Tomatico wanted to get up early to go to the gym so that’s what we did. We got up around 6:00 and let my youngest and my brother in law sleep in while we snuck out as quietly as we could. My wife was already up and working in the lobby.

Busy Day at the Gym

When we got to the gym we found all the machines were taken and there was a line of people to get the next one to free up. That was not what we expected. We did our normal warmups. Fortunately by the time we had finished those, two of the machines had freed up so we took them while we had the chance.

While we were doing our workout there were a half dozen other people that came in looking for a machine who ended up leaving when there weren’t any. I guess we weren’t the only ones who didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was!

After we finished the workout we grabbed a quick breakfast before heading back up to the room. The options on the buffet were slightly different than the previous days, but didn’t have bacon to disappointment of many guests.

USS Midway Museum

When we got back to the room my youngest and his uncle went to breakfast while Tomatico and I showered and got ready for the day. We had about an hour to relax before the USS Midway Museum would open up so I used the time to catch up on my work emails.

When the time came we all got dressed and started the short walk to the aircraft carrier. We still had the tickets I had ordered as a package with he Maritime Museum of San Diego the previous day. We arrived at the ship around 10 minutes after it opened and there was already a mob of people at the entrance. Luckily there weren’t nearly as many as the previous day.

It was only about 5 minutes to get through security since we didn’t have any bags to be searched. They scanned our tickets and we were on quickly onto the hanger deck of the USS Midway. It was enormous and filled with planes of all vintages. There were several planes and cutouts of planes you could sit in and take pictures of. The boys of course found one they wanted to try. It was a replica of the Top Gun cockpit so it was popular, but we got in before a big rush of people.

There was an audio tour included with admission and you could scan signs next to the airplanes and parts of the ship to get details about them. We quickly made our way up to the flight deck as it was getting a bit crowded in the hanger. It was a beautiful day and the views were striking. We made our way around to the various aircraft parked on the upper level and eventually paused under a tent where a volunteer was describing the landing procedures and mechanisms on the landing deck. He was a retired navy pilot who had landed on an aircraft carrier a dozen times. He had video to show what he was describing and answered all the questions people had.

After that we continued forward looking at other aircraft and helicopters. We got to see an F-14 with a cutaway that exposed the guns. It’s quite impressive how big the guns were and how they were fit into the nose of the aircraft. We then arrived at a second tent where another volunteer was describing the takeoff procedures. You know instinctually how complicated it must be, but seeing it up close it’s an amazingly intricate dance between a half dozen people to make sure it gets done perfectly in the 90 seconds they have between takeoffs.

I was surprised to learn that there are two catapults. So they can put a plane in the sky every 45 seconds (one every 90 seconds per catapult). This tied together the talk on the landings where they said each pilot has 45 seconds to get out of the way for the plane behind them. I have a new respect for the crews to be able to do that consistently and flawlessly because there are lives on the line during every step of the process. Impressive!

From the top deck we had great views of the harbor and the city. It was really a huge space. The ship was the largest in the world when it was launched just after the end of WWII. It was deployed in Vietnam as well as Desert Storm and served up until 1992! As big as it is, the newest carriers are 50% as larger!

Lunch

The boys were entranced, but the realities of it being lunchtime were starting to seep in. It was getting pretty crowded as well. One of the speakers mentioned the Friday after Christmas is normally the busiest time of the year and they expected almost 9,000 visitors, beating the record last year of just over 8,000.

The reason it’s busy is that the city hosts a college football bowl game. We saw a TON of Iowa fans, even some drinking in the hotel elevator on their way to breakfast in preparation for the afternoon game. They were playing USC and we saw may of their fans as well. Fans were presumably taking in the sights before the game with the USS Midway being one of the more popular attractions. There was also a cruise ship that had docked overnight so many of those guests were likely onboard as well.

We had seen what had wanted to so we walked down the shore towards the plaza where we had eaten dinner on Christmas Day. This time the place was alive and buzzing and we had lots of options. My youngest came with me to find a burger and Tomatico went with his uncle to find some Mexican food. We both found some good food and ate quickly. There were lots of birds trying to steal people’s food and signs warning not to feed the attack seagulls. We weren’t interested in donating our lunches!

After we ate we made the short walk along the shore back to the hotel and met up with my wife who was in the lobby finishing up work for the day. Back in the room we relaxed for an hour while we planned what to do for dinner.

Back to Old Town

We decided to go back to Old Town again.  We decided to leave earlier to give us time to check out the historic part while there was still a little sunshine.  We lucked out requesting a Lyft because a driver had just dropped someone off at our hotel so there was no wait.

We got dropped off at the historic part of Old Town and made our way inside to watch the end of a music performance. The boys loved it even though they only got to see two songs before the group went on break.

We visited some of the shops and looked at the architecture in the Old Town square. My youngest was getting hungry so we split up again. We went to the same pizza place as the previous day. We learned from our previous day’s experience and split a medium instead of a large pizza.

We then headed back to find the rest of the group. We eventually found them and headed out in search of dessert. Tomatico was desperate for churros with my wife and the rest of us ended up getting ice cream. Apparently fresh churros are the best!

We caught an interesting Lyft back to the hotel. The driver was telling us how one of the buildings in Old Town that we passed by was one of the most haunted places in the US. The story got wackier from there. There was some awkwardness when the kids were getting a little freaked out and we wanted him to change the subject but he didn’t quite get the hint. We eventually got him on a different topic just before we arrived back at the hotel.

Calling it a Night

This was our last full day in San Diego.  We would pick up a rental car and drive to San Diego the next morning. My wife decided to do some more laundry since the machines here were such a nice setup.  At the rate the kids go through clothes and the amount of time we’d been spending in the gym we were quickly running out of clean clothes!

Before bed we did some pre-packing and preparation so we’d be ready in the morning. Tomatico and I decided we would wake up early to go to the gym again. Hopefully many of the people who were there today will be too hungover or will just be sleeping in to fill up the gym tomorrow.