USS Midway - San Diego

Over Labor Day weekend my friend and I drove down to Encinitas and San Diego. We stayed with her parents in the hills of downtown San Diego and her dad, who was a Korean War Veteran, was also serving as a docent on the aircraft carrier the USS Midway where he was able to give us a personal tour. These are some of the pix I shot along the way. I was completely overwhelmed by the scale of the ship and the personnel that it would take to operate this beast. Above is a shot from the flight deck overlooking the bay and the Coronado Bridge that takes you to Coronado Island and the infamous Del Coronado Hotel. And below is a huge sculpture of the famous photo from the 1945 cover of Life Magazine of the sailor coming home from war.

The interior of the carrier was humongous and had a variety of planes and interactive activities. Many of the planes in this area where from WWII, and still had their pilots names written under the windows and the pilots pictures posted next to the planes. It made the experience more personal and realistic.

Back up on the flight deck were many more aircraft. These were more modern planes, bombers, and helicopters from the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars. It was possible to go into the interiors of many of these planes. Very cool but very hot inside. That weekend had record breaking heat going on in San Diego.

Really wanted to go inside the tower area but we ran out of time. But it sure was nice to get away.