Our plan was for this to be our last day in California, but we were not in any hurry to get out of town, and we had contingency plans to stay one more night if we so chose.
Having our laptops was a great help – when we got back to the room each day. We could search for things to do in San Diego, research hours and addresses, and use Google Earth to track them down and figure out the quickest freeway route to the desired location.
The problem was, the list of “things to do in San Diego†was not as exciting as you might imagine. One memorable item that I remember coming up on such a list was the “California Dept of Fish and Game Building.†Ho hum.
Balboa Park is loaded with museums (I’ll say this for San Diego, clustering the museums together does make them easier to get to.) but most of them I wouldn’t lift a finger to see. We’d already been to the Natural History museum and museums such as “Model Railroadsâ€, “Hall of Champions Sport Museum†and the “Automotive Museum†don’t appeal to me much. (OK, I might go to the automotive museum.)
The Air & Space museum was of interest, but it got trumped.
When I realized the USS Midway was in the harbor and now a public museum, I had to go see that. My concern was that it didn’t seem like the most kid-friendly museum I could think of. Chu-Wan was willing to go, and she realized that she’d probably have to keep a tight reign on James, so, that was our first destination.
The ship itself is amazing, and they’ve opened many areas for public touring. Considering it would be manned by 4,500 sailors and pilots, it’s hardly surprising that most of the underside seemed to consist of kitchens and dining rooms. They seemed to go on forever. One of the reasons this trumped the air & space museum was that 23 vintage aircraft are on display aboard the carrier, either on the flight deck or on the hanger deck.
Michelle didn’t meet the minimum height requirement and so she had to stay behind with Chu-Wan as I got to tour the flight tower, map room and bridge. Those tours are conducted by former crew members of the Midway, and I was lucky enough to have a guide who was a former fighter pilot in the 60’s and the flight officer in the 70’s. He had some interesting tales to tell. It’s certainly an unbelievable amount of work that a huge number of sailors had to perform, perfectly, so that a few pilots could fly.
Commissioned in 1945 and decommissioned in 1992, the Midway wasn’t built for someone 6’3“ tall. It was necessary for me to bend over almost all the time, even in the â€living spaces“ below deck, my hair was always brushing the ceiling if I stood up.
Most of the crew stations have mannequins positioned in them to give the feel of how the ship operated. One spot – I won’t give away where – has a man standing like a mannequin, and made up to look plastic, waiting to give a shock to any unsuspecting passerby.
Whenever we were on the flight deck, there was food being prepared somewhere nearby that smelled amazing! Chu-Wan thought it was Indian Food, although I thought it smelled more like barbecue. When we left, we decided to try to find it.
I had mentioned that the Star of India was nearby, and Chu-Wan decided we would go there to eat. I didn’t know it was a restaurant, and she didn’t know it was a sailing ship turned into a museum. We were both right, but they’re not the same Star of India, so we drove around the maddening, no-left-turn streets trying to reach a restaurant, and when we found one, driving on and on trying to find parking.
We ended up in Seaport Village, a supposed neo-turn-of-the-century (20th, not 21st) re-imagining of a stylized waterfront. In other words, it’s a shopping center, with a food court, on the ocean front, with lots of wood.
Before I continue, let me tell you a little story about our AAA membership.
We have a AAA membership, which we use infrequently. We sometimes get passport photos or International Driver’s Permits there, once in a blue moon call them for some roadside assistance or occasionally get maps from them before a trip.
Chu-Wan had gone down and picked up maps of Arizona and California, and they also provided a little detailed book of step by step directions. (Exactly what you’d get online at google maps.) We also get discounts through AAA on things like admission to places like The San Diego Zoo and Sea World.
So, with the booklet the printed out, we really didn’t use it. When we first started the trip and we were deciding where to stop for breakfast, there was a question if we were going through Casa Grande or Buckeye. After that, it never got used.
At the zoo, we thought it gave a discount admission, but it only gave a discount if you were buying a ticket to take the tour bus, too. We didn’t want that, so it was useless.
At Sea World, it was good for 10% off admission. The thing was, admission for one day was exactly the same price as admission for 2 days. We figured the zoo only took half a day to see, and we had plenty of time, so we might come back again the next day to let the kids see a show or take a ride or something. We chose the 2-day ticket, but you couldn’t use the AAA discount on that. Sea World ended up taking all day and we were pretty much done with the place, so we didn’t go back – another opportunity lost.
And so we came to the end of our trip, having not used our AAA benefits.
When we got to Seaport Village, Chu-Wan locked the keys in the car, and she had to call someone to come out and break into our car.
Which would have been a great blog story if only we’d called AAA to open the car. Instead we called Hyundai and they took care of it in no time. Still, had I been thinking, I would have made sure we called AAA instead.
And so, after eating an inadequate meal at Seaport Village, and building up a sufficient stress level, we left California and returned home.
Before we left town, we filled up on gas at yet another Costco, so I could get another picture for my collection.
The return trip was much as the way over, until Michelle finally fell asleep. I now understand why new mini-vans have in-car DVD players. Oh, to have had something to distract the kids.
San Diego just isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, but it’s not an unpleasant place, the weather was nice, and we had fun. I guess that’s all I can ask for.
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