San Diego Day 2 second trip

 

San Diego2, day 2

So, one of the foibles of this program is that you can only put eight pictures on a single point of interest.  I am pretty sure that you wanted to see the fuzzies from yesterday, and I think you will want to see pictures of the ships we visited at the museum on day two, hence a second entry for San Diego.  A quick word about the first picture.  It is an early map of the known world around the Mediterranean with the unknown world on the outside and placing Jerusalem at the center of everything.  I wonder what sort of map reading skills were needed to make this map work.

Jen is continuing…

The cruise ship distributes a daily newspaper of sorts with important numbers on the headline: the date, day of the week, and the numbered day in the current leg of the trip.  Our second day of the second trip to San Diego was headlined Sunday, January 9, Day 4 of this leg which ends on Day 24 in Papeete (Tahiti), French Polynesia. Numbers get a bit jumbled as the days pass, so I am grateful for the reminders.  Inside this newspaper is a large 2-pg. b & w update of current USA news –with an entire page of sports. 

Because we are in port, the ship is unable to host the weekly ecumenical worship service which is the benchmark for my week.  Forever.  The one we’ve attended so far was located in the big lounge where the nightly entertainment happens.  We sit in deep curved seats.  Our British cruise host and hostess organize the service and our host plays piano (reference Christmas Eve).  Their aim is to include passengers as much as possible, so they arrange for someone to read scriptures (assigned or not) and provide a commentary if he or she wishes, all sing a hymn, then a next passenger leads prayers and offers the benediction.  Gratefully, I’ve been tagged to do the prayer section the next time we worship.  I’ve already started them and find immense pleasure in worship planning even on this level. 

Remember yesterday’s blog where I mentioned the Battleship board game?  I remember playing this peg-board game, strategizing where to “hide” my fleet of battleships of various sizes.  On our first trip to San Diego, we sent photos of the giant aircraft carrier, The Midway.  Near the same docking area are 9 mostly permanently docked ships comprising the Maritime Museum of San Diego.   If you google this site, you will see these gems almost as if they are on a pegboard.  Our photos will try to help.  Some ships are replicas.  Others are the real deal and have constant streams of volunteers varnishing, painting, replacing, and finishing.  We were told that you can sail ships from five different centuries at this museum.  You might recognize the H.M.S Surprise as the one used in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russel Crowe and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. One is PFC 816 Swift Boat used in Vietnam to patrol the coastline; another is a wooden pilot boat used now for ferrying and taking school children on ecology trips.  Years later, she began to transport emigrants to New Zealand “as part of England’s bid to maintain her superiority over the world’s oceans.”  This trip took 3 months.  She made this voyage so many times that her miles added to 21 complete navigations of the earth.  Now once a year, her sails are unfurled and she navigates the port, turns around and returns, making true the statement that she still sails.  Each of these annual jaunts is accompanied by thousands of proud vessels of all sizes and nationalities.  Included in the museum is two submarines—the USS Dolphin, the deepest diving submarine whose 40 years of duty carried up to 20 tons of equipment for research and development, much of which is still classified.  The second sub is a Russian sub that is no longer able to be refurbished.  It reminded me of the movie The Hunt for Red October.

Brain full, we hiked back to the ship to get ready for dinner and the evening show, three young men who call themselves ‘Shades of Buble”, singing his hits in three-part harmony.  They are as top shelf as all of the other entertainers thus far.