Midway

(San Diego, CA) Mike has a number of museums in the area that he'd like to visit. Since we had a big outing yesterday we figured the dogs could stand to rest a bit today. So before he headed out we decided to take a walk.

The park we're staying at now is called Sweetwater Summit Campground at Sweetwater Regional Park. Being a country park it's different than an RV park. I'm finding there is a whole segment of the population I didn't really know existed. While there are some RV's here (most of them very old), there are a lot of tents and vans. These people are just one step above homeless. There are old guys as well as complete families with babies, young kids, and dogs. This one guy lives in his truck. The front seat is a bench type seat. He puts his blankets and pillow on the front seat, hooks into the electricity and watches a color tv he has sitting on the dashboard. He cooks on the barbeque pit there is at each site and eats at the large picnic table at his site. I'm not sure what all these people do some of the time as you're only allowed to stay here 21 of every 28 days.

This park seems to have been made for horses as there are a lot of trails and there are places to tie your horses up all around the campsites. Fortunately, we've only seen two horses here. Three of our dogs totally ignore horses but Slugger barks at them which spooks some horses so we try keep him away from horses.

Before Mike left for his museum trip we took the dogs for a hike on one of the trails in the park. Unfortunately the dogs have to stay on leash but at least there was a nice place to walk.



As we approached the side of the hill we came across a field of pretty flowers.



It may look like we're out in the middle of nowhere but that is hardly the case. There is a large freeway interchange just over the hill.



It's not good news when we hike somewhere that overlooks a road. While the three big dogs understand cars, little Boogie absolutely doesn't get it. He sees the cars in the distance and he's sure they are little critters running around. Calling does no good, pulling on the leash does no good. The only way to get him to stop watching the cars is to pick him up and carry him to a spot where he can no longer see the cars.



Finally we were able to continue on the walk after carrying Boogie a ways. On the other side of the hill we could see just a glimpse of the Sweetwater Reservoir.



As we got closer we could see the whole thing was fenced off.



Too bad as it looks like a great place for the dogs to play. It is only opened on weekends and just for fishermen.

The trails around here all have names. But I'm a little suspicious of the names. The hill we walked up was called Cardiac Hill Trail. The trail went around the hill not straight up the trail. Even if you did go straight up, it wasn't that steep. Whoever named this trail must have been really out of shape!

After depositing the crew back at the RV, I (Mike) went downtown San Diego to tour the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that is on permanent display as a museum.



The drive along Harbor Boulevard up to downtown was very interesting because it went past lots of Navy ships in port, and then past the baseball stadium, convention center and historic old downtown. It was busy around the carrier museum because there is a park, a waterfront trail and lots of tourist stuff in the area (like Seattle but prettier), but I still found free on street parking just a few blocks away.

The carrier was very well set up for touring. They give you an IPod type thing at the entrance and at numbered stops throughout the ship tour you just pressed the number and listened to the explanation for that area. There were also lost of good signs and displays, as well as numerous docents, retired navy guys, who gave little talks or answered questions.

The Midway was finished in 1945 and expanded several times over the years, and for a long time it was the biggest warship afloat. It did lots of service during the Vietnam War – Midway fighters made the first MIG kill of the war - and finished its career as the Navy’s flagship in the Persian Gulf during the first Iraq war in 1992.

The tour took you through all parts of the ship – and it has lots of parts! It is amazing what a complex machine we are willing to build and support in order to drop bombs on people on the other side of the world.

Here are some of the parts of the ship (no particular order):

Map of Persian Gulf


Flight Deck and the Island


Flight Deck


Captain's Wardroom


Chief's Dining Room


Operating Room


Captain's Wardroom


Laundry Room (this is what I need!)


Machine Shop (my favorite room in the ship!)


Dauntless Dive Bomber - famous from use in the Battle of Midway to sink Japanese aircraft carriers


View of harbor from ship


Intensive care unit


Engine Room Controls


Radio Room


Map Room used during Operation Desert Storm


Bunks


Anchor Chains

Any day I can get away to go to a museum is a good day. And, it didn't rain - so today was a very good day.

Debbie & Mike
2/1/08

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

(Santa Paula/Oceanside, CA) Last night the rain started. And it wasn't any little light rain - it was coming down in buckets! For four full days! Thursday we even had thunder.

The park we're staying at is full of peacocks. They just walk around everywhere. (Let me apologize upfront for the peacock pictures. I had to take them through the windows so most of them are blurry.)



They really seemed to like our spot. Here's our picnic table.



This is right in front of the RV.



Right outside our door is the gate leading out to the main road. It didn't seem to matter what time of the day it was - there was always one or two sitting there.



I guess it turned out to be a good thing they were always around as that was our main activity for the week - watching the peacocks.



