San Diego & Laguna Beach

I left the color WHITE behind in Idaho and swapped it out for some GREEN and TURQUOISE in Southern California. 

My house . . .

Balboa Park in San Diego . . .

I'll get to the warmer weather in a minute, but first I'll begin at the beginning . . .

Monday, Jan. 29th: Scott met up with our Moroccan "son", Abdo, down in Agadir. They had a nice little visit and then sent me this cute picture of the two of them. 

I scanned some old photos and recent family photos on Scott's side over at the FamilySearch Center in Idaho Falls. I found this incredible photo of the old Gasser family home in Solothurn, Switzerland as I was searching through one of the boxes from Grandma Helen Harmon's things. 

What made it even more incredible is that Scott and I are planning a trip to Solothurn when I get back over to where he is in March! I'm not sure exactly where this house is (or was), but I am in the process of trying to track it down.

 

Scott's 2nd great grandmother, Johanna Barbara Gasser (I think it's pronounced "Gosser"), is who grew up in that house. Here she is . . .

I also found a handful of clue-filled papers in Grandma Helen's things. After I get home from this trip, I will be dissecting each one to explore all the golden nuggets of information they each have. Take this one, for example. 

It says: In remembrance of the First Holy Communion. The 29th of January 1854. Johanna Gasser from Laubersdorf (Laupersdorf), living in Neuendorf, Canton Solothurn. Bishopric - Basel. Received the first holy communion in the Parish Church of Neuendorf. Certified - M. Weber, parson.

There are a LOT of clues in that one little translated paper. I am excited to dig in when I get back home!

Tuesday, Jan. 30th: I had a nice chat with my sweetheart as he sat outside in the warm sun of Agadir. 

He walked downstairs to find a spot to sit in the pool area of his hotel. They had meetings every day in the lower level of the hotel in the conference center, so it was nice for him to get outside and enjoy a little fresh air. 

 

I spent 4 hours at the FamilySearch Center that same afternoon, scanning more items. It feels so good to be in the middle of this important project, knowing that I'm helping to preserve memories for generations to come. 

Wednesday, Jan. 31st: I spent most of the day at home, doing laundry, cleaning, and getting ready to fly down to San Diego the following day. I also drove up to Rigby to visit Dad and Vernetta and to make sure they had supplies, double-checking that they'd be okay while I was gone for a few days. 

Thursday, Feb. 1st: I left home at 8:00 a.m. to drive south to Salt Lake City. The morning was beautiful with a bright blue sky against the white snow on the mountains and the farmers' fields.

I made sure to leave myself some time to visit my favorite store on the way down, called Smith & Edwards. It's a giant store, with pretty much everything in it: spices, kitchen gadgets, children's toys, snacks, camping supplies, etc. 

I found a few things that I needed for my kitchen, as well as a few small gifts to sprinkle around. And then I hopped back on the road to the SLC Airport, about 40 minutes further south.

The flight was straightforward, about 1.5 hours, with nothing crazy to report. There was a little bit of turbulence as we descended into San Diego because they had had quite a bit of rain earlier that day, but it wasn't too bad.

My sister Charmaine's partner, Scott Perkins, picked me up and brought me back to their house, about 20 minutes from the airport. We didn't have to wait very long before Charmaine came home a little early from work. Yay!

While I waited for my sister, I visited with her plants on the balcony, ha ha. Charmaine has a very green thumb and her arrangement of plants, flowers, and herbs reminded me of our Grandma Doris. 

This is the view from their balcony every single evening. Wow. What a gorgeous view!!

 

Friday, Feb. 2nd: After a not-so-great night of sleep, I got up early to shower and get dressed. We had set up a plan for me to accompany Charmaine to work so that I could have her car for the day (to visit Mari). It rained off and on as we drove north to where she works in San Marcos, but we enjoyed the time together in the car.

Charmaine - coming down the stairs from their second-floor apartment . . .

There was a beautiful rainbow as we got closer to her work . . .

And a hint of a double rainbow!

