San Diego

January 15 - 18 (Monday - Wednesday)

Sorry, another long post of our three day trip to San Diego.

San Diego has been called "the birthplace of California".[13] Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, it was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, which reformed as the First Mexican Republic two years later. California became part of the United States in 1848 following the Mexican–American War and was admitted to the union as a state in 1850.

The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the economic center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diego's main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, and manufacturing. The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology.

With an estimated population of 1,406,630 as of July 1, 2016,[9] San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California.

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego>

San Diego is just under a three hour drive from Yuma to the Bay front. We aren't sure when we might get back to this area so a short road trip to the coast seemed like a good idea. We left early Monday morning hoping to get to the San Diego Harbour in time for the tourist attractions to open. We gained an hour crossing into California so we had no problem getting there by just after 9 AM. We stopped at the Hornblower Tour Boat kiosk to pick up our prepaid tickets to their cruise for later in the day, and pick up our USS Midway Museum tickets that we bought at a discount through Hornblower.

We were lined up at the USS Midway for their 10 AM opening. This is one big boat! Launched in 1945, she is 968 feet long, 113 foot beam, draws 35 feet of water, weighs in at 45,000 tons and can achieve 33 knots. She sailed with 4,100 crew. In todays carrier terms she is small, but for this landlubber she was mighty impressive! She was decommissioned in 1997 and towed to her present location as a museum in 2004. She is loaded with 25 aircraft of various vintage and type. Many of the aircraft served on her decks and others were from different carriers, but all saw action of some type in their history. You are issued an audio player upon entry. You aim the player at an audio station beside each exhibit and you hear a description of the display usually by a retired pilot that described their experience in the aircraft. A very impressive museum. We spent close to four hours aboard and could have stayed longer but we had a ticket for a harbour cruise that boarded just down the street.

We toured the bridge area. This is the 'control tower' that managed the flights on and off the deck.

The navigation map.

The Commanding Officers seat.

The speed controls

The steering wheel.

The stairs we climbed. Lots of them!

The deck.

These Sea Kings recovered astronauts from the Gemini and Apollo programs.

The 'ball' is a method  of ensuring the incoming aircraft is at the right angle of decent to land correctly on the deck.

The 'correct' angle

F4 Phantom

F14 Tomcat

F18 Hornet

The tour through the 'war room'. This is were the attack on Baghdad was managed.

Red triangles are targets in Baghdad. 

The radio room. Thousands of radio frequencies monitored.

Corsair form WW2.

We took a two hour harbour cruise. The first hour we went south of the dock past the shipyards and naval docks. We passed under the Coronado bridge that connects the mainland to Coronado Island. Lots of very impressive military hardware here.

Sea Lions at rest

Downtown San Diego

The Dole 'banana' boat

The Coronado bridge. Two miles long and over two hundred feet high. Opened in 1969 as a toll bridge, once it was paid for the toll was cancelled and it is now free to cross.

Dry dock

The latest warship being built.

Hospital ship 'Mercy'. One thousand beds, over a dozen operating rooms.

Tri-hull warships with jet propulsion. That's one big SeaDoo!

I would not want to be approached by this bad boy.

Helicopter carrier.

This ship actually carries other ships.

The guards

The sign says 'Keep Out'. That would be a good idea!

The 'Star of India' is the oldest iron hulled ship in the world. Built in 1863 she has sailed around the world 29 times.

Ship used in the movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Old Russian submarine

These flights come in low

The second part of the cruise took us to the north harbour and past the sleeping sea lions to the submarine base. More expensive hardware! We also had some close up views of the airport. This is the busiest one-runway airport in the US. The have a landing or take-off every 60 - 90 seconds all day long. The approach is so low people from neighboring buildings look down on the aircraft as they pass.

Coast Guard station.

Downtown San Diego

Nice hotels on the shore.

The dredge they use to keep the harbour free of silt.

