San Diego- oh what a time! Part 1

As I said before, in this post- we had to go back to San Diego.

So we did.

And it was EPIC!

Let me first start off by saying that this place is addicting.  There's so much to do.  So much to see.  To be outside in this town is magnificent!  I love San Diego!

Ok, with that out of the way...Gonzo and I went back to San Diego this past weekend.  There was no plan in place.  We have a bit of a noise problem in our current living situation, so we just knew that we wanted to be out of the apartment and hopefully have some piece and quiet for a few days.

I won't bore you with the tedious details of where we ate (at least not in part 1), I will share with you a little gem that is just hanging out in the bay of San Diego, though.

It's the Maritime Museum.  You can look up a complete list of details here, but I'm just going to share with you our little adventure.

(Let me warn you that some of these photos are courtesy of Gonzo and some are courtesy of me...the more artsy- professional looking ones belong to Gonzo)

For the low low price of $16 per person you get to take a self guided tour of 6 ships (2 of them are submarines).  Honestly $16/person is a steal for this place. I think we were there for over 3 hours taking it all in.
Oh, as a word of warning- if you get sea sickness, or motion sickness...you may want to avoid this place or pop some motion sickness meds before coming here...they are boats...in the water.  They do sway with the waves.

We wandered the first ship, The Star of India for a good while.

I didn't really know anything about this ship going in, but by the end of the entire ship tour I learned more than I probably needed to know as a land lubber.  Worth noting: Gonzo learned that this ship is haunted by a man.  A stow away actually.
While he attempted to tell me of this ghost, he told me the man had died of scallywags.  I asked if he meant scurvy.  Pick your poison but I have now decided that a death by scallywags is a much more hilarious way to go.  

 

  

The second ship we went aboard was the San Salvador.  Gorgeous pirate looking ship.  I believe this was the ship that we could see sailing in the bay on Sunday.  This ship has cannons on board (pics below).  

I have lots of pictures, so I'm not going to bore you to tears with them, you just have to go to see for yourself.

After that ship we climbed into the first of 2 submarines.  The B-39 Submarine is an old Soviet Era Diesel Electric sub.  I will warn you...this is tight.  If your claustrophobic avoid it.  If you can't squeeze yourself thru the demonstration hole prior to climbing aboard then you will find yourself stuck once inside.  My back decided to play games with me going thru the second one...I believe there were 2 or 3 more I had to climb thru- I thought I was going to die.  Everything is in Russian inside- except for the museum explanations.    

While it was pretty neat, I have a bit of claustrophobia and my back felt like it was breaking, so I was very thankful to be out of it. 

There are some other boats that you can climb on and, like I said, another sub to go into (the USS Dolphin is much more spacious and there are no holes to squeeze thru).  Gonzo managed to get an amazing shot of the sunset thru the para-scope of the USS Dolphin (above). 
Meanwhile I'm over taking shots of the compass on the Star of India to get the reflection of the San Salvador...

Once you've seen all 6 ships, in order to exit the museum you have to go thru what looks like a building but is actually a boat.  There is an art exhibit currently that has some of Ansel Adam's photographs, so that was an added bonus. 

We stayed at the awesome Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina again.  Walking distance it's a little over a mile to the Maritime Museum.  By the time we finished at the museum it was dark so we made our way back, enjoying the night sky and the sounds of the bay.

The USS Midway was lit as usual.  We'll have to come back to do that tour.  And one of these times, I'm going to get my picture taken with the Tom Cruise Top Gun impersonation guy who hangs out on the sidewalk.  He looks and sounds just like the real guy (only taller).  

And that's the view from our hotel room.  It was a great day in San Diego.  I couldn't imagine that it would get any better.  But then again, I had never been whale watching before Sunday either.  But that will have to wait for another post.  Stay tuned to Part 2!