaussing.
This is utilized for avoiding detection by mines.



Mission briefing room


Ops room

Boiler room.
Two massive diesel engines generate the steam required to move this monster of the sea.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Me in the brig

Always!!!


Shots of the flight deck



The choppers are primarily used for search & rescue.



Our "docent" for the guided 30 minute control tower tour.
Very knowledgeable guy. Great tour.

Jet launching area as seen from the bridge

Any requests?

Wanna race a jet? 3...2...  You lose, it's already 2 miles away.

Did I mention this boat was HUGE?

F14 Tomcat; fighter jet used the movie Top Gun



Couldn't find Maverick, Iceman, or Hollywood

...and the nearby restaurant where they filmed the "bar scene"

The TOPGUN training program was moved from Miramar AFB (in San Diego) to Nevada in 1996.

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