50 States, Day 353

Touring San Diego   0 Miles

"An adventure shouldn't be planned- otherwise it's just a venture."
~Fairy Jane in Austentatious



Today we packed up the six month old twins- rather like a Sherpa assisted trek up into the Himalayas- and headed to the San Diego Harbor to tour big impressive ships. 



Our first ship, the USS Midway, impressed me with it's immense size, but contrarily, I was shocked at it's small airstrip. I stood on the deck and imagined flying toward it as the deck pitched and yawed, drifting in at just above stall speed and dropping onto the deck without crushing anything and hooking the catch wire. And in 2-1/2 seconds I've gone from 140 knots to stopped. My.  

And who was the first test pilot to launch off an aircraft carrier? In fact, who even thought of an airport at sea? 


Another jaw dropping feature of the ship was the elevators on the sides, where the crew rolled a plane, then elevated it to the deck level. What a marvel. Want more? Who thought of how planes take up so much space, so they design them with fold up wings. 


Big things impressed me too. 400 haircuts a day. Two tons of laundry washed and dried an hour. A surgery, dentist's office and a really cool computer onboard, not even seven feet high, with one (1!) gigabyte of memory. Awesome!




In a swing the other way, we toured the Star of India, a sailing ship/museum that sailed in the eighteenth century. The passengers' quarters were intriguing, as a First Class passenger booked his travel, and got a room. He's got a half hour to hire a builder to install bunk beds and any other comforts before she sets sail. 

Standing on the deck and looking up into the spider webs of rigging, I marveled at how magnificent it must be to ride aboard that ship at full sail. Below decks we could see the evolution of shipping. Seems like the move from wooden to steel boats was a huge leap forward. 

After two long ship tours, the twins had about enough, so we took them right out to dinner at a nice pizza place along the boardwalk and harbor. Mr. Sun made a bit of an appearance so we ate outside so the twins could act like tired six month olds without sending other patrons running for the exits. With four adults to hold, walk, wiggle and love them, the twins did pretty well. However, by the time we were done, they were done. We headed home tired and happy, a very nice day with relatives. We may all smell like spit up, but it was a great day anyway. 

And now, the mistress of spoil, Quilter Girl!


As anyone with kids can relate to, we finally made it out of the house at 1:30. We were shooting for 10:30!  I am enjoying Samuel and Sara so much.  We will be back here a lot sooner next time!  Our dinner was great, a huge tasty salad with an equally huge pizza.  The babies were really good and Sarah rode on me for most of the day which I enjoyed.  Sarah had a great nap and was very cuddly.  They are both going to be crawling soon, then watch out.  Tomorrow we head north, up the coast toward Oregon (eventually).  

QG



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