Charmaine in her little HR office where she makes all the magic happen every day. 

After I met a couple of her co-workers, Charmaine directed me to a nearby cafe where I could have my weekly zoom meeting with Scott for our Personal Finances class. Isn't technology great? No matter where I am, we can still connect to have our little class together. :)

I took this photo outside the cafe as I was preparing to leave and drive north to visit with Mari. Right after I did, and hopped into the car, it started pouring, ha ha. It was unexpected because I could see patches of blue sky in between the big clouds, but I was grateful that I was safely in the car when the downpour began.

 

I drove about an hour north of San Marcos to get to Lake Forest where Mari lives. I picked her up and then we drove over to Laguna Beach to get some lunch and walk around for the afternoon. When the traffic isn't so bad, it's only about 22 minutes from her house to the beach. Charmaine said that when she was up there recently, it took them more like 45 minutes to get to the same place. Blech. They hit the weekend traffic heading to the beach . . . But for us, in the middle of a work day, we cruised over in about 20 minutes. 

Mari - with Laguna Beach across the street behind her . . .

Laguna Beach is a cute place. Lots of art and charm as we walked around. I liked this painting of Abraham Lincoln playing pool and hanging out with several other U.S. presidents.

 

Happy little succulents in Southern CA . . .

Mari wanted to pluck this big succulent up and take it home with her, ha ha . . .

We ate lunch at a place called The Cliff Restaurant, located on a cliff right over the ocean. It was beautiful and breezy and sunny. 

I ordered shrimp and chips. The shrimp was out of this world amazing, but the fries were no fancier than some basic McDonald's fries. I really loved their cocktail sauce, though.

Mari ordered clam chowder and onion rings . . .

An auntie and a niece . . . XOXO

We walked slowly back to the car, finding beautiful things along the way, like this "Bird of Paradise" bloom.

 

Mari loves collecting rocks and crystals, so we stopped in a little shop for her to find a few things.

The sun was shining and it felt so good to soak up a little Vitamin D. 

Video of Laguna Beach: (8 seconds)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vmF13SXBfnujbugq5

I saw these cute chairs off the beaten path, and when a lady offered to take our picture, I said to Mari: "Act like we own this place." Ha ha

Laguna Beach sure was pretty. The water was a mixture of turquoise and teal and white crashing waves. 

The whole area had a real artsy feel to it, which I liked. 

We weren't too sure about these flip flops . . . I'm just thinking about sweaty feet and the friction this would cause . . .

But I AM a huge fan of gorgeous and ginormous trees . . .

There was a gelato shop close to our car so we stopped in to try some. They had some really interesting flavors and combinations, and thankfully the two girls working behind the counter were enthusiastic about having us try several samples.

I chose Mary & Percy (a dark chocolate) with Mumtaz & Mughal (chai with honey). It was a delicious pairing. 

Birds of Paradise blooms are everywhere in Southern California. They are so unique and beautiful! 

  

On my drive back down to San Marcos, I pulled off the freeway when a Vista Point was offered. 

Video of the beach views and a military helicopter from nearby Camp Pendleton: (9 seconds)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UBfjWAZdGE2XSTn6A

Other than a few places of spotty rain and some localized flooding once I left the freeway, my drive back to pick up Charmaine was uneventful. She was just finishing up with some emails , so I looked through my photos from the day while I waited.

Meanwhile, Scott sent me a few photos of their feast in Agadir. He always feels obligated to eat a lot more than he normally would, just because the Moroccans make everything look so extravagant. 

An Agadir sunset looking past the hotel pool toward the Atlantic Ocean . . .

Saturday, Feb. 3rd: Charmaine and (her) Scott joined me for an AMAZING tour of the USS Midway, a Naval aircraft carrier docked in the Navy Pier of San Diego Bay. 

It was a bit pricey to tour the USS Midway, but we did it anyway. None of us had ever toured an aircraft carrier before, even though (my) Scott and I had visited the USS North Carolina back in 2007. That ship is stationed at Wilmington, NC and is a decommissioned battleship from WWII. (Scott was attending a month-long military school at Fort Bragg, NC, and I was able to fly out and spend a week with him.)

