Day 1

Nick and I made awesome time and made it to San Diego in only 5 hours. After we checked in to our hotel on the bay, we made the less than half mile walk over to the USS Midway, the decommissioned aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. Obviously, it’s enormous. What I didn’t know is practically the entire thing is open to the public and part of the “museum.” We were here for over 3 hours.

Things we learned:

• Wear comfortable shoes it’s enormous. Also, try not to visit when San Diego is experiencing a mini heat wave.

• Being an enlisted-man lends to unfortunate living quarters

• Being an officer is only slightly better in terms of bunk space

• The XO (Executive Officer) definitely has the best room that even includes a sitting area/office!

• This is probably where the Village People got inspiration for “In the Navy”

• Nick likes taking pictures of me in the kitchen. You can check these items as these item, here!

• Being an engineer is the worst. The best outcome is you end up deaf from the constant noise from the equipment. Decorating steam turbines is apparently supposed to help raise morale

• The planes (and helicopters) are the coolest part

*Fun side story – 10 seconds before we took this picture, some lady walked right into this propeller (and was not injured, so we didn’t even have to feel bad when we laughed)

F-14 Tomcat, the type used in Top Gun

SH-3 Sea King Anti-Submarine helicopter (I didn’t even know anti-submarine helicopters existed)

• Aircraft carriers have come a long way. These are models of the very first aircraft carrier, USS Langley (on the right) and a modern day aircraft carrier, USS Gerald Ford. The USS Midway, when first commissioned after WWII, used to have just a rectangular flight deck. It went through multiple “modernizations” to end up how it is today. The deck area that sticks out makes it possible for planes to land and take off at the same time.

• Nick’s arms are long enough so that we can take pictures of ourselves with the DSLR

After walking around the USS Midway for 3 hours and then back to our hotel, we decided to try the Ruth’s Chris that is directly next door to the hotel. Things we learned at the restaurant:

• Ruth’s Chris is incredibly overpriced for being mediocre
• Don’t touch the 500 degree plates. (They are literally 500 degrees and you will burn yourself.)

Day 2

We went to Balboa Park today and the items on our agenda were the Botanical Building and the Model Railroad Museum. We also moseyed on over to the Rose Garden and the Cactus Garden. (We had to leave the Nevada desert to see a cactus garden?)

The Botanical Building

The botanical building and lily pond is one of the most photographed areas in San Diego, so we decided to grace the area with some kissies.

We both took pictures with an orchid inside the building.

The goldfish plant is runner up in the “Coolest Plant” contest.

The pitcher plant wins the “Coolest Plant” designation.

These plants grow primarily in Southeast Asia, with many species coming from the island of Borneo. All carnivorous plants grow in areas where the soil/bark/leaf litter is so devoid of nutrients that the plants must supplement their diets with insects and animals. The pitchers have an intoxicating nectar around the edge to attract various small creatures who feast on the nectar and fall inside, where digestive acids and enzymes dissolve the soft body parts, and the resulting nutrient “soup” is absorbed by the plant.

We also spotted a hummingbird flitting around from flower to flower getting totally nectar wasted (not pitcher plant nectar wasted, though).

And because my Grams is totally obsessed with flowers, here are the rest of the flower pictures we took inside:

Model Railroad Museum

San Diego is home to the largest model railroad museum in the United States! This was a must-see for Nick, and even though I wouldn’t claim to be a model RR enthusiast, it was still pretty neat to see all of the intricate details that go into creating landscapes and towns.

Some of my favorites:

This is supposed to be Tijuana. Note the barbed wire topped fence in the background marking the border – lol!

This tiny carnival. Where do you buy tiny carnival pieces?

This intricate trestle. Also, this train had cars that each represented a different beer, which was kind of neat.

A fun Halloween themed area:

A replica of our future summer home on the lake ;)

A teeny tiny model train inside the model train area:

Here’s a video of a train in action:

And the rest of the photos we took:

Cactus Garden

This historic garden was developed under the direction of Kate Sessions for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition. It contains some of the largest cactus and succulent specimens in the Park and has also been developed to include the exotic African and Australian Protea plants.

Yep, there were a lot of large cacti.

Rose Garden

The rose garden has approximately 2500 roses and almost 200 varieties. It smelled wonderful!

Day 3

Sea World San Diego is freaking awesome! In addition to all the regular park attractions, we booked the “Penguins Up Close” tour. It included extra information about the research being done on the penguins, the chance to touch a Macaroni penguin and access to the inside of the 26 degree penguin exhibit that housed Gentoo, Adelie, Macaroni, King and Emperor penguins. It was AMAZING!

Penguins have 70 feathers per square inch! (A flamingo has 10 feathers per square inch.) It’s what keeps them dry and warm when they’re swimming in Antarctic waters.

These are baby penguin feathers. They were so downy and soft! I wish we could interact with a baby penguin – they are so squee!

More awesomeness around Sea World:

There was a new roller coaster called The Manta that we rode twice because it was fun and exciting while also being comfortable! The exit led to a bat ray touch pool. Rays feels so slimy and squishy and neat.

Sea turtles are a favorite of mine:

We had fun at the Tide Pool:

I still want to swim with sharks:

Wolf eels are pretty gross looking:

The reef stonefish is known as the world’s most venomous fish. Rather than swim away when disturbed, the stonefish will raise its dorsal spines for protection. These spines inject highly toxic venom which leads to severe pain, as well as possible shock, paralysis, and even fatality.

And last, but not least, the whale show is pretty awesome.

Day 4

Nick and I were seriously underwhelmed by the San Diego Zoo. We took some good pictures and tried to make the best of it and now we can say we’ve seen pandas for realz. I really liked the reptile house with all the neat snakes and lizards. Nick’s favorite part was the petting zoo where we took some pictures with goats. (Nick really super likes goats; almost as much as penguins.) In summation, it was a pretty expensive day to do 3 hours of nonstop cardio, but we like being active.

Some interesting animal facts:

Blue Spotted Tree Monitor – First discovered in 2002. It is only found in the Batanta Island rainforest off the coast of New Guinea. In case you couldn’t tell from what’s going on in the picture above, they are part of a successful breeding program to increase their numbers.

Angolan pythons are seldom seen in the wild. They live in the dry, rocky foothills of Angola and Namibia–areas that are remote and mostly unpopulated. Only a very few of them have been exported for scientific and educational purposes.

This two-headed California King snake would have been twins, but the embryo didn’t split all the way.