Ships, seafood and sleeping in

Well, almost a week of the holiday has passed now, and most of it has been spent relaxing and being lazy. The fact that there is no hurry to get up in the morning, has really been great, with all the past few months lack of sleep and stressful workpace. Hence, very few early morning activities for the past week. The promised storm waned to a few nighttime rain showers and even without strong winds. The last two days have been really nice, sunny and warm.

Yesterday we went to see the San Diego Maritime Museum, which consists of a few old sailing ships, an old steam ferry and a Russian submarine. The two largest of the tall ships were the Star of India (formerly Euterpe) and the Surprise. The first was a three-masted bark, which had among other things, transported emigrants to New Zealand. A very beautiful old ship. The Surprise had originally been a ship called "Rose", but it had been rebuilt to the Surprise for the filming of "Master and Commander, the Far Side of the World". So, many familiar sights inside the ship and on the deck, too. The Russian Foxtrot-class submarine was also very interesting. Inside the incredibly crammed u-boat the luxury of personal space had been extremely rare. The captain's cabin was about 2x3 meters and the bunk was so short even I coudn't fit to sleep in it with my feet straight. It was still the largest personal cabin in the whole sub. Enlisted crewmen had to "hotbunk", which means that they had about 1 bunk per 3 crew, so every bunk had someone sleeping in it all the time. The watches were 4 hours long, 8 hours of work, 4 of sleep and repeat ad nauseam. The last ship we visited was an old steam ferry called "Berkeley", which we Finnish-speaking tourists found somewhat amusing. Some cheap laughs there, ha ha. On the ferry there was a multitude of exquisit ship models of all shapes and sizes medieval sailships to modern battleships. A 3 meters long model of USS Missouri (sunk in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese) particularly caught my interest. I have a huge load of photos from the ships, but so far no place to post them over the Net. Maybe later.

After the ships we popped for dinner in a seafood restaurant right next to the museum ships called "Anthony's". Really good food, very nice service. I'm not a great fan of shellfish, but their Clam Chowder soup was delicious. Also, they had a really good drink for wintertime, the Caramel Apple Martini. Ingredients as follows:

- Crown Royal (Gin)
- Butterscotch Schnapps
- Apple pucker
- Cranberry Juice

Served chilled in a coctail glass with a cinnamon stick. Tastes just like caramel apples.


Today, we went to see the USS Midway, a museum aircraft carrier in the San Diego port. The ship was huge, and nowadays there are even larger carriers than the Nimiz class. The Midway had a 4500 person crew and its flight deck was roughly the size of a football field, only narrower. Again, like in the Russian sub, I was astounded by the amount of pipes and tubes crawling all over the ship. Jet fuel in this pipe, steam in that one and hydraulic oil over there.. There must have been tens of miles of piping for different fluids and gases, plus at least a hundred miles of electrical wiring. Could be even more. I was simply awed by the size and complexity of the monster.

We finally set up the schedule for our road trip. We start in Sunday morning for Anaheim and Disneyland, maybe come back to Diego for the night, and visit California Adventure Park in Monday. They are right next to each other, Disneyland is more show and California park is more rides and rollercoasters. Monday afternoon/evening we drive halfway to Grand Canyon, stay the night in a motel, then on Tuesday continue to see the Canyon. Wednesday morning we start from Grand Canyon towards Las Vegas, over the Hoover Dam, and should be in Vegas some time in the afternoon. In the evening we go to see Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" show and then stay at Caesar's Palace casino hotel. It all costs a small fortune but this is a 'once in a lifetime' chance to do this, so we'll worry about it later. Thursday is mostly driving, as we aim to be back in San Diego before night.

Our homeward flight is in Saturday, so that leaves Friday for packing and last minute shopping.

Tomorrow we are going to visit San Diego Wildlife Park, and hit the bars in the evening.

More updates after something happens.

Sunny San Diego, California

Well, not really. The sky is overcast, and there is a forecast of somekind of a tropical storm on its way here, but it's still nice enough. Even though it's bordering on winter, you still can survive outside in a T-shirt. In the evenings it's better to have a long-sleeved shirt, but it's not cold, unless it's really windy.

The trip was OK, and the worst of jetlag seems to be dealt with. I'm told it's worse on the way back, but I guess we'll find out. The journey took some 16+ hours of sitting in a plane, and there was an extra half an hour of waiting on Chicago O'Hare runway for a thunderstorm to pass. No scenery worth mentioning could be seen, since everywhere along the whole trip the clouds were so dense you could see nothing. Only strip of land we caught a glimpse of, was somewhere west of Labrador, and there really isn't that much to see. Mainly snow, rocks and a few scattered trees.

I really must commend the pilots on their skills, since in Stockholm and Chicago the visibility was non-existent and still the landings were very smooth. Extra thanks go to Blue1 personnel for that nice little surprise of a bottle of champagne, when they heard it was our honeymoon trip, and to United Airlines personnel for being good sports and patiently trying to keep us all in good humour during that wait in Chicago.

The time here is 10 hours less than in Finland, and I still keep waking up at 7 AM, but I'm not as dead in the evenings as I were yesterday and the day before. Until now, we've been mainly resting, but we're beginning to take in sights from now. The zoo, museums, movies... We have planned a road trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon in the beginning of next week. That'll take a few days. Maybe we'll even squeeze California Adventure Park and Disneyland in some niche, just to be able to see what they're like. Los Angeles would be great to visit, too, but we'll have to see if we have time.

I will probably update soon, if something worth telling about happens. And I hope it will.

Take care, all

-ameba