Tripping to ... San Diego ...

Upon getting on the road, we hit Route 166 East.  Kat suggested we take that route to reach our ultimate goal of arriving in San Diego.  We both knew that there was road construction south of Santa Maria and possibly in Santa Barbara.  Between the two probable road construction projects, I agreed with Kat that going east would be a good move.

We reached I-5's interchange about 90 minutes into the trip.  Turning south, we began the middle leg of the journey.

Several days earlier I downloaded the Garmin App into both our iPhones.  I reasoned that which ever one of us was driving, the other could use the iPhone's Garmin app to assist in route control.  Both of us keying in the address of the Hampton Inn, and activated the Garmin as we departed. Good reasoning on our part.  Unfortunately the Garmin App did not always reason out the route the way humans do.  

The Garmin routed us south on US 101.  For the next 20 miles or so, it kept telling us to take such and such a road and make a U-Turn.  I figured it thought "You've activated me, and you're not listening to me ..." it eventually fell silent, except for the occasional announcement that it was "recalculating." This usually fell either slightly before or after two little bongs.  These sounded like what an elevator would make when it approached a floor it was to stop at.  As we got with-in about 10 miles or so of the 

I-5 interchange, it began announcing that we ought turn right (south) onto I-5 giving us time and range as we closed the distance.  I actually think it was relieved when we followed it's direction.  

The Garmin App preformed extremely well, now that we were following it's directions.  Mind you, we are traveling in our Saturn VUE, with the iPone plugged into the car stereo via appropriate wiring and using the AUX port on the face of the stereo.  So, we had a nice full-rich sounding female voice.

I think it was in Orange County when the App directed us to the left lane in order to access (destination) Sant-e Ah-na.  We darn near recked while trying to figure out where Sant-e Ah-na was.  Two or three large highway signs that spelled out Santa Ana later we suddenly realized that it was the unit's pronunciation that was at fault, not it's direction(s).  We laughed for ... what ... 5 miles, over this.

It was then that we also realized that we were in serious need of lunch.  So, the next order of business was to get off the freeway and get gas and food.  Pretty much in that order.  Garmin wasn't too thrilled by us leaving the freeway. It immediately recalculated it's route and directed us accordingly.  One gas station, 5 turns and 20 some odd miles later we landed for lunch in San Juan Capistrano, at the Ventage Steak House. AND we almost missed that place too.  We stumbled upon it, began our approach to the restaurant.  It looked like it was  housed inside a rail road car. Then right next to it, was another rail road car that appeared to be an access point to the local Amtrak line.  I almost drove off thinking we were in error, when we spotted the side of the car's actual entrance.  We found parking, and made our way to the entrance, climbed several stops up into the car, and with in a few minutes, were seated.  Kat had essentially a steak salad.  I had a sirloin lunch steak with mashed potatoes and veggies.  The ice tea was superb, and the food was out of this world good!  The flavor and taste would have you think this was a 5 Star restaurant.  After spending an hour in this food haven ... we resumed our journey to San Diego. 

Next: the final leg ...

It turns out that we are now about 90 minutes drive time, away from our hotel reservation in SD.  "Depends on traffic" stated our server.

During that time we texted by Cousin Willma that they had landed at the airport and were waiting for the shuttle to go to the hotel, and as we learned later to go onto the car rental facility,  Kat used my phone to answer the text,  At  that time we were about 25 miles out.  Would you believe we made it to the Hampton Inn BEFORE my cousin?  

The strangest thing ...

Garmin delivered us to our destination.  Kat and I found a parking spot, and exited the Saturn.  We made our way to the lobby, checked in and was assigned our room.  I went to consult my iPhone and found it DEAD!  What?  I looked at it again.  The screen was dark, and wouldn't respond to repeated presses of the home button.  Having brought ourselves and our luggage to our room, I began serious attempts at bring my phone back to life, you know, pressing power and home button ... then doing it together for the prescribed amount of time!  Alas, to no avail.

What surprised me was my reaction to the devices failure.  I became extremely agitated, not angry just to make it clear, but agitated. I held the power button down ... no response.  I attached it to it's AC adapter, again no response. 

