Wednesday, December 12, 2018- San Diego

Wednesday, December 12, 2018- San Diego It is hard to believe we have reached our last port of call.  When we awoke, the ship was already in its slip on the Broadway Pier.  From our port side balcony, we could see the Maritime museum with the Star of India sailing ship, and a rusting out Russian submarine in the distance, as well as the San Diego Airport. We had to get up early to clear customs and immigration.  This didn’t involve much more than lining up in the Chef’s Table restaurant to cue up to a Passport agent in Manfredi’s restaurant who briefly examined our passport, room key card, and checked our names off a list in front of them.  We didn’t have to declare any purchases, particularly our Cuban purchases of rum and cigars. We then filed up to the buffet for breakfast.  There was a beautiful sunny day awaiting us with partly cloudy skies.  We tried to set up in the Aquavit terrace, but found it too windy and cool.  There were also some big sea gulls lurking about, so we moved inside to finish our breakfast.  

We texted Ben’s brother Carl, who lives in San Diego to coordinate our plans.  He had actually used a rental electric bike that is unlocked with a Smart Phone app, and rode it from his condo in the Gas Lamp district down to the Broadway pier.  He was favorably impressed by the appearance of the Viking Star, but security at the head of the Pier wouldn’t let him anywhere near the boat.  When we were leaving to board the bus for our included San Diego tour, we briefly chatted with Carl through a driveway in the fence, next to one of the security guards.    

After establishing a plan to meet in the afternoon after we had lunch on the ship, we started walking back to the bus.  Then a big security guard, who was armed with a side arm, started yelling at us to stop and to return to the gate area.  We pulled out our room key cards and had the other security guard confirm that we had never left the pier, and were simply having a conversation through the gate and fence.  Boy, they sure are nervous and jumpy about security at the cruise ship pier.  We boarded our bus, which took us just down the street past the Midway Aircraft Carrier museum, which we learned was the most visited military museum in the country.  We then stopped for a photo opportunity at the oversized statue of the sailor kissing the nurse.  We learned the name of the statue is “Unconditional Surrender”.    

                             

 

We then piled back into the bus and then drove along the waterfront where our guide pointed out the Coronado bridge and passenger ferry service that cruise ship passengers could later use to visit the Del Coronado Hotel.  Then we drove by the Seaport Village tourist area and the convention center, before turning uptown through the Gas Lamp District.  

We drove right past Carl’s condo as we drove through downtown on the way to Balboa Park.  We were given an hour to explore Balboa Park.  We saw interesting static displays in front of the San Diego Air and Space museum which included one of only five Convair Sea Dart supersonic jet seaplanes built in the 1950’s.  Apparently, the advent of the super-carrier eliminated the need for a supersonic jet to have to operate as a seaplane.  There was also an always impressive Lockheed Blackbird.  This one was a CIA A12 version.  It’s hard to believe all these decades later that the Blackbird remains the fastest air breathing plane in the world, able to exceed 3 times the speed of sound.                                

We walked through the international village, which was closed, and past what is apparently the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ, obscured by a huge rolling shutter door. They had recently had a huge Christmas concert with the organ.  We then walked through the Timken Museum. It was funny that the name was familiar to Ben because one of his first Mechanical engineering assignments as a student at MIT was to call out specifications for a design using Timken Roller Bearings.  This was the same Timken family of roller bearing fame.  They had a unique collection of handmade Christmas ornaments made by Hord and Schlappi.  They filled a rotating Christmas tree (undoubtedly supported with Timken roller bearings), and hung from the ceiling.                              

The Timken family collection includes many works of art from several artists including one by Rembrandt, so we got to take a selfie with a genuine Rembrandt.

We also walked through the Botanical Garden conservatory before we ran out of time and had to walk back to the bus.                          

The bus then took us to the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, where we hand an hour of free time. We chose to revisit the Mormon Battalion museum where young Mormon docents dressed in period costume used acting and unique audio-visual effects to tell the story of how nearly 500 soldiers for the Mexican American war were recruited from Brigham Young’s Mormon camps.  They never fired a shot against the Mexicans, and ended up blazing some of the trails for the transcontinental railroad, and building many structures California and the desert southwest.  One of the docents was a young Korean girl who was really working hard on her English skills.                  

