From Goodtime to Maritime...

Yesterday, it was the Deering Banjo factory (Goodtime and Deering Banjos), today we were back to the waterfront and the San Diego Maritime Museum.  Three things I really enjoy: boats, RVs, and guitars.  We've been walking around the RV resort daily, so it was nice to get in some boat stuff today.

The San Diego Maritime Museum is an interesting collection of some unique water vessels, from submarines to America's Cup racers.  We started our viewing on a former US research submarine...

 

Then, on to the Medera, a pleasure yacht from the last century...

Pretty swanky - and a LOT of teak to care for.  Next in line: America, a former America's Cup racer...

The California, a former revenue ship...

That's the view from the wheel - the bow is a LONG ways off!  The city skyline, with Abracadabra (another AC boat) and a former Russian sub...

Life aboard that Russian sub was pretty nasty compared to the US research sub we were in first...

Some smaller boats, including a Pacific Class racing sailboat, an early pleasure sailboat, and others...

The star of the exhibits has to be the Star India, a sailing transport that had several purposes over the years, but was originally designed to move passengers between England and New Zealand...

That last image show one of several groups of kids that were aboard today, learning about life on the ship, and getting some hands-on experience.  Good team building exercise.  Putting them to work meant they were just running around screaming and playing with everything - I was impressed.  We heard that the Star gets about 21,000 kid visits each year.

The Maritime Museum is based around the ferry Berkeley, a passenger ferry that was used in San Francisco starting in the 1890s - beautiful...

We took a tour of San Diego Bay onboard the Pilot, a pilot boat from 1914...

The San Diego skyline from the water...

Aircraft Carrier...

A controversial sculpture (big bucks!), The Kiss...

We had lunch on the waterfront, in amongst all the touristing.  Back to the truck, we decided to go back to the resort via Coronado Island.  The Coronado Bridge offered some pretty impressive views...

We were told the island had a "small town feel" to it.  Well, one of the Naval Air Stations was letting out - nothing small town about the mass of cars on the road.  Still it was a beautiful drive down the island, along the Pacific, and back into Chula Vista.  A quick view of the Hotel Del Coronado along the way...

A stop at Fresh & Easy, where Joan stocked up on some Big Kahuna Wine, back to the RV, little Izzy got some leash time, then one last walk around the marina...

We have had a great time in San Diego - what a great city!  Heading out in the morning.