We are finishing up our week in San Diego.  We stayed at Admiral baker RV park, right near Qualcomm Stadium, just a few miles from downtown and close to everything.  We were able to cross off quite a few items on our want to do list.  First we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido.  The animals are in a more open setting mixed together on a savannah with some separate exhibits for those that do not play well with others…i.e. would want to eat the other animals….

Next up we went downtown to visit the waterfront and tour some of the old ships at the maritime museum.  One of the ships, the Dolphin was a deep diving diesel submarine built around the time NR-1 was built.  NR-1 was built with a nuclear reactor to provide power while underway, whereas the Dolphin was a diesel electric submarine that had to surface often to recharge it’s batteries.  Both were made of HY-80 steel and had very close rib spacing to allow it to dive a lot deeper than regular submarines.  They stated it did dive to 3000 feet and inferred it could go deeper.  Walking around it was pretty neat.  They also had a Russian Diesel Electric submarine that was  a major part of the cold war forces we used to chase around the oceans.  There were also several old sailing ships.  Definitely worth it if you like to see the old ways these ships used to travel the oceans under sail power alone.

We did visit the old Naval Training Center where I went to bootcamp and my first schools back in 1976.  It has been turned over to the city and they made it a large park and with shops and places to eat.  Had a nice time walking around.  We also did a bike ride along Mission Bay and along the waterfront area which was really nice.  You just cannot beat the Southern California weather.

Well, we move to the beach just north of Oceanside at Camp Pendleton, stay tuned for beach pictures!