 

As we waited for our group to reboard the bus, we found a souvenir stand that had some Luchadore masks.  We asked how much they were, and the man tending the stand said $20.  We said that was too much for an impulse souvenir, and started walking away.  Then the guy said “For you today, you can have for $12”.  So now we have a souvenir Luchadore mask, ala Nacho Libre fame.

We grabbed a quick lunch back on the ship and got ourselves pumped up on Coke Zero to get us through the afternoon.  We then met Carl in front of the Star of India, and the Maritime museum.  Carl proved to be an excellent docent on the various boats and submarines in the museum. We had no idea that the Russian submarine there was one of 4 in the waters around Cuba that was carrying nuclear tipped torpedos. When this sub developed trouble, it had to surface in the middle of the US Naval fleet enforcing the blockaid of the Cuban embargo.  The US sailors provided aid and assistance to the submariners, not knowing that the submarine was carrying nuclear warheads.  Once the Russians were able to recharge their batteries, they went on their merry way.  

Carl also has conducted extensive research regarding the ferry boat “Berkley” that is part of the Museum.  This boat may have played a key role in one of the biggest pranks in intercollegiate sports history- the kidnapping of the Stanford Ax during the Stanford vs Cal Berkley game of 1889.  Some day, we may hear about this tale on the History Channel’s Mystery of the Museum show.                    

We think Carl should apply to be a tourist guide for Viking and other cruise lines because he is really a very talented and convincing docent.  He drove us to the San Diego Zoo, where he told us that the giant leaping lion sculpture in the ticket plaza is actually the world’s largest 3D printed work.    

We dropped in on the Pandas, but only one was on exhibit, and it appeared to be irritable, pacing back and forth between the two exhibit areas while a cranky old woman docent rendered a monotone dialog over the loud speakers admonishing visitors to keep their voices down (ironic that she was using the amplified PA system speakers to do this).  

Next, we paid a visit to the Amur leopard cubs that we had seen earlier in the year.  Boy, have they grown into big cats in just 5 months since we last saw them in June.                

The highlight of this visit was the Koalas. As we walked by, we noticed two of the Koalas on the ground sizing each other up on either side of a steel fence.  Then they climbed up into the tree structures of their enclosures to get a better look at what their neighbor was up to.  We have never seen Koalas so active.  One was actually jumping from the ground to get up into his tree structures, and both seemed to be craning their heads and jockeying for an ideal position to spy on his neighbor.                  

We took the sky tram cross the park to visit the Polar bears and all 3 were hanging out together.  That pretty much took us to closing time.  Carl dropped us off at the Broadway Pier.  We left him with some of the excellent cookies from the Viking buffet.    

We had our very last dinner in The Restaurant, and treated ourselves to double desserts because our waiter promised us the featured strawberry donuts would be very much worth it- and he was right.  We ran into Dan and Mona, from our Trivia team, after we had finished, and chatted with them for a bit. We learned that one of their daughters is a professor at the UW Tacoma in Economics, and that Dan and Mona will be visiting her in a few months.  She is excited to take the Victoria Clipper to Victoria for high tea at the Empress Hotel after we had mentioned that as something that you can do during the winter months.   There was a Chocolate extravaganza in the Atrium to celebrate the end of the cruise and the start of the holidays.  The ship’s crew has also assembled some huge gingerbread houses for decorations around the ship, and they smell delicious.    

We stopped by to listen to the lounge band playing some Motown and 70’s tunes in Torshavn lounge, and marveled at how good they sounded, despite being a bit loud for the tiny lounge, and only having about 4 couples for an audience.   

We then set about the very sad task of packing out belongings back into our suitcases, and setting most of our suitcases out in the hall for delivery to the cruise terminal for our airport transfer tomorrow. We arrive in Los Angeles at the crack of dawn, and will begin our journey back to Whidbey Island tomorrow.