Visit to the USS Midway…

Last time, I had taken the Hornblower hour long harbor cruise to get a good look at the ships around the harbor. I’d planned my visit to the waterfront to include visiting the USS Midway Museum and I’d allowed all day for these two things. But I suppose if you’re not ex-Navy like I am and have less of an interest in ships, a half day would suffice.

Here’s a shot of the Midway from the Hornblower as we docked. My car is somewhere with those others.

As we docked the Hornblower, took a shot looking back at the rear deck. It was actually too cold for me up there this fine morning so I stayed inside. Morning mist, followed by sunshine was the weather prediction.

And here’s a shot of the Hornblower after I’d disembarked. Turn around is swift, they were loaded and moving out within minutes.

I walked back over to the Midway and stood in line for probably 20 minutes all told. I’d prepurchased my ticket so no hold up for me.  There’s several large entrances along the side of the ship as you can imagine…it’s a floating city almost. Here I am winding my way up the gangway to the main entrance. You can see there’s already a bunch of people aboard.

And we tourists entered next to this elevator. And I started my tour down below after a quick glance at the Main Hanger deck where the tour starts. I’ll be back to that later, wanted to miss the crowds that will eventually arrive below decks, making it hot, stuffy, and crowded. It was around 10 AM and most of the tourist are up on the upper decks leaving the lower decks nice and quiet.. This is the approach to the officers mess, they had it nice.     Lots of pipes and wiring exposed. And I was soon at the fantail where they have a cafe and coffee kiosk. Had myself a moca coffee.  And now over to the port side of the ship and walking towards the bow. Pausing along the way to take a picture. This is the electrical center.   And after climbing a couple ladders, I’m up on the flight deck.  Looking at the conning tower. There’s a tour of that I’ll take here shortly. CIC – Combat Information Center Radio room. This place is huge. Radar room. Navigation…just ONE of the many navigation areas. There’s a couple formal Navs and a couple informal Navs. Depends on how big the ship is. And back on the flight deck. After standing in line, we’re escorted by volunteers up to the bridge. Where the ships captain, navigator, flight commander, and operations officer hang out during the time at sea. Plus many other crew members. Lots of officers and enlisted men. Now days women too. The conning station. One of several scattered around the ship so in the event of a disaster at one, another station can take over and steer the ship. That’s why the numerous navigation stations too. If I recall correctly, this guy is a retired Commander who now volunteers his time giving tours around the Midway, especially up around the bridge. There were 10’s of these guys aboard. The guy in green is actually a cardboard cutout.That’s a hell of a flight deck.I’m at the bow now. Standing on the same kind of hangy downy thingy those people are on only on the starboard side of the ship.These screens are there because it can get really dicey when you’re launching airplane or landing them. These are there so sailors can dive onto them to avoid being hurt or avoid falling several stories into the sea.

And there’s the Hornblower heading off on another harbor cruise. Coronado Island off in the distance. Used the telephoto to take this shot of the statue across the water. Interesting fact is that the gal didn’t know the guy and really didn’t give him permission to get that close. He sort of snuck up on her, grabber her and kissed her. She didn’t even know about the famous photo or that it was her in it for years afterwards. The last shot was on one of the elevator decks. There were a couple volunteers there and I asked them how fast it moved to get planes up from the hangar deck to the flight deck, I forget now, but it was pretty fast.  Quick tour of the mess decks…where the sailors eat. Here’s the fantail where I had a coffee. My pictures are all mixed up but…whatever.   Parking lot is a bit more crowded now. Glad I came early in the day. Back up on the flight deck. Quite a few more people down there compared to when I took the first picture of this deck.   And now back down on the hangar deck. Lots of interesting antique planes here. There’s some fun stuff for kids to do too. Trainers, those big shells on the right in the distance. Yes, every Navy ship has a store like this. At least this size, often bigger. The captains office. And finally, after 4 hours, it was time to leave. While up on the upper decks, I’d spied some tall masted sailing ships a mile or two up the harbor. Hmmm. I love masted sailing ships.I was thinking of heading over there this day, but eventually decided I was too tired and to put it off. Plus I didn’t have much info about it. Hadn’t noticed it in my reading. So I headed home and quickly checked Google and found that yes, there is a Maritime Museum just up the street from the Midway. With all sorts of neat ships and boats that you can tour. Not very expensive, and has metered parking out front. So yeah, I’ll do that the next day, and I did. So that’s where we’ll pick up next time. Visiting the Maritime Museum.

Thanks for reading!