March 3, 2018
I arrived two days early just to be sure there would not be problems with either my flight or my bicycle. When it takes you many years to be able to do something like this and you spend countless hours training, it is better to be cautious. Fortune smiled and I now had a couple of days to spend wandering. Today I decided to give my bike a test run over some of San Diego’s many bike routes. While not as bike friendly as Vancouver, it still is ahead of many North American cities.
After a quick spin and a few wrong turns to find my Sunday afternoon meeting place, I cruised down to the waterfront and followed a multi-use path into the downtown. San Diego has an impressive downtown but having seen my share of tall buildings, I opted for a look at the harbor. Front and center to this interesting area is the now retired USS Midway.
Commissioned right after WWII she was the largest ship in the world until 1955. She saw service in Vietnam as well as Operation Desert Storm where she served as the flagship. After a 47 year career she was retired in 1992 and now serves as a museum and tourist attraction.
Standing along side the Midway is a giant testament to a classic photograph from LIFE Magazine. The original kiss happened thousands of miles away in Times Square on VJ Day and was published a week later in LIFE. It looks great in front of the Midway even if it is 2700 miles off course and the ship is from a different era.
Further along is another interesting display of public art. Bob Hope was famous for many things, his comedy, his movies and his variety show on television but he is far more loved for the work he did entertaining the armed forces of the US. From the beginning of WWII onward, Bob Hope enlisted a cadre of other entertainers to lighten the spirits of service men and women defending his country. He headlined 57 performances over 50 years in every conflict from WWII through the Persian Gulf War. For his service he was names an Honorary Veteran by an act of Congress in 1997.
