A great start to a new year!

Wednesday, January 1
We enjoyed spending New Years Eve with family. Cheryl's brother Kevin and his wife Dawn (from Winnipeg) along with their kids and grandkids had been spending a few days in the San Diego area. We joined them all in their rental home for a great dinner and early celebration. The kids had to catch planes early on New Year's Day.

Me, Kevin (Cheryl's brother), Cheryl, Dawn (Kevin's wife)

Almost the whole family. (Brooklyn, age 3, was sleeping)
From left: Dawn, Dustin (Kevin and Dawn's son), Melissa (Dustin's wife), me, Aiden (Dustin and Melissa's son), Cheryl, Kevin, Dave (Michele's husband), Michele (Kevin and Dawn's daughter)

Nice view from the deck of the rental house.

Steaks for supper......

......and shrimp too!

A beautiful night to enjoy a fire.

We went back to the rental house on New Years Day to pick up Kevin and Dawn. We decided to spend the next couple of days in San Diego and we may as well do it up right so we booked a night at the Hilton Airport hotel with a harbor view.

Our view from our hotel room.

Supper at Mitch's Seafood. We've had much better. :-(

Crazy busy at Mitch's. Many restaurants were closed on New Years Day which added to the wait.

Sunset from our hotel window. Not a bad way to end the first day of 2020!!

San Diego skyline at night from our hotel.

Thursday, January 2

Sunrise. 

We enjoyed a late start to the day then headed into downtown and found a restaurant without huge lineups. We had a nice breakfast. We decided to keep the truck parked where it was and walk the .8 miles to the harbor tour we had booked.

Our tour boat coming in to get us.

Kevin and Dawn. Do they look like tourists or what?

View of our hotel from the harbor tour boat.

We've taken this tour a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Likewise this time. It's a great way to see the city and the narration is very good. One hour tour in the north harbor and then a one hour tour of the south harbor.

Sea Lions sunning themselves.

Constantly dredging the harbor.

Tall masted sailing ships.

Lots of security in the harbor. Note the machine gun on the bow.

Coast Guard too.

Naval air station. Lots of helicopters here.

Everything from wind surfers to aircraft carriers in the San Diego harbor.

Skyline of San Diego, with wind surfer.

The Navy shipyards are in the south harbor under the Coronado bridge.

A ship in dry dock. Covered in tarps and scaffolding.

Dry dock awaiting a customer.

Lots of these guys patrolling the waters off the ship yards.

One thousand bed hospital ship. This is one of two. The other is on the East coast.

Helicopter carrier

These ships carry helicopters and drones.

Tri-hull destroyer.

Some of the latest Navy stealth ships.

The Coronado Bridge connects Coronado Island to the mainland. It is 2.1 miles long, 190 feet high and curves 80 degrees. Built to withstand a 7.1 earthquake.

View from under the Coronado Bridge.

The USS Midway floating museum. You need a full day to see it all. We went through it a couple of years ago.

Is it a statue or is it real?

A couple of Sea Lions mooching a meal from the fishing boat.

We went back to the hotel for a quick drink and drop off  Kevin and Dawn before we headed home to the trailer. Their shuttle bus heads to the airport at 0430 so they need to get some sleep. We had a great couple of days with them and hope to get together again for another trip.

San Diego is one of our favorite cities. It is so clean, so pretty and when you think it is only a couple of hours from the desert it is an ideal 'mini-vacation' spot for snowbirds. We'll be back!

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