USS Midway, San Diego 2008

A cousin from the Philippines visited me after he completed his company sponsored training in aircraft maintenance in Dallas. He expressed a desire to see the aircraft carrier USS Midway and its planes. so I took him to San Diego and we visited the carrier which is now a museum. The charge for admission is $17 and parking is $8 for the first 4 hours. Fair enough, given that the prices of everything under the sun had gone up and the worse is still to come LOL.

This carrier carried a complement of 70 aircrafts during its service years


The carrier hangar

One of the planes in the hangar

Another one

The Island, the superstructure located on the starboard side of the flight deck

A plane displayed on the flight deck

An all-business looking aircraft on the deck

Flight deck

This is the location on the island where incoming and outgoing flights were directed

San Francisco

A couple of yeas ago, I flew to San Francisco to check out a condo that my daughter was interested in buying. The location was great, a stone throw from the beach and a third of a mile from Golden Gate Park. However, the asking price was outrageous in my opinion, although it was par for the area - half a million for a two bedroom, one bath condo of less than 900 sq. ft.! I suggested to my daughter to keep her apartment, save her money and wait for a better time to buy.

Given the current state of the housing market, now is a good time to buy. Unfortunately, in the area she was interested in, home values are staying put instead of going south like almost everywhere else. Oh well......

One way street in hilly San Francisco

From this "viewing platform" you can spot gray whales during their annual migration to their "summer playground" in Baja, California.


This is the main ocean side entrance to Golden Gate Park

I can think of several reasons why this tree grew this way but none of them is probably correct.

Concrete pathway along the beach

I shot this picture inside a Southern barbecue resto because of the amusing sign (click on the picture to enlarge)

Marconi Car Museum in Tustin, CA

My wife and I attended a function held at the Marconi Car Museum in Tustin last Saturday. This is the first time I have been to this place and I had no idea that the museum is also a venue for special events and occasions. A pretty neat combination unless you are throwing a party for a bunch of unruly high school graduates or a group of "tatang-agers" with dimensia LOL. This museum has an array of very expensive cars with a capital E. My decade old Nissan pick-up with designer dents and a broken taillight is astronomically way out of their league. My wife said, "Give your junk car another decade or two and it will be a collector's item, too."


This 1995 Ferrari F50 is valued at $850,000! What a joke.

2008 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with a top speed of 195mph valued at $250,000

1955 Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing valued at $500,000

1956 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith a bargain at $50,000

Happy Halloween To Everyone!!