Sea Lions and Ganet birds

Nuclear Sub just docking. See the very small men standing on her?

Boat in dry dock.

Naval Air station

See the small jet ski in the middle? Apparently the lady riding it fell off and could not get back on. Someone called the Harbour Police to help her. What a way to meet guys!

The San Diego skyline.

The staue is called 'Unconditional Surrender'

The nurse in the statue just passed away recently

The tribute to Bob Hope and his USO shows for the troops

After the harbour tour it was time to catch a bite to eat. We decided on the House of Blues in the downtown. It was just ok, and no blues music to be heard. A bit disappointing. We then checked in to our hotel, the Best Western Bayside. At $125/night the price was right. We had a room on the tenth floor overlooking the Bay. The room was very large, clean and quiet. The free breakfast was a bonus. Overall a very good experience and would definitely stay there again. It was also walking distance to most attractions on the Bay.

The view from our room.

That is the Star of India

Tuesday morning we walked a couple blocks from the hotel into Little Italy to catch the Hop-on/Hop-off Tour bus. We find this is the very best way to explore a new city. Let someone else drive and narrate what it is you are seeing. When you want to get off at a stop you can explore on your own, then jump back on the bus. They stop about every 30 minutes at each stop along the 25 mile route. (https://www.trolleytours.com/san-diego)

Little Italy

Firehall Museum

We started out by doing a full loop of their tour. It takes about two hours and you get to see all the top attractions on the downtown, harbour, and Coronado Island. There were ten stops in total. We thought we would spend some time at the first stop, Old Town. This is where San Diego first got it's start. Turns out we didn't want to go to any other stops, so we had lunch, shopped and enjoyed the historic sights that Old Town offered.

From the tour bus

PETCO Field, home of the San Diego Padres

A Ladder Truck that steers from the front and rear. A necessity on the small streets of downtown.

Tiny house on Coronado Island

Pricey fuel! Over $4/gallon.

These ladies are making tortillas

We had lunch here in Old Town

The Whaley House. Built in 1857 it is supposedly haunted. 

Church of the Immaculate Conception began construction in 1886, then rebuilt a couple of times before opening in 1917.

Lots of shops in Old Town

Pictures from our second trip of the day to Coronado Island

Old mansions on Coronado Island

Point Loma

High surf advisories were out. The waves were huge.

The old Coronado Hotel. Built in 18 months with no construction drawings. They just started building.

We took one more complete loop on the tour and got off at Little Italy where we had started. What a great way to spend the day! We stopped for a pizza in Little Italy to take back to our room. That and a bottle of wine put us both to sleep early!

Great pizza at Filippis

Wednesday, after breakfast and checkout we headed over to Balboa park. Created in 1868, this 1400 acre site is home to over a dozen museums, various gardens and the San Diego Zoo. You could spend a week at this site alone, but we only had a day. Many of the buildings here were built for the 1915/16 Panama - California exhibition. They have exquisite architecture, unlike the modern art structures today.

The Moreton Bay Fig tree is 90 years old, 80 feet tall, has a trunk girth of 42 feet, and a canopy of 145 feet.

We walked the paths and viewed the gardens. We looked through the 'free' galleries and the conservatory. Then over to the Spanish Gallery where we watched a young lady working on her glass blowing. Very interesting talking to the ladies there, but they soon lost interest in us when it was obvious we weren't going to buy.

Placing colored glass beads on the molten glass to add color.

The finished product.

We had lunch in the in the center square, then wandered around a bit more.  

Gorgeous flowers everywhere. This is winter in San Diego!

This is for our friend Angela!

Lots of school kids here.

We decided we'd seen enough and started to head home before rush hour started. San Diego was a lot of fun and although we spent three days here it would take weeks to see everything. We'll definitely be back again someday!

We got home about 7 PM after stopping for chicken at 'Chicken on the Run'. It's a great spot popular with snowbirds and locals alike. Thanks for the recommendation George!

.....and that was Our View From Here!