30 Mar 2019 - Arrived at Seal Beach, 45th Wedding Anniversary

30 Mar 2019

This morning we departed the Admiral Baker RV Park in San Diego at 0914 hrs and headed north to the Los Angeles area, specifically Seal Beach.

The traffic was not nearly as bad as we thought it might be, but southbound was at a crawl.  It did get progressively busier the closer we got, but it was not bad.

The scenery was not great from the interstate, but we could see the Pacific Ocean from time to time. 

A sign for Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base

An Osprey aircraft flying off the coast

We also passed Camp Pendleton where my dad Lefty and uncle Bernard trained in the Marine Corps before they deployed to the South Pacific during World War II.  One of the Marine Corps Ospreys was out flying a mission which was kind of cool to see!

101 miles later and one hour and 57 minutes, we arrived at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.  The office was closed since it is the weekend, but the camp host saw us drive up and he opened up the office.  He quickly found our reservation and recommended an end spot that was vacant and we are really glad he did.  It is a pull through site 20ft wide x 50 ft long, fully paved, full hookup and a paved spot for our pickup too!. 

Huge grassy area right outside our RV

Fire alarm pull boxes on posts located throughout the RV park.

Containers to dispose of  charcoal embers to minimize chances of fires

On the other side of the road is a several hundred acre wildlife refuge which is off limits.  The wildlife is abundant here, though.  

Hundreds of these little critters running around.  They look like gophers but they are smaller.

Liberty is thrilled with all the grass.  No more peeing on rocks and sand, and no more sand burrs getting in the fur!

We will be here for the next 15 nights.  We have tickets to a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game as well as an Anaheim Angels baseball game.  We are very close to Long Beach and will visit the USS Iowa battleship there.  We are also looking at visiting the Queen Mary which is closer than the USS Iowa.  There is a beach right here on the Navy base.  We are also looking at a Hollywood tour and many other sightseeing venues.  The Los Angeles area is huge and there are a lot of things to see here.

This RV Park is one of the nicest military campgrounds we have visited.  We will likely spend some time here just chilling out and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather too!!

Finally, today Doreen and I have been married 45 years.  30 Mar 1974 we were married in Cedar Falls Iowa and shortly thereafter we loaded up and headed to our apartment in Caribou Maine where I was stationed in the Air Force.  It's all history after that!  Dang that is a long time!  Time has passed so quickly.  We appreciate everyone's love and support.

29 Mar 2019 - Preparing to Depart San Diego

29 Mar 2019
Today is the last day we spent in San Diego on this trip.  We did not do any touring today.  My back is continuing to give me fits and is really bad today, assuming as a result of the walking involved with attending the ball game yesterday. Doreen and I both just worked around here today in preparation for moving tomorrow.  Then we headed out to fuel the truck before our trip and we stopped at a local Mexican restaurant for an early supper. 

Tomorrow morning we pull chocks and drive up the coast a bit to a suburb of Los Angeles called Seal Beach. 

Seabreeze at Seal Beach circled here

Seal Beach is only about 100 miles from here.  It is located between Long Beach and Huntington Beach, not far from the coast.  We have planned about 3 hours for the drive.  Much of the travel time will depend on traffic, which will determine our speed of travel.  We planned our move for Saturday hoping the traffic will be lighter.

The RV Park we will be at for the next 15 nights is called Seabreeze at Seal Beach.  It is a Navy facility located on Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.  More about Seabreeze tomorrow after we get there.

That's it for tonight.  Next report from Seal Beach.

28 Mar 2019 - Padres vs Giants Baseball Game

28 Mar 2019
Beautiful day today.  About 1030 hrs we headed to the Green Line trolley and started our adventure down to Petco Park where the San Diego Padres will host the San Francisco Giants today at 1310 hrs.

The trolley station and people lining up to board 

The trolley station was much busier today as predicated, but as far out as we are, it was not too bad.  We both got seats.  The closer we got to the Gaslamp Station closest to Petco Park, the trolley filled.  A few stations out and there was no room for anyone.  The BTU production of the passengers caused the trolley to become very 'close' also!!

We arrived at the station and headed to Petco Park.  The whole area was abuzz.  This is opening day and the ball game is sold out.  People likely were calling in sick today or taking leave to be here.  Spring Break may be occurring today as there are a lot of children here also.

