              Top Gun! |
San Diego, CA
A lovely day in San Diego. The weather was very nice. Sunny, blue skies. About 20C. Just perfect sightseeing weather. Arcadia docked at about 0830, right in town and next door to the Midway aircraft carrier museum on one side and the maritime museum on the other. We disembarked at about 0930 and walked the couple of hundred yards to the Midway which we had never visited before. It was so interesting and very well done. We had the audio guides and there were lots of exhibits around the decks to find out about. There were also tours and lectures by docents, all of them ex Navy fliers and sailors, many of them had served on the Midway.
We especially enjoyed the tour of the command areas and the officers messes and also the lectures on plane take off and landing systems. They were very visual and being on the flight deck, you could easily see what the docents were talking about. There were various different jets deployed on the decks which were in service on the Midway, plus helicopters and you could go inside some of them. I can see why it is one of the most popular museums. We thoroughly enjoyed about 3 hours aboard this massive ship.
From there we walked into the centre of town in order to find some wifi and also to find a barber for Bob so he could have his hair cut. He’d forgotten to pack the trimmers. Didn’t matter in Goa, but haircutting on the ship is reallly expensive, hence the need to find something ashore. We had a look around Horton Plaza mall downtown and managed to facetime Daisy from there for a nice long chat. She sounded bright and happy. After that we got a new battery for my diving watch and walked to the barber shop where Bob was sheared!!! Looked much smarter when he came out.
Too tired to walk all the way back so we picked up the ship’s shuttle bus at the mall to get back. Walked along the seafront to the maritime museum and admired the historic ships anchored outside. We passed Antony’s Seafood on the way and we remembered eating there in the mid 90s with Mike Holbrook when we visited the DUI drysuit factory in San Diego.
Got back on board about 4 and there was a sailaway party up on the rear deck. We quite like watching these. The entertainments team lead some passengers in party dances and a lot of British jollification goes on. We had vouchers for 2 free champagnes so we got these, turned our loungers to the rail and watched as the ship slowly edged out of the harbour and around Coronado Island to turn south for Mexico. We really like San Diego and have lots of memories of being here over the years starting with staying here with Lucy when she was only 1 month old. We have come back many times.
Now 3 days at sea before Huetalco which is around 350km south of Acapulco. Not an area of Mexico we have visited before so looking forward to that. It’s a beach resort within a marine reserve so we will be doing watery things there.