Sea World

Shamu eyes the dinner menu

Our stay in San Diego would be replete without a visit to Sea World, a SD icon.  In addition to the shows, which were better than I had imagined beforehand, there were loads of aquariums and exhibits, and a few rides worth a venture.  The shows included acrobats, comedians, tropical birds but the real stars were aquatic: Orcas, Dolphins, Sea Lions and a special crowd pleasing Otter.  It is amazing how much these creatures can learn and how much time it must take to train them.

Since one price get’s you in for a year we returned a second time to hit the Dolphin show and a couple of favorite aquariums again, as well as go up in the revolving tower and ride the Manta Ray coaster, things we missed in the first go-around.  I suppose the coaster was worth the 20-minute wait but was no match for Disney’s Space Mountain.  All in all Sea World was well worth the effort.

Orca's (aka killer whales) are fearsome predators.  I've heard that they are the fastest swimmers in the oceans.

The Dolphin show with it's accompanying human acrobats was our favorite.   

Final curtain call and wave goodbye.

Reef fish exhibit

Leopard Sharks and others

Sea Turtle, yeah no kidding

Lot's of fresh water creatures also

Discus from the Amazon are popular in home aquariums

California Golden Trout

We spent quite a while watching Beluga Whales from above and below the water line

Graceful and seemingly gentle creatures

Sailing with Cap'n Mark

Cap'n Mark, fellow Airstreamer Tom and myself

"Lois Mae" Cap'n Mark's 43-foot Polaris

We met Cap’n Mark and his buddy John in the hot tub on our first Friday afternoon in Chula Vista.  Mark, a San Diego native, had recently sailed in from his home port in Hawaii where he has spent most of the last 40 years, to be near his aging mom.  He lives in the adjacent marina aboard “Lois Mae”, his fine 43-foot Polaris sailboat.  We hit it off immediately and met them later for dancing at the adjacent "Galley Bar".  A couple of weeks later we sailed out thru San Diego harbor and about 10 miles into the Pacific.  Mark, a gregarious, relaxed, California surfer dude, almost to the point where one might question his abilities, is an extremely experienced sailor.  He’s captained his various boats on charters throughout the South Pacific and has made about 20 roundtrips to Hawaii, some solo.  He makes wicked Tacos to boot.  We were joined by SUPer Tom, an expert paddle boarder and fellow Airstreamer from Michigan.  A great sailing day ensued.

We all took our turn at the helm while our fearless Captain chilled in his beanbag chair, required equipment on all his boats, on the foredeck.

Motoring out SD Bay toward the Coronado Bridge and the turn for the open Pacific.

We've seen many private yachts in SD but this one was truly a beauty.  Oh to be a billionaire, but we felt pretty lucky as it was.  SD Convention Center in background.

The "California" a beautiful vessel offers whale watch tours out of SD Harbor

"Whale ho" with the California and Cap'n Mark in hot pursuit

Flagged us a tail a time or two but not in tune with our camera

Nancy takes her turn chillin on the way home down the channel

Tijuana

 Tijuana

Ever-present Cathedrals appear in any Mexican Plaza 

Once again, we received dire warnings against going into Mexico but since we survived our Baja trip with our heads still attached we forged on.  This time it would be a more precise mission, secure food & drink and be in & out under the guise of daylight.  So, with the "Mission Impossible theme" in our ears we boarded the stealth trolley for the few stops south to the border.  Then I began ingesting the State Department warnings on travel to Mexico off our communication device (iPhone) and for a few brief moments it became a surveillance mission to assess the border crossing.  Upon exiting the trolley we infiltrated a squad of German agents, well perhaps family of German tourists, to cross the border with.  However, after walking amongst them for a while we realized that they hadn't received an updated pre-op briefing and had no clue where they were going, so we turned back and headed for the actual border crossing.  Fortunately, we rendezvoused for the crossing with a couple of fully briefed Californians on bicycles, a guy about our age and his son, probably in his late 20s.  Apparently they often come down for the day for a little father-son bonding in Tijuana.  About a half hour later upon gazing out from their usual first stop, a bar where they have their Sunday morning beer and stash their bikes for the day, catch the bewildered look on our faces as we decipher the map, and come running over to invite us for a beer and clarify the next phase of our mission, “relax and have a drink”.  Being from Vermont we are novelties here.  Over beers we got all kinds of directions and places to see, half of which we forget upon walking out of the open-air bar but the other half helped us.  And we were relieved to hear that there really isn’t much to worry about.

Actually, the biggest problem was the 45-minute wait to cross back into the US at the end of the day.  It was Sunday and many native Mexicans living in the US often go “home” on Sundays to visit their relatives, who of course can't enter the US.  I didn’t have high expectations for Tijuana, after all it is a good-sized city, but I’d never been - so why not.  My expectations for Tijuana, being very low, were easily exceeded during the first hour.  A successful mission.