I had this overpowering need to get this fixed RIGHT NOW.  Poor Kat, she calmed me down, as she accessed her iPhone for the nearest Apple Store.  At the moment she did this I did not know that Apple in fact had a corporate store here in San Diego.  As the next few minutes turned into a half then 3/4's of an hour, we located, drove to and found the Apple Store.  Kat guarded the car as I made my way into the out-door mall .. and to the store that would be my iPhone's site of repair.

Having gotten used to the Apple Store in San Luis Obispo, no slouch of a store in it's own right ... but I'm telling you ... this store was down right crowded.  Check out these two pictures.

Facing the  Genius Bar.

Looking toward entrance.

Okay maybe the photo's don't quite show how very crowed it actually was.  Iapproached the Genius Bar and was intercepted by one of the fellows in blue.  I explained what has happened, namely one moment it was working as it should, the next it was dead.  Blue boy nodded his head, and all during my explanation, was holding down the ... power button.  After about 20 seconds or so, the White Apple appeared on the screen.  Another 15 seconds or so, the home screen came up.  Blue boy then checked which version of OS it was in and pronounced it well.  Good for him.  Good for my iPhone ... but being a MacGuy ... I kept thinking ... I should have done that!  

In the mean time, Cousin Willma had left me a voice message ... I phone her back, and explained what happened to the phone, but all was well ... and we made our plans to meet later in the evening at the Hampton and then on to dinner.

About two hours later, the family reunion began in earnest, iPhone in pocket working like a champ.   Hugs and introductions were given and received. Off we went to The Brigantine Restaurant for a SUPERB meal.  The Clam Chowder was the BEST I've ever eaten, hands down. Both Kat and I had prime rib, while my cousins enjoyed a fish meal.  We completed out meal, and retired back to our hotel rooms, where we spent another few hours talking over old times, family members and plans for the next day.

Tuesday morning after breakfast we found ourselves hanging out with ... of all people ... Bob Hope!  Or rather his statue.  There is a memorial park to the Midway's port side.  Lots of nice green grass and some World War II memorials.  Accounts of our Navy's Pacific Theatre Campaigns, and a tribute to those who gave their last full measure of devotion in service to our country.

The top photo is Cousin Willma, Bob and me.  To the right, is Sandy, Willma's husband is also standing with Bob.

One of the comments Willma and Sandy kept making is how much their daughter, Jenny would LOVE to see this little park.  And the famous "Kissing Scene" ... as noted at the end of WWII, depicting that photo that appeared in the newspapers of the day.  Here at left, the art work is viewed from the port side of the USS Midway.  This statue is what Willma and Sandy want to surprise Jenny with. 

We also enjoyed touring the USS Midway.  I can tell you thats one BIG ship!

We spent about 4 to 4 1/2 hours aboard ship and could not see it all.  We rented a wheel chair for Kat to make getting about for her less painful.  She had a great time, and found it most festinating.  The Corsair pictured here, is "Kat's favorite plane or design!"  

One of my favorite mini-tours was the walk through Admiral's & Captain's Country.  The deck that denoted those spaces, is painted blue.  Their quarters were spacious compared to (even) the officer's and then enlisted spaces.  WAY cool.

This photo was taken by the "Photo Intel Center" aboard ship.  We had choices to buy "prints" which of course we did buy one, or we could get our pictures on a USB Thumb Drive.  We did that too.

To say we had a wonderful half a day is to really understate it.  One day, we plan to return for another tour.  That will be another blog.

Tuesday Evening • Really late at night ... She arrives ... 

I think her smile says it all!

Wednesday Morning Kat and I got to finally meet ... in person ...  Jennifer Heckman!  Okay we've communicated for quite a while on FB and occasionally, over the years via snail mail.  I've know of all my cousins for YEARS thanks to my mother's story tellings and more frequent phone contact and so on.  Now, with this mini-reunion we got to meet Jenny in person.  Wait.  I said that already!  We all got together Wednesday morning in the lobby of the Hampton.  What a joy it was to see her for the first time in person.  Kat and I took to her like a duck to a southern june bug.  Living in Memphis, her "accent" was a bit more pronounced then Willma's but not by much.  All these "Southerners" were, for me a breath of fresh air.    With the USS Midway in the background, this photo was destined to be taken.  So glad you were surprised!  From here we motored to the San Diego Zoo!

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