The Navy Seamen lined up to be a part of the opening day ceremonies

As we turned the corner to head towards the Team Store, all we could see for a block were Navy Seamen.  We would find out later they are here to be a part of the National Anthem ceremony to hold a huge US Flag horizontally on the field.

We passed through security and headed into the Team Store since that is where the rubber stamp for Doreen's MLB Stadium Passport book was supposed to be located.  We were told it would be at the counter where you check out of the store.  There must have been over 100 people in line with Padre's team items, clothing, hats and other items, and they were all waiting patiently to pay.  Ugh!  We got a hold of one of the employees and luckily the stamp was located on a separate table away from the checkout area!  So we stamped her book and were on our way quickly.

Our seats in the nosebleed section LOL

Our seats are in section 316, shown above.  The closer you get to the field, and the closer you get to home plate, the price goes up.  The seats behind home plate are several hundred dollars each.  We are not necessarily Padres or Giants fans, attending more just to experience a game here at Petco, so I did not want to spend a bunch of money on seats.  In section 316 where we were, I think our seats were about $50 each.  Even that is too much, but it is what it is!

We took the escalator up to the third deck and then had lunch.  I am trying to sample a hotdog at each stadium and then rating them, just for fun.  For quite a while, Cincinnati was the winner, but when we attended Spring Training at Sloan Park, they took the prize.  So I had a hotdog here and Doreen had a hamburger from Hodad's.  The hotdog was mediocre at best.  They were pre-packaged in foil, so mine was luke warm.  The bun was soggy and they had a very limited selection of condiments.  Not good!  Doreen's hamburger was really good. We had a great view from up here.

Game attendees lined up on the skywalk from the hotel waiting to get into the park.

Seamen lined up to enter.

Being goofy, sharing a soda in our Cubs shirts and hats

What the heck is a llama doing up here???  I guess it is 'Petco' Park.  Did not know it was 'take your pet to the game day'!

 We finished up our lunch and made our way up to section 316 only to find our seats occupied.  A family had read the signs wrong and were in the wrong section.  No problem!  The view from up here is really good but everyone looks like ants LOL!

The field is manicured.  

The Giants have been introduced on the third base line

Look at all the people out in the 'Park in the Park' grassy area outside the outfield.

SD for San Diego mowed into the outfield grass

You can see how high we are sitting - the very top section

From Doreen's selfie you can see how close we were to the very tip top!

Not many rows between us and the top.

The Padre's mascot, the 'Swinging Friar' entertaining the crowd and the
Padres players lined up on first base line.

The field is decorated nicely!

The Seamen lined up with the flag ready to deploy

Getting ready to deploy the flag

 

The National Anthem was beautiful, then it was game time.

 

Newly acquired Manny Machado playing third base

       

The line-up's for both teams

The first pitch of the season (hopefully this video will play)

We stayed until the bottom of the 6th and from the roar of the crowd as we were headed down the ramp we could tell they had hit another home run!  The Padres played a great game and won 2-0.  The trip back on the trolley was not crowded, but it would have been if we would have waited until the end of the game.  We are really glad we were able to tour Petco Park and then see a game there.  We plan to do the same thing at both the Anaheim Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

27 Mar 2019 - Trip Planning

27 Mar 2019
No touring today.  I got a lot of trip planning tasks done.  We reserved seats on the Hoover Dam tour during our stay at Nellis Air Force Base.  We also reserved seats on a Pink Jeep Tour to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff.  We used Pink Jeep at Sedona AZ a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Our trip is about to turn the corner back towards Iowa.  It seems like we just left, but that was back in November!  We don't have many stops left, but the longest stop is next - 15 nights at Seal Beach near Los Angeles.  Saturday morning we will leave Sand Diego and drive up the cast a bit to Seal Beach.

Tomorrow morning we will again hop on the Green Line and head downtown to Petco Park for the San Diego Padre's home opener baseball game.  There is a lot of hype here as Manny Machado will be playing his first regular season game for the Padres.  Since we have seen the stadium already, attending the game will be a real treat! 

Game pictures tomorrow!

26 Mar 2019 - USS Midway Tour

26 Mar 2019

This morning we drove down to the Navy Pier and toured the USS Midway aircraft carrier. 