Tequila being served out of a 5-gallon carboy at our first stop.  We don't need no stinkin worms, we got rattlesnakes.  Adding rattlesnakes apparently makes cheap Tequila better or at least more marketable.  We stuck with Corona & lime.

Example of street scene near border

Readily available, but just on a small section.  Our California advisors told us this street was worth walking down, once.

After a few hours meandering around we were ready for a meal.  Ignoring countless street-side invitations for food, we grabbed a taxi to a restaurant that Nancy found on yelp for true Mexican.  It was only a couple of miles away but outside the border tourist area.  It wasn't crowded as it was early for dinner and we were the only gringos.  We had margaritas, appetizers, entrees, and after dinner drinks and exceptional service, all for a little over $40.  They really bent over backwards explaining the menu, particularly since some of the foods didn't seem to have English names even for the matre'de who was the only one who spoke reasonable english.  The food, service, and ambience were awesome.

  

Risking life, limb, and our heads we decided to walk back to the border crossing.  However, having been fully briefed and intoxinated we weren't concerned at all and felt completely safe.  The locals that we met during the day were very friendly and gracious in responding to our locational queries.  The biggest problem was one guy who when I asked in Spanish how far away the restaurant was tried to impress us with his English and said 50 blocks away when he meant 15.  This was was easily corrected when I asked if he really meant "cinquenta", "oh no, no senor, quince" (15).  So off we go down the Paseo de los Heroes, where huge statues of heros occur within roundabouts spaced about 1/4 mile apart.  Oddly the first hero that we encountered was Abe Lincoln.  Apparently, Mexicans and the Mexican government were very much against slavery back at the time and Lincoln was/is considered a hero.  The next hero was an Aztec Chief of unknown significance to us.  There were many more that we didn't see.

Getting dark but ole honest Abe is pretty obvious. 

Paseo de los Heroes

Back to the border tourista zone, however it was mostly locals enjoying the outdoor  music and few gringos.

Boats of San Diego

Boats abound in San Diego, home to the Pacific Fleet, the USS Midway, an excellent Maritime Museum as well as all varieties of recreational boats.  I’ll begin with the USS Midway and a bunch of factoids that we found interesting, then move on to the Pacific Fleet and finally the Maritime Museum.

USS Midway decommissioned and now a museum in SD harbor.

USS Midway

The USS Midway was commissioned in 1945 and accrued an impressive history during her time.  She was decommissioned in 1992 and opened as a museum in 2004 with more than a million visitors each year.  Not often does one get to go on an aircraft carrier so we figured we’d spend an hour or 2.  They kicked us off at closing time many hours later.  I know you’re all dying to hear all about her.  This is one hell-of-a boat or more correctly ship, only submarines are called boats.  She's 1001 feet long, 258 feet at the beam and has a 4 acre flight deck.  OK all you boat owners, tab up those dockage fees.  Don’t want to pay dockage just drop a couple of 20-ton anchors, who’s going to tell you different?  I don’t think I could lift one link of the chain. Packed in are a crew of 4,500 including 5 physicians and 3 dentists.  Feeding this hoard requires 225 cooks who delicately prepare 10 tons of food each day.  But does that include the grog?  And, for the motor-heads out there: under the hood she’s got 12 boilers that generate 212,000 horse power.  Oh but the fuel economy: 260 gallons per mile or 100,000 gallons a day.  Let’s just hop on over to the south Pacific.  “Fill her up sir?”  Why sure, that’ll be 3.4 million gallons.  Since that’s only a month's supply send on tankers to follow us.  This tour was awesome with many an eye opener.  We’ve seen at least 3 other active carriers in port.  The USS Reagan slipped in last week when we weren’t looking.  The new ones have "solved" the fuel economy with a pair of nuclear reactors each.

Midway's flight deck included samples of many aircraft used throughout it's long history. 

Pacific Fleet

Along the row of piers that are home to the Pacific Fleet.

Lot's of tankers and frigates but a few really caught our eye.  This is a quite large pursuit boat of some sort.

And, a smaller one apparently capable of 60 mph.

Assorted frigates and other ships of the Pacific Fleet with the Coronado bridge & San Diego in background.

We witnessed several sub arrivals & departures.  This one from Point Loma.

This sculpture honors many a welcome home or departure to an uncharted future for sailors of the Pacific Fleet.

The Maritime Museum

I wasn’t big on it but Nancy insisted (because she wanted to see the HMS Surprise) on visiting the Maritime Museum along the embarcadero.  Score one for Nancy: what we thought would only take an hour or 2 took most of an enjoyable day.  The museum included a number of ships & boats to explore, each containing models and a plethora of well presented historical information.

Star of India (1863) 212-feet long, 280 feet with spar.

