San Diego

 We are back in the US and have actually landed in a port.  Wow.  Seven days on the water.  That was unexpected.  We weathered it just fine.  Of course the idea is not to spend 196 days at sea without seeing any of the world, but we are just fine when confined to the ship.  We just enjoy our time together, eating, and doing shipboard activities such as bridge and evening shows.  We read, and we write, and we just relax.  

But not on land days.  Because it was our arrival back in the US we had to go through immigration control.  Interesting how other countries have not really worried about that.  We went through the process then headed out to our shore excursion for the day.  We chose the hop-on hop-off trolley tour.  Many of you are probably familiar with the hop-on hop-off tours.  They are offered in many venues around the world.  Our little train tour in Key West was the same idea.  You get on a bus/trolley/train or some as yet unknown conveyance and they take a route around the city with an informational spiel stopping at some points of interest where you can get off if you like.  There will be similar conveyances stopping at these pick-up points every 15-30 minutes throughout the day.  We have found the best way for us to use these tours is to take the full route, then return to the places that seemed most interesting.  The ship tour today is the same as the regular trolley route--but it is private.  It picks you up at the pier, joins the regular route, stops at the regular stops in case anyone wants to get off even though they have to tell anyone who wants to get on that they are private, and runs the entire route.  Because it is a private tour the driver has a little wiggle room with the route because she can add a block or two if she wants to show you something extra.  Today's San Diego tour takes a full two hours.  We were loaded about 100 yards from one of the stops on the regular route.  Our driver pointed it out so if we did want to get off and join the regular route we would know where to get off to rejoin the ship.  We did not get off.  The value of this type of tour is that you see a lot, get a lot of information, and can get deposited at a number of tourist areas for further investigation.  There was a massive traffic backup near the San Diego Zoo.  I figured that's what it was for, but it turns out that it was a backup for the  next door VA Hospital. Covid related.  The stories and history about what is called Coronado Island (not really an island) including but not limited to the Spanish claiming it then leaving for two hundred years, the wheeler dealers who bought the island when it had no potable water, the plan to create a world class resort and how that all transpired is truly interesting stuff.  I will put in a link (I hope it works) for those of you who are interested A Timeline of Coronado History | Coronado Historical Association   It was a pretty brash plan, but it worked quite well.  The expo that was expected to have 3 million attendees that drew 30 million and a train fare war that saw people buying train tickets from New York to San Diego for one dollar.  The way the desert was turned from a desert climate to more of a Mediterranean climate through the work of mainly one woman.  How the world famous San Diego Zoo got its start when one man looked at all the animals running around the area and basically said we ought to start a zoo.  It was all very informative and interesting and like most of these tours lost in the netherworlds of our brains shortly after being said.

Arriving back at the starting point we decided the most interesting site for us would be the aircraft carrier Midway which was parked not far from our own ship.  The floating museum is the actual carrier Midway, commissioned a week after the end of WWII and finally decommissioned in 1992 as the longest serving aircraft carrier.  The museum includes a self-guided tour around the massive ship, one each of the planes and helicopters that have been launched from the deck of the carrier and that is a lot of different planes and helicopters, a movie on the six minutes that changed the world documenting the critical moments at the start of the Battle of Midway, some simulators for people wanting a ride in one of the jets, and a bunch of vets in yellow hats who volunteer their time to tell about how an aircraft carrier works.  

The most interesting part was listening to the information on the launching of the jets and what all has to happen in forty-five seconds which is the time between launches (it has been reduced to closer to 30 seconds on the newer carriers), Talk about a symphony in sync.  The guy who gave the talk was tough, quizzing us on everything he was telling us.  Did I mention how fast this material disappears once it is told to you?  We got the gyst, but not the specifics very well and I got the feeling he was disappointed in our retention. Beyond what happened in 45 seconds the most amazing thing to me was the single piece of metal holding the jet back at full power and the piece of metal that broke in two called the "dog bone" when the plane was catapulted forward attached to a thing called the shuttle by the huge piston running under the deck powered by steam pressure to get the plane up to speed in about 250 feet.  To stop the huge piston they use a fresh water tank under the deck.  Amazing technical achievement.  Amazing team work.  Amazing war machine.  Why do we have to put so much of our brainpower and resources into machines built to destroy?

We went back to the ship and ate in one of the specialty restaurants on board, the Polo Grill.  Lots of art featuring horses.  The highlight of the meal was my dessert which absolutely looked like a small cheeseburger slider.  Chocolate mousse burger, almond cake-ish bun, and a thin piece of apricot which looked just like a piece of cheese.  It was art.  We didn't have a camera or you would get a picture of it for sure.  

 In case you can't read the yellow sign next to the many brass tubes that is a pneumatic tube that sends written notes to various points on the ship like the devices they use at bank drive-throughs.  1940's internet on a ship.  The girl with the dog is in a motorized car.

You may want to check back to Acapulco to see some recently downloaded pics from New Year's Eve.