The USS Midway was built just after World War II and was named after the Battle of Midway where the USS Yorktown was sunk by the Japanese.  The USS Midway served around the world, including the sub-Arctic, the NATO European waters and  Vietnam.  It was also the flag ship of the Persian Gulf operations during Desert Storm, and finally was integral in the evacuation of personnel from Clark AB Philippines.  The USS Midway was decommissioned in San Diego in 1992 and remained in storage in Bremerton WA until 2003 when it was donated back to San Diego for a museum.

In 2012 the USS Midway was the first Naval ship to host over 1 million visitors annually.  This was very evident as we arrived before 10:00 a.m. when it opens this morning and the parking lot was almost completely full.  We found a tight spot and made our way to the entrance.  Luckily we had purchased our tickets in advance yesterday at the MWR Office as the line to buy tickets was very long.

All of those on the ship side of the railing were in line to buy tickets.

Since we already had tickets we were near the front of the line.

After a quick check at security we headed into ship entrance and it reminded me of the USS Lexington we toured in Corpus Christi, only much larger. 

The entrance brought us into the Hangar (Main) Deck.  We made our way to the Battle of Midway theater to watch the movie.  The entrance to the theater looks like you are climbing through a hole, that had been created by a torpedo or bomb.

The movie did not last too long and we continued around the Hangar Deck.  At the opposite end was the cafe and gift shop.   

Looking down the massive hangar deck

SNJ Pilot Trainer

F4U-4 Corsair Fighter

TBM Avenger Torpedo Bomber

Display of ejection seats

Bulk Stores Access Hatch.  Overhead crane raised and lowered items from the hangar deck to lower decks

The USS Gerald R, Ford (left), the Navy's next generation aircraft carrier and USS Langey (right), the Navy's first aircraft carrier

A clear mock-up of the USS Midway, so you can see between decks

 In between was some aircraft displays, some cockpits the kids could climb in, and some full motion simulators you could experience for a price.

SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber, outside the movie theater

A pilot and his life support equipment

The hangar was very busy

We then made our way up to the flight deck.  It was a much warmer and calmer day today than it was when we were on the deck of the Lexington!  The USS Midway is much larger and they have many more static display aircraft on the flight deck here.  

On the flight deck they had a munitions display including this MK-51 cluster bomb.  You can see the bomblets inside

A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft

C-1 Trader cargo transport

A display of the colored attire of the crew who work on the flight deck. 
Each color represents a specific job.

Looking at the bridge

E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning.  The disc on top is a huge look-down antenna

F-4 Phantom fighter.  The USS Midway aircraft score the first and last air victories in Vietman. 
1965 and 1973

EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jamming aircraft

Catapult officer responsible for launching the aircraft

A-6 Intruder attack aircraft

 

A look down the 'runway'!

The bridge

H-60 Seahawk multi-purpose helicopter

UH-1 Huey gunship assault helicopter

The machine gun on the Huey

CH-46 Sea Knight vertical replentishment helicopter

SH-3 Sea King anti-submarine helicopter

SH-2 Seasprite utility helicopter

H-34 Seabat anti-submarine helicopter

HUP Retreiver utility helicopter

HO3S utility helicopter

S-3 Viking anti-submarine warfare aircraft, being restored and prepared for display

Volunteers working on the aircraft

Unconditional Surrender statue

F-8 Crusader fighter being prepared for display

A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft

T-2 Buckeye pilot trainer with many visitors

F-14 Tomcat fighter (Top Gun movie)

F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter

F-4 Phantom II fighter

The downtown San Diego skyline from the USS Midway flight deck

EKA-3 Skywarrior

F9F Panther fighter

F9F-8P Cougar photo reconnaissance 

FJ-3 Fury fighter

RA-5 Vigilante reconnaissance

A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft

One of the aircraft elevators used to brink aircraft from the hangar deck to the flight deck

Seagull standing guard

Lots to explore here

We did not go below the hangar deck to the mess deck as we had seen this on the USS Lexington.  The areas displayed here include laundry, galley, sick bay and engine room.  

After touring the USS Midway we headed back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of the day.  Not sure where we are headed tomorrow.  Maybe a beach.