Within moments of our arrival on the main deck (inside), one of the docents announced that the 1:00 presentation and 15-minute movie was about to begin. We hurried in to participate . . . and it turned out to be pretty lifechanging for me. 

The docent shared that the USS Midway was named for the greatest battle of WWII, but that this vessel was not commissioned until a few years AFTER the war was over. He did a nice preface before we watched the not-long-enough movie. The movie included many actual-footage scenes from the war, which made it even more impactful. We learned about a small squadron of pilots who had only been minimally and very recently trained. They were led by their commander, Lt. John C. Waldron. One of the pilots was George H. Gay, Jr. He turned out to be the only one who survived what they were about to do. 

The code breakers of WWII had pieced together enough information to pinpoint that June 4, 1942 was the day that the Japanese were coming to attack Midway, a critical island in the South Pacific. This was where Allied Forces could make a pitstop to refuel their planes before heading on to complete their missions. It was crucial to maintain this pivotal island. 

Commander Waldron had a hunch on where the Japanese naval vessels were located nearby, which was slightly different from where they had been instructed to fly for their mission. He turned out to be correct, and they were able to take out 3 of the 4 Japanese ships that had been detected on radar. That fourth ship ended up being a thorn in their side, though. Because it was in a separate location and had not been located yet, the Japanese were able to get some of their own retaliation planes up into the sky, as well as some torpedoes into the water and aimed at the US naval vessels. In the skirmish that took place, and before the U.S. dive bombers could catch up to help in the fight, several of our pilots were shot down into the sea below. Eventually, we did take out that last ship belonging to the Japanese, but not without great loss on our end. The Japanese had destroyed one of our ships, too, and out of the 30 pilots and airmen that had taken off for this mission, none of their planes made it back. In Commander Waldron's squadron, only George Gay survived. He had been shot down, but somehow managed to evade being captured while he floated in the open sea for 30 hours until he was rescued the following day.

I cried so many times during (and after) this short film. The filmmakers did a good job of humanizing those brave and amazing servicemembers and incorporating actual footage into the presentation. I felt huge waves of appreciation and gratitude for those young pilots as I connected to their stories and saw their actual faces. 

After I pulled myself together, we continued on our tour of the rest of the ship. If you would like to know more about George H. Gay, Jr., here is a great link to a few more details about his contribution during WWII and how he lived out the remainder of his life. You might want to keep a tissue handy.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gay-george-henry-jr

Just outside the theater, there are several displays relating to what we watched in the movie. I'm so glad we watched the film first, because the planes and informative signs meant a whole lot more to see them afterwards.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

This next plane is what George Gay Jr. flew, along with a photo of him. (click photo to enlarge)

 

Heroes of Midway . . .

USS Midway Facts & Figures: (click to enlarge)

The top Navy fighter plane by the end of WWII . . . (click to enlarge)

Those curved wings helped give the lift that was needed to support the larger engine and propellers.

I had to be patient and wait for all the dudes to dissipate in order to see "the engine that won the war".

Video of the engine in action: (15 seconds)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uf4Z9YX4Prsw4CKQ6

Trying out some jump seats . . .

President George Bush Sr. flew the Avenger Torpedo Bomber during WWII. With every plane he flew, he named it "Barbara", after his fiance and the future First Lady.

The bathroom stall door also had some interesting fun facts . . .

 

I bought some cool aviator goggles in the gift shop. I wanted to buy a t-shirt or a hoodie, but they were really overpriced. Here is an example of one of their clever t-shirts, with a "nod" to the Top Gun movie.

View from one of the side decks, looking toward the famous "kissing" statue (more on that soon) . . .

Next, we went up to the flight deck. 

Scott and Charmaine . . .

Charmaine . . .

The flight deck was unbelievably large. It felt like it went on and on and on.

