My 1st counselor, and good friend, Mike Johnson and his wife own a second house east of San Diego in a little place called Ramona. He is always after me to go down and make use of it, since they are living here and taking care of his elderly parents. So when Kim and Nate started talking about vacationing over the 4th in San Diego, I took him up on his offer. Pam and Rob and their family joined us for a rip-roaring good time!
We spent nearly the whole day on the beach at Torrey Pines. The water was pretty nice, and I was out in the surf three different times. The best was the last time when I got Grant and Lucy boogie boarding. They loved it. Lucy seemed to be a natural - and there's nothing Grant can't conquer. Below is our "compound." Two beach shelters, the umbrella, blankets, chairs and boards.
Grant gets buried in the sand up to his waist, while HG has the time of his life playing inn the sand with his Mom.
After a great BBQ that night back at the house (thanks to Nate's excellent choice of Italian grilling sausages), we headed back the next day to downtown S.D. for a tour of the USS Midway. You may remember four years ago when Mom and Kim and I were there for an ESRI convention that Kim was volunteering for. I went on the Midway then and was very impressed. It was even better this time because we had the grand kids with us. We bought churros on our way out as an appetizer to our picnic lunch.
Above is the "island" which over-sees the operations of the flight deck. Below are a couple of shots of planes and people on the hanger deck. Pam has more of these posted on her blog.
(No, Kim and Nate don't have a baby yet - that's Henry.)
(Grant, Lucy, and Molly take a rest on the enlisted men bunks.)
A length-wise view of the ship from the dock. It is such an impressive sight, and still decked out in it's 4th of July bunting.
To me, this is the truly impressive view. I'm standing on the west end of the fight deck looking east. You can't even see the other end of the deck (over 3 football fields away) and it has airplanes, helicopters - and people - all over it. Absolutely incredible!
Next to the Midway of a little park with two interesting things. One is the larger-than-life sculpture of the famous photo of the sailor kissing the nurse upon his arrival home from war (who, as you may know, was simply the first girl he came across on the dock, and he was so elated that he just laid a big smooch on her, and it was caught by a photographer from LOOK magazine). And after all that, it was nothing more than another opportunity to climb for Lucy and Molly.
The other thing of interest that I missed last time I was there, is the tribute to Bob Hope. They have statues of him and several service men as if they were attending a USO show, and a looped recording of some of his jokes. Pretty funny. and a worthy tribute.
As fun as the trip was, there was an even more important event this past weekend. David has been working hard and diligently to prepare to take the GMAT test again to improve his score. You can visit his blog (the link is on the right) to read all of the details, but the bottom line is he was successful beyond his high hopes. We are very proud of him, and I am very impressed with his thorough preparations. 710! Woo-hoo!!
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