On Friday morning, I had some free time while my wife prepared for her court hearing that afternoon. I decided to visit the USS Midway floating museum. This was an aircraft carrier and the biggest ship in the world at one point. It was active in the fleet from 1945-1992. I bought a ticket online as it was a couple of dollars cheaper, but as it turned out, this was a mistake.

I walked around the harbor area for a bit while I waited for the 10am opening time for the Midway. When I visited the statue above and some other memorials across from the ship, I noticed that a lot of people were on the deck already at 9am.

I walked over to the ship and found out there was a Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony going on that morning that was open to the public. I went in and went up to the flight deck where the ceremony was just beginning. There was a very interesting keynote speaker: a pilot who shot down an enemy MiG in Vietnam. He told us about how he went back to Vietnam in 2019 and met the family of the pilot he shot down. It was a very emotional and well-delivered presentation with actual animation of the dogfight behind him on a screen.

After the speeches, there was a memorial ceremony and then a missing man flyover with WWII-era aircraft.

At that point, everyone was free to explore the ship. Thus, my ticket was not needed, but I figured it was just a donation to the museum anyway. I managed to see everything except the bridge, which was closed for repairs.

It was really interesting and made me think of my late dad, who loved this kind of stuff. He would have had a blast walking around the ship. On the way out, there were lots of people in line, so my advice is to visit the Midway at opening if possible.

Following my wife’s (likely successful) court hearing, it was still only 2pm so we decided to visit the beach on Coronado (a peninsula across from San Diego harbor). We took an Uber to the Hotel Del Coronado, a historic property now part of Hilton, and went to the beach near the hotel so my wife could look for some shells. I ended up grabbing a beer and just enjoying the sunshine. It was around 70 degrees and sunny. There was rain in the forecast for the rest of the weekend, so it made sense to get out in the sun while we could.

We grabbed some tacos at the food truck outside the hotel and then walked into the village for some gelato. There was an Osprey (the plane not the bird) flying over the beach doing some sort of exercise for the nearby Naval Air Station.

After our gelato, we took an Uber back to the Hyatt. We really enjoyed our afternoon on the beach in Coronado.

Up Next: Mission Pacific Hotel Review

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