Sometimes it was a family activity and other times it was just Slugger.



In fact, I think that's all Slugger did all week - and he seemed totally happy with that.



The peacocks don't totally care for the rain either I found out. I looked out the kitchen window to find a whole group of them sitting under the trailer next to us.



On Tuesday, as the weather began turning wet and nasty, I (Mike) took some time to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in nearby Simi Valley. A couple of years ago I went to the Truman library in Missouri and found it very interesting, so I wanted to see how they compared.



The Reagan Library certainly has a nice facility and beautiful location on a mountaintop overlooking the Simi Valley and the surrounding hills.



The inside was very classy also, but a little thin in real content however. Just my luck, the current temporary display, which seemed to take up a third of the museum, was about seemingly ALL the dresses Nancy Reagan wore as First Lady. Good Grief, who cares.



After racing through that I finally got to the life of Ronald Reagan, starting with his school days in Dixon Illinois,



his radio career, his film career, his marriage to Nancy, and his long leadership of the Screen Actors Guild. This was pretty well done, especially about the movies he made, but it kind of glossed over his support of the 50's Red Scare in Hollywood and hardly mentioned his first wife Jane Wyman and his divorce.

This superficial and uncritical point of view continued throughout the sections about his years as Governor of California and President. Not unexpected, but disappointing compared to the depth and balance of the Truman Museum. There was no mention of his failed primary challenge of Ford in 1976, only an oblique reference to the Iran-Contra scandal, and curiously almost nothing at all about his second term as president. But there was a lot about his good spirits and joking after being shot, and constant claims that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for the falls of communism and the Berlin Wall.

But the museum did have one thing no other presidential library has, an actual Air Force One!



There was a big building, with a huge all glass wall looking out over the hills, that contained the Air Force One that was used from the 70's until about 2002.



It was fixed up inside as it was during the years the Reagan's used it and made an interesting exhibit. I forgot how skinny those old 707's sure were. The building was a bit dishevelled because it was full of boxes of TV lighting and equipment that will be used to put on a presidential candidate debate on Jan 30 (Republican I would presume).

After the plane, the tour went past the apparently required Oval Office replica,





some more stuff about Nancy Reagan and a few displays about their post-presidential years on the ranch and president's Alzheimers.



He is buried is a courtyard outside the main building.



Overall a worthwhile visit but it was stronger on admiration than information.

It has not been a fun week for me (Debbie). I only went outside one time and it wasn't pleasant - but not for the reason you're probably thinking.

It's been a long time since we've been near grass and I've really been wanting to practice a little agility with Boogie. So Mike braved the weather and set up the weaves poles for us. But in order to practice I had to wait for the rain to slowdown a bit and for the peacocks to leave. Trying to get those two things to happen at the same time just was not working. And I certainly didn't think we'd have much luck trying to have Boogie practice his weaves off leash with all these peacocks within just a few feet of us.

We waited until the rain slowed a bit and finally sent Mike and Slugger out to take a walk around to "encourage" the peacocks to move on. It kind of looked like this peacock wanted to learn to weave too.



We thought all the peacocks were gone so I took Boogie out and started walking near the weave poles waiting for Boogie to potty before taking him off leash to practice. Just about the time I was bending over to take his leash off, a peacock started racing toward us. Really!! No, he wasn't strolling by, he was charging straight at us!! Stop laughing - I heard enough of that from Mike! We took off running as fast as we could and raced into the RV. That was it. I wasn't going outside any more with all these killer peacocks surrounding us! This is the nasty guy that chased us.



And the noises these things make. It scared all of more than once. But they really are pretty. Sorry this is blurry but I still think you can see how pretty their head's are.



Due to the constant rain, we never saw any of them with their feathers all opened up. One time when the rain slowed down we did see this one open up a teeny tiny bit just for a moment.



We all got rather bored this week and did a lot of lying around. But even so, this can't possibly be comfy!



Finally Friday came and it was time to leave this wet place! Since I hadn't left the RV since we'd been here I hadn't seen our surroundings at all. As we were driving out I noticed there really was a pretty view.



I also noticed a bunch of peacocks sitting under someone's awning. If these people plan on having a picnic I think they need a few more place settings!



So we say good bye to all our peacock friends - who weren't all that interested in getting out of the way as we were driving out.



After driving for a couple hours we arrived at this weekend's agility site. The best thing about it - there wasn't any rain at the moment! Even Wazzu enjoyed the momentary sunbeam.



The spot we're parked in is really nice. The view out the front window is really pretty.



And out the side window we have just enough of a view of the agility field that we should be able to see when we need to get out there for our runs.



Sparkie is already telling us it's time for her turn!

Debbie
1/22-25/08