She was launched in November 1863 in England I presume and is the world's oldest active merchant ship.   Her first voyages took her to India for cotton, unavailable from the US due to the Civil War.   She soon turned to transporting emigrants from England to New Zealand.  Other stories followed and she is one of the few remaining ships from the "Age of Sail".   Meandering above and below decks provided some feeling of what life aboard was about.  Very spartan when compared to todays vessels but almost luxurious when compared to the HMS Surprise that I'll get to next.

HMS Surprise (replica of 1700's British frigate), 179-feet overall. 

She spent the first 30 years as a training tall ship on the east coast.  She was later purchased by 20th Century Fox, modified, and became the HMS Surprise for the movie "Master and Commander".  Moving above & below decks it's just about impossible to imagine the hardships faced by these sailors as they traveled to the far reaches of the oceans.  Cramming well over 100 men, necessary for manning and fighting, into a ship of this size would be hardship enough.  Throw in stretches of doldrums, typhoons, freezing cold, scorching heat, short rations, and all to find other lunatics so that you could fire canon balls at each other at point-blank range.  None of this apparently bothered them more than running short of grog, now mates we have a problem.

"OK Nance,  prepare for sail"

"Yeah, I'll get right on that"

Here lies the Captain's cabin, the only space that might be called spacious.  Captain's of this era were more like gods or at least kings aboard their ship.  Can't you Patrick O'Brian fans just vision Aubrey & Maturin sawing away on their violin & cello behind these ports.

Next came a Soviet submarine.  B-39 is a diesel-electric Soviet attack submarine.  Clancy readers will recognize this as a "Foxtrot" class from many of his novels.  During the Cold War this one may have actually stalked several of the Pacific Fleets nuclear subs, that today share SD harbor.  This boat is just shy of 300 feet and held a crew of 78.  I knew that submarine life was cramped but going below made it seem unbelievable.  Not for me, fortunately.  Modern nuclear subs are probably less cramped & spartan as I don't think the Soviets were known for their creature comforts.

Soviet (1974) Foxtrot class attack sub of the Cold War era.

Soviet sub

Another sub, the 165-foot USS Dolphin, was used primarily as a research vessel.  In 1968, the year she was launched, she set an operating submarine record depth that still holds today.  It's still "classified" but her listed operating depth is 3000+ feet.  She was decommissioned in 2007 and claims many other "firsts" in her legacy.

We took more photos of other ships but they have somehow disappeared into the digital atmosphere.  I'm tiring of this page myself anyway so I'll sum it up.  There were a couple of "America's Cup" sailboats and a beautiful old steam/sail "hunting yacht".  Apparently in 1904 it was easier or at least one could with greater luxury move about Scotland's hunting spots using a 134-foot yacht than by land.  There was also a grand 279-foot steam ferry boat built in 1898.  With her Victorian elegance, the Berkeley was the first steel hulled, double-ended ferryboat to ply San Francisco Bay.  One event of note was when she helped evacuate a burning San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake.  Today she houses loads of historical displays, naval, tuna fishing, commercial...

    

San Diego: Chula Vista Digs

San Diego: Chula Vista digs

Our first sunrise in Chula Vista, looking across the neighboring marina from rv park.

Compared to boon-docking in Borrego Springs, where we had no services, the Chula Vista RV Park is luxurious.  We have electricity, pressure water, showers, pool, hot tub, small gym, even cable TV, something we don’t have at home.  Not necessarily better but very very different.  Since it looks like we’ll be in San Diego for a while and there’s so much to do I’ll try to post a few different pages before it gets overwhelming and I just forget about it.

The trolley is a 12 minute walk and provides access to all of San Diego.  We’ve been here about a month and have been to an IMAX movie and toured several museums including the Air & Space, San Diego Art, Model Railroad and Timken Art, all of which and more are in Balboa Park. We’ve biked or more often walked the Embarcadero, Little Italy, Gaslight District, as well as a couple of beach walks.  We've been to Tijuana, toured the USS Midway, sailed out into the ocean, checked out Coronado, Mission Beach, and the La Jolla area.  I'll post these on separate pages, stay tuned.

Chula Vista RV park as we sail by on our way out into San Diego Bay & beyond.

Our location as viewed across entry channel to marina.  The Coronado bridge and downtown San Diego in background. 

View north to SD from beach adjacent to our location.

View south from same spot. These photos are all of San Diego Bay.

Sly devils, these egrets are quite the fisherbirds.  They go into the shallows and wiggle their toes, simulating worms, to lure in a tasty fish dinner.

Bird of Paradise plants are ubiquitous around the rv park and elsewhere.

Scoots seem to graze in the morning but spend most of their time in the water.

Shore birds are also plentiful, a welcome change from the desert.

Mallards, Scoots, and my favorite, probably because we don't have any home, the Pelican.