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Even though we traveled to the British Virgin Islands for a 12 day catamaran trip before our week in San Diego, we decided to postpone our BVI blog. Our BVI group of 8 will meet for our post sail debriefing mid September to share photos and stories, so stay tuned…
Now, let’s talk about San Diego! It has to be one of our favorite cities. Our time share was centrally located in the vibrant downtown Gaslamp Quarter. We walked everywhere and only took the car out twice-once to Mission Bay and the second time to La Jolla. At Mission Bay we rented bikes and rode on the boardwalk from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach. We then left the summer beach crowds behind for a quieter ride along the bike path that circles Mission Bay. The weather was a perfect 76 degrees and sunny, which continued all week. Because southern California had an unusually cool July, everyone was commenting that summer had finally arrived. In the scenic seaside town of La Jolla we had lunch with a friend we had met on the Voyager earlier this year. We sat at a table that had a spectacular view high above the Cove where earlier in the week there was a big news story about a shark sighting by a kayaker. On this day, luckily there was no such excitement just wonderful food and good company.
We continued our week with a 2 hour 25 mile trolley trip from downtown to Coronado Island to Balboa Park to Old Town ending at the famous seaport and marina. It was a good way to reacquaint us with all that San Diego had to offer. Because our next door neighbor in Palm Desert served on the USS Midway years ago as a young man we wanted to tour this Navy aircraft carrier which is now a permanent museum at the harbor in downtown. What a great tour. We have a new found respect for all those sailors who lived for months aboard this massive ship in cramped conditions with no air conditioning. We were also impressed with the sheer size of the flight deck that showcased 22 planes and helicopters from the era following WW11 to the liberation of Kuwait, almost 5 decades.
Probably the highlight of our week was the afternoon we spent aboard Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes sailboat that once raced in the America’s Cup. Because we had attended the 2000 America’s Cup race in New Zealand and also visited the site of the 2008 race in Valencia, Spain; it was quite a thrill to sail around San Diego Harbor past Coronado Island to Pt. Loma and then out into the open ocean on this special racing boat. Our captain, who was also the owner of the boat, was especially excited because his friend, the commanding officer of a Navy destroyer would be steaming into San Diego this same afternoon. As they talked back and forth on the radio, we could see the destroyer approach, coming closer and closer until we were cruising side by side. It soon passed us and docked off of North Island Naval Station next to the USS Reagan aircraft carrier. On the way back the Captain allowed Chuck to take the helm and you can see by the expression on his face he took the job seriously.
We rounded out the week with visits to various first rate San Diego restaurants, many walks all over the downtown and harbor area at all times of the day and night, several Pedi cab rides with colorful drivers, an off Broadway musical featuring 80’s music, and a movie at a restored movie theater. We can definitely recommend San Diego as a fun filled vacation destination. Plus with all the development of residential condos downtown, it might also be a great place to live.

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