Go San Diego - USS Midway and the Beach

Today is our last day in California and we couldn't leave without seeing the beach in the daytime. So right after we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel, we drove back over to Belmont Park. It was too early to walk through the park, so we parked in one of the side lots and walked back to the entrance to the beach.

The water was beautiful and cold, with big pounding waves. In the summer, it might have been full of surfers, but not today. We walked out to the water line, but not quite close enough to get our feet wet. There were a few random pieces of seaweed on the hard-packed sand. I was surprised that we didn't find any shells or much of anything really. At least these beaches were clean and well kept. It appeared that someone was making a movie a little way down from us (may that is why it was so clean!) In the opposite direction we saw a few couples walking on the beach like we were.

We finally left the water and drove down to the docks to we could board the USS Midway. This is a gigantic aircraft carrier that was finally decommissioned and turned into a museum. My sweetie really wanted to do this part of the trip and today was the day.

First, let me just say that we were astonished by the size of it all! They have little audio sets that tap each sign and then they have stories from the actual people who walked through the hallways. It was so interesting. I'm glad we planned to spend the rest of our time there until we left for the airport, because I think we could have gone another hour easily.

As it was, we were there over 3 hours, exploring as much of the carrier as we could possibly see.

The top two floors housed all the airplanes and the shops and simulators. They had elevators and were easily traveled by someone with a bad foot. The bottom floor was not, but it had some of the most interesting stuff: like the cafeteria and the laundry.

My favorite part was the top where the airplanes and helicopters were housed. I hadn't realized the nostalgia I would feel when I first saw the CH-46. Back in the day when I was working as a technical writer, our company made flight simulators for the government. The CH-46 was my baby. I modified all the documentation for two contracts.

See this flight panel? I edited and wrote procedures and troubleshooting documents, operations and maintenance manuals that included every one of those panels.

This helicopter could have had one of my books in it with the modifications from our company!

So weird. Once I even flew out to Tustin to see the simulator in action (I got sick on the simulator), but my sweetie did a great job!

When we were finally nearing our absolute time to leave, we said goodbye to the Midway and hurried to get gas, turn in our rental car, and take the shuttle to the airport. Our trip was over... but I want you to know how things worked out with our Go San Diego passes. We tallied nearly $600 for our 7-day trip and they only cost us half that. I'd say it was money well spent.