San Diego, California

December 21, 2008 - January 21, 2009

San Diego RV Resort, La Mesa, California

It's hard to believe sometimes how fast time goes by. I remember when Susan and I were planning our trip cross country almost a year in advance and all of a sudden we were on the road. Now that time is but a memory; our summer with Joe, Kathy and Katie is over; and, we are in our fourth and last month in California! We've seen a lot, learned a lot and made a lot of new friends. Thank goodness for this blog so that I can look back and "remember a lot"!!

We arrived at the San Diego RV Resort to find it's a very small spot with somewhat cramped sites. We're again located right next to a major highway; makes me long for the out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere Thousand Trails preserves. With the park's layout, we're kind of wondering how we will get the rig out of here, but we'll worry about that when the time comes. First things first...Sarah's coming!!!

We made it to San Diego Airport with the aid of the GPS...where would we be without the GPS? Sarah had a long but good flight...at least there were no storms or big delays like most of the country is going through. We took a quick visit to Seaport Village on Christmas Eve Day...this was Sarah's first look at the Pacific Ocean.

Later we took off for Jeff and Jan's house for a delicious Christmas Eve feast and enjoyed the company of family and friends.

Evy continues to amaze us...she could be one of those dancers in the Follies. And Jan is following in her active footsteps...Jan (not too much younger than me) plays basketball, tennis and soccer and in the new year is going to take up polo!!!

Here's Sarah with our host, Jeff.

We so enjoyed our evening with family...Evy, Jan, Jay, Jim, Jeff as well as my cousin Suzie and her husband, Stan.

(That's Suzie tossing the salad!)

And there were also extended family and friends. (The colors of the evening, although unplanned, were black and red!)

Christmas Day was spent indoors while the sun came out for a couple of minutes in between downpours.

The next day the sun came out and the tourists (including us) went out!! We took one of those trolley tours with stops all over town. First stop was San Diego Harbor where you could spend days instead of just hours (so we returned later). We visited the Maritime Museum and got to tour some of the ships in the Harbor.

First was the H.M.S. Surprise, an 18th century Royal Navy frigate used in the Russell Crowe movie, "Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World" in 2003. I'm sure Russell Crowe stood in these same spots at one time.

Next was the B-39, a Russian diesel-electric powered attack submarine. It was quite claustrophobic inside...you need a certain trait to live in one of those things.

Then we saw the Star of India, an 1863 merchant sailing ship and the world oldest active ship that still makes a couple of voyages every year.

We also toured the 1904 steam yacht, the Medea, and the 1898 steam ferry, the Berkeley, which operated for 60 years on San Francisco Bay.

Then back on the trolley for our next stop at Horton Plaza in the Gaslamp Quarter where we had some lunch. Named for one of San Diego’s most prominent, original residents, Alonzo Horton, Horton Plaza contains over 6 blocks of shops, restaurants and boutiques on multiple levels.

We have to save our walking tour of the Gaslamp Quarter for another time...you can only cram so much in any given day!

Again back on the trolley for our next stop, and my favorite, The grand Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island. The hotel opened in 1888 and became the landing spot for American heroes, Presidents, Princes, movie stars and more of the rich and famous. Starting with Benjamin Harrison in 1891, 10 Presidents have visited the Hotel del Coronado. Celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and athletic heroes like Babe Ruth have also stayed at the Del.

I will return someday to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado!!

And the views of the grand Pacific.

It was a long day and none of us could wait to get home to sit down for awhile!

The next day we went back to San Diego Harbor for a two-hour harbor cruise on the Hornblower.

There were two cruise ships in the harbor that Sunday, the Carnival Elation and the Oosterdam from Holland America. They were berthed right next to No. 41, the Aircraft Carrier Midway which created quite a sight!

We sailed by Seaport Village, a 14 acre waterfront shopping, dining and entertainment complex recreating a harbor side setting of a century ago. Here you see the Village along the waterfront and a blimp hovering over downtown preparing for tomorrow night's big game here in San Diego with the Chargers vs. the Broncos.

We cruised under the Coronado Bay Bridge (which, by the way, was made in a curve in order to be long enough...2 miles...to receive federal funding to build!)

and arrived at the 32nd Avenue Naval Pier and the Naval Amphibious Base, home of the Navy Seal Commando Training Center. We could view both active and retired Navy destroyers, cruisers and frigates.

Cruising back to the north of the Coronado Bay Bridge we saw (along with the retired Midway) we saw the Aircraft Carriers USS Nimitz (No. 68) and USS Ronald Regan (No. 76).

These carriers are almost 1,100 feet long, over 250 feet wide and are 23 stories high from the keel to the top of the mast which is why they are berthed north of the bridge. They have 4 distilling units to convert over 400,000 gallons of salt water to fresh water for use by the propulsion units and crew. The propulsion system is two nuclear power plants, which means these carriers can go for 22 years before a "fueling".

The USS Midway last saw action in Operation Desert Storm in January of 1991 and was decommissioned in April of 1992. Then, in January 2004 the ship was moored at her final location at the Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego, where she was opened to the public as a museum and memorial in June 2004.

After leaving the Midway (the walking tour of which constitutes at least a day's worth of exercise with all those stairs!!) we went next door to a park honoring this country's veterans, and navy personnel in particular. We were treated to this larger than life statue of the famous picture of the troops returning from World War II.

And Ken got to join the soldiers and enjoy one of Bob Hope's many holiday visits to the troops.

We again went home extremely tired (you think it has something to do with age?)!!

We spent Sunday watching the Patriots win their game against Buffalo only to have Miami and Baltimore win their games to put our team out of the playoffs. How long till spring training?????

Monday we went to the San Diego Zoo, considered one of the largest, most progressive zoos in the world with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species. The Zoo grew out of exotic animal exhibitions abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside in August 1921, and the zoo began to move in the following year.

We saw flamingos standing on one leg...

a polar bear guarding his food...

hippos sleeping in the sun, only to raise an eyebrow to check us out...

the gorillas came out to play

or just to contemplate

the giraffes were busy at feeding time...

and everyone was taking pictures of the elephants...

and the rhinos got together for a little nap.

Which, by the way, was something we needed desparately. It was another day of walking and hills and steps.

Sarah's last night and day here were marred by a terrible toothache and her trip to the dentist to have an extraction before flying out Tuesday night. I'm sure she'll remember this vacation if for no other reason than that. We'll miss her terribly...it was so nice to have her here for awhile.

We're still here in San Diego for three more weeks, but we put so much into this week, I'm publishing this part of the blog now. Still a lot to come as I'll be spending some more time with my Aunt Evy and cousin Jan and our good friends, Dick and Cescia Derderian are here. We're planning some kayaking over in Mission Bay and a trip to one or more wineries. Still so much to do.........

Happy New Year everyone!!