[cornishfrogboy]

Day 12. Harbourside, bay cruises , USS Midway and the Topgun bar. 'Sitting on the dock of the bay'... 😅

Another beautiful blue sky day and we were parked up right next to USS Midway at 0930. $10 for 12 hours, right where you want to be on the dockside wharf. Great value and easy to find.

We were allowed one x boat tour on any one day with Hornblower cruises on our Gosandiego5 (right next to the Midway) we duly took the 0945, one hour going north. The large, stable boat went towards the bay entrance and turned to port (note the nautical phrase), next to the submarine base (3 in dock), before returning down the side of North Island NAS. 250 aircraft are based there and we must have seen well in excess of 100 on the pan. The commentary was excellent.

A Los Angeles class Nuclear Attack Submarine (on the off chance that any DIBBER would be remotely interested)

As we docked, I commented to one of the crew that I would have to return tomorrow in order to go on the South trip. She replied 'it's no problem, just stay on board'.. (which was exactly what I had intended her to say) and so we did. The South trip went under the Coronado bridge and the skipper gave a superb run down of the US Navy ships in port, their function and histories. The ship turned and returned to the dockside. This had been an absolutely brilliant 2 hours (and I think that the talk included a bit of non military stuff also, about the bridge, airport, buildings, wildlife and stuff, but I will have to ask my wife).

A Bridge spanning a 1.8 mile gap. Curved to 80 degrees in order to make it 2.2 miles long in order to thus get Federal funding. (It seems that its not only us that have strange rules).

Mandie enjoying the cruise.

USS Midway was in superb condition and had a comprehensive set of US Navy aircraft on board, in generally excellent state of repair. There is a very good trail through the ship with an included audio guide.
Two not to be missed highlights on the flight deck are a lecture on landing on a carrier and a further one on catapult take offs. Both were given by former USN Pilots and whilst they sound technical, they were in layman terms and with accompanying video support, next to an aircraft simulating a landing (A4) and an aircraft prepared for catapult launch (A6). Both informative and entertaining.

An E2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft.

That was it! Time to move on and eat. There was only one place appropriate and that was the Kansas City BBQ, A couple of blocks away and next to Seaport Village. For the uninitiated, this is the bar in Top Gun where Goose played 'Great balls of Fire' on the piano and his 'chick', Meg Ryan said 'Hey Goose you big stud, Take me to bed or lose me forever'... not the sort of place where you would expect to meet Meg at all. It looked run down and shabby. The food was surprisingly, very good and excellent value. It is a mock sleazy bar, although very child friendly and packed with memorabilia. Again, not to be missed.

Mandie pretending that she is Meg Ryan.

I was sorely tempted to bash out my rendition of ‘Great balls of fire’, but as I have never played the piano before, I resisted.

A great day.. and then wine o'clock at Mission Beach!