San Diego - statues

Friday October 2, 2009

Glenn was tired. I got the bright idea that, since we were going to take the trolley over to Coronado, he could wait at the ticket booth for it while I ran over to the park with the statue, on the other side of the aircraft carrier. When we had taken the trolley before, it zipped into a mall by the water. I figured that mall was right beside the statue so I could meet Glenn when the trolley arrived. It seemed so simple.

Off I went down the street and around to the park.

And here is the 25 foot statue of the sailor and the nurse, called 'Unconditional Surrender.' If you wait a moment or two, somebody will come along to reenact the scene.

A closer view. Those shoes are huge.

Ha, what is that man doing?

Tucked away behind the sailor statue is this - 'A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military.'

San Diego - USS Midway Museum

Friday October 2, 2009

When I first heard about the Midway, I imagined some amusement park with a roller coaster, not an aircraft carrier.

With our late start, we decided to skip Old Town and just take a cab right to the aircraft carrier. We arrived a bit before the opening time of 10:00 and got in line for tickets. Adults: $17. Seniors: $13.

You need a wide angle lens to fit it all in.

There's the dock where we came in the other day, with a couple of cruise ships and a Hornblower ship.

Inside we inadvertently got caught up in a self-guided audio tour, winding through a maze of corridors. The tour is probably quite interesting but I really wasn't into it on this day. Once we found our way back out to the gift shop, I visited the washroom where this sign was inside the door. Mainly, I'll remember it for being when I figured out what was wrong with the camera's light setting. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the picture sizes were also wrong. We didn't discover that until after we got home. So all of the pictures taken with this camera for the rest of this trip have the sides chopped off.

We really just wanted to get up to the flight deck. Glenn went up to one of the young guys on the deck and, noting the wings he was wearing, asked if he was a pilot. The fellow said, no, he just worked around the airplanes. Not even on the airplanes.

The arrestor hook.

What I wanted to see most was the runway from end to end. But we couldn't because of all the displays cluttering it up. Being there was like standing on the roof of a large department store... with some airplanes... and guys standing around.

I just wanted to get off and cross that bridge (to Coronado) in the distance. But first, I'll have a closer look at that statue.

The sky was becoming disappointingly cloudy.