First you take G-ville to the 99, the 99 to the 5, the 5 to the 210, the 210 to the 15, the 15 to Escondido.....

We started our little excursion by having lunch at Johnny Rockets in Old Town Pasadena. It's really a cool place to walk around and stretch your legs.

JR's has great food and the staff was very friendly.

Our destination was a resort run by Harrahs. They gave us 3 free nights and free food. Not bad. Didn't know how far out we were though, but it worked out just fine. The rooms were beautiful and everyone was very nice.

The next day we headed for Julian, home of the famous Julian pies. Marlene had never heard of this place. We drove up into the mountains to this quaint little town to have breakfast. We ate at the Julian Cafe, met the owner and had a really good time. The food was fantastic.

Marlene is reading the history of this old building. She couldn't finish her pancakes, which means she has to go back.

Weekends around here are busy. This is Mom's Bakery. They compete with the Julian cafe for pie sales. I guess they line up down the street to buy fresh baked pies, it's really a big deal.

After stuffing ourselves we headed off to find the 8 into San Diego, but I got lost a time or two. We took what looked like the bigger road on the map and there wasn't 50 feet of straight road for 20 miles. The other way must be gravel. We shot down the 8 into Mission Bay. I only had two goals for the trip, go to Julian and rent a boat on MB. We had rented boats years ago when Nathan was in the Navy. They had these little two person boats that really went pretty good. They no longer have them so you have to get a considerably larger boat with more power. We had a great time. Lost the lifepreservers, got stuck on a sand bar but got the boat back in one piece and didn't get arrested.

We left MB and headed for downtown and the waterfront. Parked and started walking towards the aircraft carrier Midway. It turned out to be too late to spend all the time needed to go on board so we took a Pedicab to Seaport Village. All along the waterfront there are beautiful sculptures.

Imagine the size of that horse.Yes, Marlene caught me in a candid moment with my shirt off. I told her not to do that.Completely made of metal straps.
There is a beautiful WWII memorial, honoring Navy personel.

The trees in SeaPort Village are amazing and shade huge areas.

This guy was great.

This guy put out beautiful music without any soundtrak. It was hard to believe he was doing it all. The video didn't want to load.Just had to take this of these junior Marines. They looked really squared away.
Next to the Midway, which you can see in the background there is a park with a sculpture garden honoring Bob Hope. It's incredible.

Each person depicted represents a branch of service. They are life-size figures.This is modeled after the famous picture from Life magazine. It's twenty five feet tall and very impressive to see.

This was taken from the flight deck of the Midway. You can see how big this thing is.

Left the waterfront and went up the street to Horton Plaza, a multi, multi level shopping center.

Tried to get an internet connection but failed. Just rested for awhile.

Next day we headed back into SD to go to the Midway, but on the way we stopped at the flying Leathernecks museum in Mirimar. Lots of planes and memorabilia, quite interesting and free.
Got on the Midway. You have no appreciation of how big these things are until you get on one. They give you head phones for the self guided tour.


This an Intruder with its wings folded in the hanger deck. There was one of these at the Marine museum and I couldn't get over how big this plane is.

This is a fuel tank with VA195 logo on it. This was an old friend, Bill Brewer's squadren.

A connector for the anchor chain. Each link in the chain weighs 135 pounds.

Junior officers berths. Roomy compared to enlisted.
Logos from the different squadrons that served on the Midway. I recognized a few of friends.
Up on the island, where the air boss sits. Great view.

The ladders up to the bridge were tricky to say the least.
From the late 60's through Viet Nam and into the 80's the Navy's workhorse plane was the A7. I had many friends that flew these planes, Bill Brewer, Jack Nickle and others. The A7 below is staged to look like it is ready to launch from the Midway. Brewer mainly flew off the Kitty Hawk and I'm not sure about Jack. This plane was replaced with the F18.

In the hanger bay they have cockpits of various planes that you can get in. I had to get into the A7 cockpit. It is a tight fit.

Finally we headed home by way of Nathan's for his birthday. We took him shopping but struck out on the kind of shirts he was looking for. He wanted to go to Red Robin for lunch. Hard to believe he's THIRTY! It just doesn't seem possible that much time has gone by. Marlene was just six years into teaching and we were 28 years old. Wow!!!

We had a great trip and hope they invite us back. It had been a few years since we were last in San Diego and really enjoyed seeing it again.