152 USS MIDWAY MUSEUM

After the aquarium visit yesterday where I didn’t do near as much walking, I’m feeling pretty good today.  So, it was off to breakfast, carrying my camera backpack as usual.  For some reason here, I keep the camera pretty much hidden away until I get onsite of my photo shoot.  In Orlando, that thing was out on view all the time.  I guess because I have no relationship with the staff like I did in Orlando.  There, I saw staff every day and had conversations with them and ended up on a first name basis with a lot of them.

Here, I have seen the front office staff once when I checked in and once a few days later when I stopped in to complain about the lack of internet.  That was a different set of staff members.  I also talked on the phone to someone again about the internet.  I think the ones I have had the most contact with is the serving staff in the restaurant, but I think that’s an independent organization.

Anyway, I digress.  An Uber ride later and I was staring up at this huge aircraft carrier.  The lady at the ticket booth seemed determined to save me money.  She asked me a series of questions.  They included, was I over 62?  Yes, discount.  Did I have AAA?  BCAA, good enough, discount.  Was I a current or retired member of the military?  No, ok.  Are you or were you a member of law enforcement?  Retired, discount.  It ended up only costing me $10 to go in.

This is the first attraction I have attended where a mandatory bag search was conducted.  Understandably so, since this is a military installation, albeit decommissioned, but it is a museum.  A quick check, and the retired sailor, who was impressed by my array of gear let me pass.  I looked up this long flight of stairs and the staff member there could see my hesitation and directed me to the elevator which took me up to the hanger deck.

Inside, there was an impressive array of aircraft, mostly from WWII.  Some hanging from the roof, others parked as if they were ready to be wheeled onto the aircraft elevator and sent into battle. There was a photo booth setup, where they take your pic in front of a green screen and then superimpose you onto various backgrounds.  It cost $39 US or translated into Canadian $51.  No matter, I’m trying to make a point of getting some photos of me.  You get one large print (5x7) and three smaller prints (2x3) and digital copies of them, emailed to you.

I continued walking, front to back of the hanger deck and I did that about 4 times and went side to side as well.  I’m not normally a shopper, but I did go into the souvenir shop and purchased some stickers for my suitcase as well as 2 baseball caps.  One is a Top Gun hat, both from movie fame, but also because the actual Top Gun school, Miramar Naval Air Station is in San Diego.  In fact, I get a private air show at the back of the hotel, every day.  The other hat is a US Navy retired cap.  I just liked the logo.

Now it was time to head up a second elevator onto the flight deck, where I was greeted by another impressive display of aircraft.  They spanned the ages from Vietnam era jets, prop planes and helicopters, right up to F-18’s.  I’m assuming they are decommissioned aircraft as the catapults have been removed from the deck and there would be no way to launch them.

Again though, I walked the deck front to back and side to side about 4 times, all the while taking photos.  It’s a beautiful day, with a breeze blowing off the water, keeping the temperature at a very pleasant level.  When I finally had seen all, I needed to see.  It was time to go up to the bridge and/or down to the engine room, I was unable to do so as there were no elevators to either level and I didn’t feel confident enough to do all those stairs.

So, off I went.  As if I didn’t have enough walking, I walked all the way to the end of the pier to take photos of the bow, then walked all the way to the stern of the ship for more photos.  From there I walked over to a park I had seen from the deck, where I could see the iconic statue of a sailor kissing a nurse marking the end of WWII.  I wanted a photo of that, since the #metoo movement is so pissed off about it and who knows if the statue will survive.

It's kind of funny, the statue is huge and the nurse’s skirt billows out, but I saw numerous men walk by and avert their eyes as if the statue was a real woman.  The funny part is how many women walked under the skirt and looked up.  I don’t know what’s under there, whether it’s anatomically correct or not, since I was one of the gentlemen who averted my eyes.

Finally, I walked all the way to the other end of the waterfront, where the maritime museum with tall ships and a submarine are located.  These I did not board.  The biggest reason is that the waters were really wavy with the wind and the ships were bounding up and down, and I had no desire to get seasick at the dock.