Drive to San Diego
We didn’t have a long walk after we said goodbye to my parents to our new mode of transportation. After some 100 feet, we stood before the SIXT rental location. We didn’t chose the cheapest car to rent but I think we still got a car in a more premium class than we paid for: A Volvo V60 cross country. Only 1000 miles driven, enough power under its hood and a very good sound system with integrated navigation – good enough for us =)
In San Diego we found a motel in the Mission Valley. The equipment in our room was rather basic. With enjoyment we previously bought some microwaveable food at Walmart. Once inside the room we had to discover that there is no microwave oven. But there was a television, which made a sound I didn’t hear for a decade or more once the power toggle was switched: dum-zsssssssssssss. We had an old tube screen with only one working channel in our room. Half of the picture was cut off, but at least it delivered a very nostalgic experience =)
USS Midway
Most of the daytime of our first day in San Diego we spent on the USS Midway. It was everything we hoped it to be. The USS Midway is/was an aircraft carrier launched in 1945 and decommissioned in 1992.
For a small entry fee, you get equipped with a map and an audio guide that accompanies you on your journey into the depths of the ship. We had a look at the three different command rooms, where the enlisted sailors slept, where the admirals slept, where the food was cooked and eaten by both the officers and the lower ranks, where the captain sat when he personally controlled the ship, etc.
Not only did we enjoy the nearly endless corridors filled with interesting stuff, but there were also a lot of veterans who served on this very ship present and answered every question the visitors might have. I was fascinated by their stories, for example when one of them explained different tactics on how to fight with enemy ships depending on how well equipped and trained they are. It’s one thing to read about such things, but hearing it from someone who used it was a very pleasurable experience.
It wasn’t far from sunset when we disembarked. Therefore, we scouted the proximity of the ship and upon completion of this task we went to downtown San Diego. The night before we heard about Anti-Trump protest going on here, therefore we had to check it out. =)
San Diego Zoo
The second day in San Diego we went to the Zoo. It was time for me to go to a zoo again, I haven’t been in one for a very long time. As it happens it was Veterans Day (a public holiday) and the zoo entrance was very crowded. Luckily the zoo is big enough that all these people spread well over its entirety. The zoo in San Diego is huge, over 4000 animals from over 600 species are there to be watched. Among those animals are pandas, polar bears, other bears, zebras, giraffes, elephants, a lot of bird, apes and monkeys, etc. From some of these animals you find a picture below but of course not from all of them =) We left the park exhausted in the late afternoon after we found the last animals on our to-see list, the penguins.
