Bob Hope Park
We drove from Ventura to San Diego on Saturday. We had anticipated that the drive would be stressful: it lived up to our expectations. We are proud to say that we navigated the interstates through Los Angeles and we are still married.
The first part of the drive wasn't bad. We drove along the coastline from Ventura to Santa Monica on the California 1 Coast Road. It follows right along the shoreline and on Saturday it was well used by joggers and cyclists. There were hundreds of people on road bikes. We were impressed by the continuous stretch of sandy beaches. As it was the weekend families were out enjoying the day at the beach. Surfers were catching waves all along the drive.
From Malibu right through to San Diego it got hectic. In places there were 10 lanes in each direction. Bob got us into the carpool lane and that is pretty much where we stayed. It was very hot out and as we don't have air conditioning we had all the windows down. The noise of traffic, wind and tires on the road was deafening.
We are camping at a KOA in Metro San Diego.. It is a lovely oasis of trees and grass and we have enjoyed the pool. The temperatures have been in the 90's F. Apparently it is unusually hot for this time of year. There is easy access to the San Diego transit system from our campground so today we rode the bus/trolley in to the Embarcadero area of San Diego Harbour and did a three hour "walking tour" of the USS Midway.
The Midway is an aircraft carrier. It was commissioned in 1945, just after WWII ended. At that time it was the largest carrier in the world and the first too large for the Panama Canal. It was decommissioned in 1992 after serving as the Navy flag ship in Desert Storm, and now serves as a naval aviation museum. We walked almost 6 miles on the boat. They let us go almost anywhere. We toured the bridge, flight deck, hangar decks, accommodation decks, Captain's cabin, Admiral's cabin. The ship was a floating city with a crew of 4 500. There was a big difference in the size and quality of accommodations between the officers and the enlisted men. The enlisted men's quarters would not be a goo place for anyone with claustrophobia.
San Diego Bay is beautiful and active. We watched sailboats, kayaks, pleasure craft, barges and navy ships go past. There were two huge cruise ships docked at the Embarcadero. We were surprised to see that the San Diego airport is adjacent to the bay. Landing aircraft approach from directly over downtown.
The US Pacific fleet is headquartered in San Diego. The naval base and ship yard is huge. The trolley went past the ship yard and we saw a number of different vessels including a couple of hospital ships.
Trip mileage: 2649 miles
The first part of the drive wasn't bad. We drove along the coastline from Ventura to Santa Monica on the California 1 Coast Road. It follows right along the shoreline and on Saturday it was well used by joggers and cyclists. There were hundreds of people on road bikes. We were impressed by the continuous stretch of sandy beaches. As it was the weekend families were out enjoying the day at the beach. Surfers were catching waves all along the drive.
From Malibu right through to San Diego it got hectic. In places there were 10 lanes in each direction. Bob got us into the carpool lane and that is pretty much where we stayed. It was very hot out and as we don't have air conditioning we had all the windows down. The noise of traffic, wind and tires on the road was deafening.
We are camping at a KOA in Metro San Diego.. It is a lovely oasis of trees and grass and we have enjoyed the pool. The temperatures have been in the 90's F. Apparently it is unusually hot for this time of year. There is easy access to the San Diego transit system from our campground so today we rode the bus/trolley in to the Embarcadero area of San Diego Harbour and did a three hour "walking tour" of the USS Midway.
The Midway is an aircraft carrier. It was commissioned in 1945, just after WWII ended. At that time it was the largest carrier in the world and the first too large for the Panama Canal. It was decommissioned in 1992 after serving as the Navy flag ship in Desert Storm, and now serves as a naval aviation museum. We walked almost 6 miles on the boat. They let us go almost anywhere. We toured the bridge, flight deck, hangar decks, accommodation decks, Captain's cabin, Admiral's cabin. The ship was a floating city with a crew of 4 500. There was a big difference in the size and quality of accommodations between the officers and the enlisted men. The enlisted men's quarters would not be a goo place for anyone with claustrophobia.
San Diego Bay is beautiful and active. We watched sailboats, kayaks, pleasure craft, barges and navy ships go past. There were two huge cruise ships docked at the Embarcadero. We were surprised to see that the San Diego airport is adjacent to the bay. Landing aircraft approach from directly over downtown.
The US Pacific fleet is headquartered in San Diego. The naval base and ship yard is huge. The trolley went past the ship yard and we saw a number of different vessels including a couple of hospital ships.
Trip mileage: 2649 miles
Captain's chair, USS Midway
Ship's wheel, USS Midway
Sailor's quarters, USS Midway
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