San Diego, California
- Tony Boccia
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
Greetings all! As some of you may have noticed, I recently transferred from Guam to San Diego, California. This is our first time living in the United States as a family, and my first time living in America in nearly nineteen years. We jumped into San Diego with a lot of excitement, and the city has not disappointed. There's a lot of great things to do here, and historical sites to see. I have just added a San Diego page to the Pacific History Guide website, and will continue to update it as we find more exciting things to do around the city. Read on for a summary of our adventures so far!
Our first stop was to the Cabrillo National Monument, which is situated at the end of a rugged peninsula named Point Loma. This monument is dedicated to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who in 1542 became the first European to step foot on the west coast of the American Continent. There is a beautiful view from the top of the cliffs, a charming lighthouse, and you can walk down the bayside and oceanside trails to the tidal pools, which are mesmerizingly beautiful. On the way down the oceanside trail, you'll find an old Second World War-era watching station - Sailors and coastal defense personnel would have had a permanent watch here during the war, watching for enemy ships and aircraft.
Driving to Cabrillo National Monument, you pass through the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. This has been on my bucket list for years, mostly because there is a memorial here to 'Taffy 3', the ships of a small escort force that fought a daring action against the Japanese Center Force at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. I could go on for hours on this topic; suffice it to say that these humble markers are almost the only evidence of the U.S. Navy's finest hour; we'll most likely come back to this in a future post.
Our next stop was to historic Liberty Station, which is the home of the old Naval Training Center; the U.S. Navy had a base here from 1923 to 1997. On the ground was a basic training center and technical schools. Most of the area was turned over to the city of San Diego, however there's a small base (Point Loma Annex), a clinic, and military housing nearby. Across a small tidal estuary and next to San Diego Airport is Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego - the west coast boot camp for the Marines. Onboard Liberty Station is a memorial to the 52 submarines lost during the Second World War, and the training ship that recruits used when the basic training center was still active. On May 17th this year I led a tour to these monuments; we'll dig in a little further in a later post.
Our fourth stop was Balboa Park. We visited the Japanese gardens, which were nice but not exactly what you'd expect to find in Japan. Much more impressive was the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Here, you can find dozens of aircraft models, the Apollo 9 command module, a lifesize Mercury capsule, and so much more. We'll be back here for sure.
Our fifth and final (for this post) was the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Considering the extent of the ships and equipment they're responsible for, this is one of the most impressive maritime museums I've visited. The main body of the museum is aboard the steam ferry Berkely; there are dozens of paintings, artifacts, models, and more to explore here. Down in the engine room a charming 98-year-old Navy veteran named Bob ran the steam engine for us. You can tour the engine and boiler rooms here in much more detail than in other museum ships I've seen.
The USS Dolphin (AGSS-555), a research and development submarine, is here; one of the more interesting museum subs I've toured. The SS Star of India, the fourth oldest ship afloat in the United States and the world's second oldest active sailing ship, is here; beautifully maintained considering her age and the fact that she's still afloat, we were very impressed with the quality of the museum. HMS Surprise, famous for being the ship in the film 'Master and Commander', has all of the charm you'd expect from an 18th-century ship; it's an impressive replica. There's much more to see here; we'll be back for sure. Next door is the USS Midway museum; we'll save that one for another day.
We're just getting started in San Diego and really looking forward to discovering some more awesome things to do. If you have some suggestions, or would like to see something added to the San Diego page, drop us a message or an email and let me know! Thanks and see you next time.