A few days in San Diego: Day 2

Next day, we decided to mix it up a bit, and - instead of finishing up at the Balboa park - headed to the Embarcadero. That's "landing place" in Spanish, and in San Diego, this is the official name of the city's waterfront promenade. Along the Embarcadero, going North to South, is the Maritime museum, a cruise ship terminal, the USS Midway museum, and finally, Seaport Village with shops, restaurants, souvenirs, etc.

On the way, we stopped at Point Loma. Besides its historic significance, this is supposed to be a good lookout to spot the migrating whales, with February being the right season for such an activity. However, the whales decided not to cooperate, and so we had to console ourselves with the famous Old Point Loma lighthouse...

... and equally famous Cabrillo monument, commemorating the Portuguese navigator.

After that, we drove to the Embarcadero. There is a parking lot right next to the USS Midway museum, but it was already full, so we drove a few hundred yards ahead and turned right. That brought us to the little peninsular dominated by the "Victory Kiss" statue - a larger-than-life replica of the iconic photograph from World War II. And when I say "larger-than-life," I mean it literally...

The place is called Tuna Harbor park, it has some metered spaces, and we parked in one of them. The meters have a 3-hour limit, which was less convenient than a parking lot, but very fortunately this little peninsular is also home to the Top of the Market restaurant (on top of the Fish Market), where I planned to have lunch. So it all worked out: we started with the USS Midway, returned to have lunch, recharged the meter, and then took a longer walk to the Maritime Museum and the Santa Fe train station.

Here is Alex about to go on the USS Midway...

... and here is a random plane. Not sure exactly why I took this picture, probably because I liked how the wings fold back.

An interesting piece of trivia we learned: Alex asked one of the volunteers answering questions, how did they get the planes stored inside the carrier up on the deck? Turns out, there are four lifts (two on each side), each lift can carry two planes, and it takes 20 seconds to get a plane from the bowels of the carrier up on the deck. Here we are, standing on one of the lifts (now permanently in the "down" position and turned into a cafe). This whole platform used to slide up and down on two rails, one of which you can see in the far-left corner.

I highly recommend the Top of the Market restaurant, especially for lunch. You have an option of sitting on a heated terrace with magnificent views of the harbor...

... the menu is interesting, the ambiance - very nice.

After enjoying our lunch, we fed the meter and started on the second half of our program. The Maritime Museum, located in the northern part of the Embarcadero, boasts several sailing ships (including Star of India, "the world’s oldest active sailing ship") and a couple of submarines, one American (USS Dolphin) and one Russian (B-39, diesel-electric).

Here I am steering the Star of India.

And here is the B-39.

It was built in Leningrad in the 1960s and served on active duty for more than 20 years. We got a kick out of all the Russian inscriptions.

After all the ships, we decided to make a little foray into the city itself, and that's when Alex got a look at the first few trains and streetcars. They come in different colors, with the color of the train not necessarily matching its color line designation. Here, for example, is a "Green Line" train that is partially yellow and partially red.

Alex was outraged: something like this would never happen in Boston!

Later, however, he was pleased to see a red train that was totally red...

... and the main train and trolley depot, the Santa Fe station, with an Amtrak train next to it.

After so much train happiness, we were ready for dinner. I had a place in mind: when we were there with the MathWorks, I stayed at the Hilton on Harbor island. Harbor Island, quite surprisingly, is not an island by any means but a kind of T-shaped peninsular sticking out into the harbor near the airport and providing beautiful views of downtown San Diego. At the very tip of the T (farthest from downtown) is Tom Ham's Lighthouse, which is not a lighthouse any longer but a very good restaurant with a terrace... you get the drift...

We started with the drinks and had a delightful dinner. We were sitting near the wall (and under the heater, which came in handy later), and in front of our eyes the sky and the city changed colors from silver...

... to gold...

... to pink...

... and finally to darkest blue...

>> Next day