San Diego...WEEK 2 (Part 1)

San Diego Metro KOA
Chula Vista, CA
January 15, 2019

Coronado Beach Doggie Park
A clean and pristine beach





 along with beautiful views









and friendly pups (and their owners) make Coronado Beach Doggie Park a must do when we visit San Diego.  No better way to put a smile on my face, a skip in my step

(and a skip in Jack's step too)

and fill my heart with happiness than to watch Dover, Sally 

Yes, they practiced for hours to perfect their moves! 

and Jack playing.

Our little athlete!

The off-leash doggie beach is located on the north end of Coronado Beach and backs up to the Navy Base.

Mission Beach 
Much to my excitement, there are 70 miles of beaches in San Diego.  I never know when or where Ocean Beach turns into Mission Beach and Mission Beach turns into Pacific Beach and so on.  What I do know is that it's amazingly beautiful and I am definitely in a happy place.   

For several years we have joined Carol and Ronnie for a bike ride on the boardwalk that meanders along Mission Beach.  We don't have bikes anymore so when Carol wanted to go ride bikes there last week, Joe and I joined them, but we walked.  I was really glad we walked !  We parked at the end of the beach near the volleyball nets.

Hummm...walk the boardwalk or walk the beach?  That's a no brainer !  We had barely gotten started when we saw Carol and Ronnie go by.    

 It was a gorgeous day for a beach walk...

At Bellmont Park, we continued our walk on the boardwalk to get a feel for the "laid-back" neighborhood lined with cute little homes and eateries.  

FYI...The Giant Dipper, located at Bellmont Park, is a wooden rollercoaster built in 1925 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978. 

 Mission Beach spans nearly two miles of ocean front.  The boardwalk curves along the beaches on both the ocean and bay sides of the community.  

FYI...thong bikinis are technically illegal on Mission Beach.  But if the mood strikes to wear one, the law is not typically enforced !

Some alleys that join Mission Blvd to the beach are very charming. 

After a wonderful morning of walking for us and biking for Carol and Ronnie, we all met at Luigi's for pizza and a brew.

 The USS Midway Museum
The USS Midway is a maritime museum located at Navy Pier in downtown San Diego.  

A beautiful skyline from Navy Pier... 

When commissioned in 1945 (a week after the end of WWII) it was the largest ship in the world.   




 Work was done in 1957 to install a deck-edge elevator and an angled flight deck.  In 1966, the flight deck was enlarged from 2.8 acres to 4 acres.

Before being decommissioned in 1992, it served in the Vietnam War and in Operation Desert Storm.  

We began a self-guided audio tour in the hanger deck.  

The flight deck and hanger deck have more than 30 restored aircraft and helicopters displayed.  Joe served on the USS Ranger during the mid sixties.  He saw many of the aircraft that were also on the Ranger.

 "These aircraft and helicopters span decades from the Battle of Midway in 1942, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, to today's tactical aircraft.  Each one represents an aspect of the USS Midway's long history."

After we perused the flight deck, we joined a guided Island tour led by one of the many volunteer docents.  The first deck in the island houses the flight deck operations room and the navigation room.  

 The command center for the flight deck operations is small. The status board pictured below was written by a petty officer...all letters and numbers were written backwards !  The land/launch board details the schedule for all outgoing and incoming aircraft.   


















There is a chair for the air "boss" and the "mini" boss with a view of the entire flight deck.

The Commanding Officer's chair is on the top deck in the island along with the Gator chair where the carrier is steered. 







There are a couple of amazing statues also located close to the Midway on Navy Pier.   

The first one is the "Kissing Statue".  

The statue is 25 feet tall and  officially known as "Unconditional Surrender".  It depicts the famous embrace between a sailor and a nurse celebrating the end of WWII in New York's Times Square in 1945. 



Also on the pier is a National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military.  The statue of Bob Hope shows him entertaining the troops.  What was really cool was an audio box playing sound bites from some of his times entertaining the troops.  When Joe was on the USS Ranger in the mid sixties, Bob Hope visited them twice in the Gulf of Tonkin... once with Ann Margaret !   

 This is not the end of blogging our second week in San Diego so there will be a part 2 coming next.  We did a lot last week because the forecast showed four days of rain this week.   

I will close for now.  Until next time,

 

 HAPPY TRAILS!
  

San Diego...WEEK 1

San Diego Metro KOA
January 7, 2019
Chula Vista, CA





We are all settled in and looking forward to a great month in San Diego.  

Our good friends Carol, Ronnie and their cute puppy Cooper are right next door.  





It was a bit cloudy and drizzly the first of last week.

But Friday dawned with clear blue skies and temps in the mid 60s.  A perfect day to explore Sunset Cliffs Natural Area.  The tide chart showed a -8 low tide mid afternoon so off we all went.  Looking north...

 and looking south.

To say I love exploring the tide pools would be an understatement !

Hermit crabs and sea anemones were the big finds for the day.

 

Carol invited us over for dinner last week.  She served the most delicious beef stroganoff and salad.  She cooked the most yummy stroganoff we have had in their new Instant Pot.

After researching Instant Pots we decided we would become part of the Instant Pot "cult" and purchased one the next day.







Our first meal was a huge success...a pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes.  It took about 20 minutes to cook the tenderloin and 18 minutes to cook the sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes were scrubbed and cooked with the skin on just like I bake them which usually takes an hour or more.  Yahoo!

 


Sunday was Hillcrest Farmer's Market day.  I like the market in the Little Italy district, but Hillcrest is our favorite.  We didn't make it to San Diego last year so our "market" fix was especially awesome.  The colors were so vivid, the happy music put an extra skip in my step, and the yummy smells filled the air and made it quite difficult to decide what to choose to eat ! I didn't take a picture, but Joe and I split a fried halibut burrito.  Add the textures of the fruits and vegetables and all 5 senses had a great workout !

The month is off to a great start.  I will close with a couple of pictures from home.

 So, until next week, 

HAPPY TRAILS !