We sat and enjoyed two separate live presentations on the flight deck. Many of the docents, or volunteers, are former pilots and servicemembers of one kind or another. We learned about what they do on the flight deck for take-offs and landings, including some emergency landings and other crazy scenarios.

Me, pretending that I'm as cool as the mannequin flight crew guy . . .

This guy had a whole different idea that I liked, too . . .

Views of the San Diego Bay from the end of the upper deck . . .

There are a handful of pirate-y ships you can ride in around the Bay for a fee . . .

Next, we went down . . . waaay down into the lower decks to see the galley (kitchen), sleeping quarters, and other day-to-day quarters.

Nice choice of drink, bud. Two thumbs up.

In a corner of the cafeteria, there is a table set for those who are POW/MIA. The poster explaining the symbolism is quite small, so I will transcribe it for you.

"POW/MIA Table. The tradition of setting a separate table in honor of prisoners of war started at the end of the Vietnam War. The manner in which this table is decorated has special symbolic meaning. This solitary setting is a reminder that some of those who defend our country are no longer among us.

"The table is small to symbolize the frailty of one prisoner against his oppressors.

"The table cloth is white to symbolize the purity of intention to heed their country's call to arms.

"The single red rose in the vase reminds us of the families and loved ones who keep the faith awaiting our comrades-in-arms' return.

"The red ribbon attests to the unyielding determination of thousands who demand a proper accounting for our missing.

"The lemon slice upon the bread plate reminds us of their bitter fate.

"The salt upon the bread plate is symbolic of their families' tears as they wait.

"The glass is inverted as they cannot toast with us tonight.

"The seat is empty for those those who are not here."

WOW. That is a powerful visual.

A sample dinner menu . . .

Here is a link to the full Galley Photo Album, because it was THAT cool:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/po8LtzQRatWKDw2v8

The cooks are newfound heroes in my eyes. We rarely take enough time to give thanks for those who give quiet service behind the scenes. Here are a couple of recipes that, when I saw them, I had a flashback to some of the dinners my mom made when we were growing up. Tee hee. Oldies, but goodies.

This next area is where Charmaine and I were really thinking about our dad and his Naval service. Dad - these next ones are for you!

 

My Dad's final rank in the Navy was E-6, Petty Officer First Class. While texting him as I worked on this blog post, he shared that he was in the Navy for 9.5 years and never served on an actual ship! He lived on or near bases in the Philippines; Fort Meade, Maryland; San Angelo, Texas; Adak, Alaska; and West Virginia. When he completed his service, we moved back to Ukiah, CA. Thank you for your service, Dad!

 

Where they imported food for "feeding the fleet" . . .

Food storage capacity for the USS Midway . . . DANG.

Seeing this postal box touched my heart, as did the letters that were displayed nearby. With my husband being deployed so many times, we have used a variety of ways to keep in touch. But during WWII and other "older" conflicts, they didn't have any options besides the "snail mail". 

Mail slots for the seamen . . .

This would be Gwen's favorite place to hang out . . .

Very cramped sleeping quarters - this makes me feel grateful for my king-sized bed, ha ha.

We spent about 4 hours on board the USS Midway. We could have spent longer, but wow, that was already a long time.

This is the famous "Kissing Statue" . . .

Also known as "Embracing Peace". (click to enlarge)

Behind the "Kissing Statue" is an amazing and lifelike tribute to Bob Hope, who inspired the troops during the War . . .

What a gorgeous afternoon down at the San Diego Bay. What a moving experience we had on the ship, too.

We wrapped up the night by going out to dinner and then heading to the theater to watch, "The Boys in the Boat." It's based on the true story of an 8-man rowing team during the Depression who miraculously made it to the 1938 Olympics. We clapped and cheered more than once during the movie. It was SO GOOD!! I highly recommend it. 

L to R: Me, Charmaine, Scott, Scott's son Trevor, and Trevor's girlfriend, Olivia.

Heading back to Idaho tomorrow . . . I'm not looking forward to the cold winter weather again . . .