Midway Tour, Kayaking (Ka-YACK-ing) Trip, San Diego Zoo, Sunset on the Beach, Vacation Days 6&7

Our first full day in San Diego we visited the Midway which is a decommissioned Naval aircraft carrier.  It served from 1945-1992 and survived through the Cold War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, among other missions in between.  It was launched in more than 3,000 combat missions with no losses.  It was decommissioned in 1992 and donated to the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum in 2003 where it was turned into the USS Midway Museum and opened in 2004.  Here’s some of the things we got to see aboard:

It had three HUGE levels you could tour.  The top level was where all the airplanes, helicopters, anything that flies was kept.  It was HUGE!!

On the 3rd/4th floors things were tight, but interesting to see.

Here’s the command center:

Rope tying skills:

Sleeping quarters:

To read about all the food they went through was astounding!

They had a cookbook that showed different recipes they served.  The ingredient measurements were insane!!  30 pounds of ground meet for the meat loaf recipe!!

They had different airplanes you could check out.  They even had some jump seats you could sit in:

They had a glass covering over 5 floors so you could see how deep the ship goes from the main floor.  

The ship even had a brig/jail.  It even had a photo opportunity the kids couldn’t pass up:

We spent about 4 hours touring the Midway before we had to leave.  We still didn’t see everything.  That ship was HUGE!!  We had to leave because we had an afternoon kayak tour we were signed up for.  This kayak tour was the activity I was most excited about doing. I think kayaking is really fun!  When I saw there was a tour in the ocean starting on the beach to actually go inside the seven La Jolla Sea Caves and see the Ecological Reserve, I was on board.  I made sure we all took some Bonine (some medication to prevent motion sickness) an hour before the tour started so we wouldn’t be sea sick just like the instructions said on the box.  Here’s our before shot happily waiting to start the tour:

While we were waiting to start we got to see a dolphin and her pup swimming right by the shore.  It was awesome!!  Anyway, we did tandem kayaks.  That meant we all shared two person kayaks.  Aaron went with Sarah, Josh went with Daniel, and I went with Noah.  To get started we paddled through the surf/waves and out into the ocean.  It was pretty!

Sarah was a machine and was quite a good partner to have is what Aaron said.

Josh and Daniel had lots of fun together and were pretty speedy:

Here’s part of the beach line of La Jolla beach as well as Daniel’s back, Josh, Aaron, Sarah, and part of Noah’s back in this picture:

Noah and me:

Aaron and Sarah:

I have always done well kayaking on lakes so I thought I would be fine out on the open water.  However, about 30 minutes into our 90 minute tour I didn’t feel so well.  The sun was in everyone’s eyes.  Since Aaron couldn’t see very well he was just taking pictures of us in the general area where our kayaks were not really able to see what was in the pictures he was taking.  Going through his pictures after the tour is when we saw this great money shot of me:

Let me zoom in to show you how I was fairing on our kayak tour among the very choppy waves.  It was such a nice picture Aaron captured that I think I should print it out and frame it for Aaron to keep on his desk at work--haha--I am completely kidding by the way:

About 30 seconds after this picture was taken I emptied the contents of my stomach multiple times.  I think I even saw last year’s Thanksgiving dinner come out.  Ewwww!!  I was SOOO sea sick.  I thought I would be okay by taking the Bonine medication and being in out in the open on the water with the breeze, but I was sorely mistaken.  Unfortunately, we still had over an hour on our tour left.  I was really regretting my life’s choices up to that point--haha!  Poor Noah--let’s just say his tandem kayak partner was not very fun to be with.  Right before we went out on the water the guides told us that littering in the Reserve was really bad and there were some steep fines if they caught you littering.  I was hoping I wasn’t ‘littering’ because I was really leaving some stuff behind.  Let’s hope the fish like a pre-digested turkey sandwich--haha!  Thankfully, no one else was having any issues.  We got up close to the caves and got to see a few Sea Lions sunning on some ledges:

Here’s a sea lion just hanging out:

The water was too choppy to safely enter the caves, but this is what they looked like from a stock photo I found:

It took all my energy to keep paddling throughout the tour and back to shore.  I kept praying that we could get there fast.  My prayer was answered because when we hit the surf Noah and I rode our kayak on a monster wave all the way to the shore.  It was pretty awesome, but I was in no state of mind to enjoy the ride.  I just wanted to get off that kayak ASAP!!  I jumped off and went and sat down in the sand to try and get my bearings.  My family thoroughly enjoyed the tour which I am glad about.  I now know that I will never be able to do anything on the ocean since this is not the first time something like this has happened to me.  Let’s just say turkey sandwiches and chocolate, chocolate chip muffins are no longer desirable food items for me.  They don’t taste good coming back up--haha!  This truly was a kay-YACK, YACK, YACK-ing tour for me.

The next day we spent at the San Diego Zoo.  I love this zoo!  It is so interesting and there are so many things to see.

We did get a chance to ride the tram to start at the far side of the zoo and work our way back.  Here’s the kids in their tram car who were right in front of Aaron and me:

It was a beautiful day to go, too!  We saw all kinds of animals:

As usual Aaron stayed clear of any of the aviaries.  He HATES birds--haha!  He gave them a HARD PASS when the rest of us went inside to see the birds:

However, maybe Aaron made the smart choice not going in the aviaries because coming out of one of the aviaries, Sarah had a pile of poop on her hat.  Ewwwwww!!!  Glad she had a hat on otherwise that would have been a lot worse--haha!

This is a hippo’s mouth resting on a rock right next to the glass:

The kids were fully worn out and fell asleep on the way back to our AirB&B.

That evening we all walked along the beach with our shoes off.  Noah can’t resist the water and ended up all the way soaked, but at least he was having fun:

Sunsets on the beach are awesome!

Josh and Daniel walking together in the middle of the picture:

The kids enjoying the last light of the evening:

I have to say my hair went a bit crazy in the humidity.  It was poofy, curly and full which was crazy.  

When we sat down that night to wind down and watch a few minutes of TV Aaron and I immediately fell asleep.  You can thank Josh for this picture he took and shared with us to make fun of us.  Our vacations are not all that restful, but we like it that way.  We like them jam packed.  Just like Newton’s first law of motion is, “An item in motion stays in motion and an item at rest stays at rest”.  We were fine when we were moving, but as soon as we stopped is when Aaron and I immediately fell asleep.  We old people get worn out--haha!