San Diego

We sure noticed a change in temperature as we left Vegas and got closer to San Diego! We went from 35 to 21 and added humidity. We're thankful for the reprieve - temperatures should remain unchanged while we're here. The forecast in Anaheim is for more heat. We head there on Tuesday and will stay for 5 nights.

Our first San Diego tourist attraction was a tour aboard the USS Midway (used for the movie Top Gun!). This aircraft carrier was used toward the end of WWII through to the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. The average age of the thousands of sailors who shared it was only 19! One thing that I found interesting was that they landed planes on the deck every 30 seconds. Oh, and that there was a jail on board for their own sailors. They should have locked this guy up -

Depending on your rank the bunks were either 2 or 3 tall. Course, the Commanding officer and many other higher ranks would have their own private room with a double sized bed.

We had these 2 sailors locked up for being too cute. The reason for an on board jail was for those sailors who were caught stealing or whatever. They may be down here for 3 days at a time (perhaps the type of crime would extend their stay) and they ate bread and water, could only sit or stand but were only allowed on their bed during the night. The 2 criminals pictured here got on for good behaviour.

I was last in San Diego in 1990 and remembered eating in this restaraunt at Seaport Village. It is still doing well (judging on the number of people seated inside).

From Seaport Village we headed to La Jolla. If you've seen Top Gun, the bar while Tom Cruise and the other pilots went to was in La Jolla. Also, Simon and Simon fans will remember that the characters often spoke of La Jolla. Anyways, it's a beautiful shoreline complete with caves, sea lions, sand, tide pools and shells.

Sea Lions are common here. They have their rocks that they frequent just off shore but when the tide is in the lions move to the beach. There is much talk by the locals as to who has the right to the beach; the animals or the people. We were here when the tide was out so sharing the space was easy.

We didn't wait for the sun to set but it's been said that this is one of the nicest places to view it. It's said that just before the sun sets you can actually see a flash of green. It's not a super hero but is equally amazing and cool! Just as the sun sets, the sky will appear to light up green for a moment. Red and orange light, which are refracted the least, disappear first as the sun sets. Although green light is roughly in the middle of the spectrum, it is usually the last color to be seen by someone watching a sunset because the blues and violets are practically absorbed by the contamination in the atmosphere which scatters blue light and removes it from the line of sight. (info from http://www.101sandiego.com/)