In the last few weeks, I have been travelling around the USA on one of my many business trips. As I always do, I make sure to check out neat places in the evenings and week-ends when possible.

My first cool place to go see was in San Diego. I was in LA for a week, so took all day Sunday to go and see the USS Midway which is at a dock in downtown San Diego.  The USS Midway is a decommissioned Aircraft carrier.  She is now a museum.  I figured I would need +-2h to visit this vessel;  it took me over 4h in what seemed like 30 minutes. It was sooooo interesting.  The drive from Los Angeles to San Diego was only about 2h on silky smooth highways,

Here is this massive ship!

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On the deck of the aircraft carrier, there were many military jets to see up close.

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Here I am in the Captains chair!

 

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This was the REAL value of the visit.  For almost all the things to see and do, there were volunteers to guide you along and provide details/explanations.  That being said, almost all of them are retired military staff ; many of them actually served on this very ship.  The gentleman below was a pilot who did hundreds of landings/takeoffs on the Midway.  Absolutely fascinating stories.

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Here was my ride for the drive to San Diego 🙂

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Next stop.   This was my most anticipated visit of my trip.  For many years I had wanted to visit … Dealey Plaza, the place were President Kennedy was gunned down in 1963 in downtown Dallas, Texas.

Here I am standing, in the middle of Elm Ave, at the exact spot where he was fatally wounded.   The spot where Lee H. Oswald allegedly fired his shots are from the building on the left, on the right side, 2nd window from the top.  Lets just say that it is quite far away!

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There I am, like all the other crazy tourists, standing in the middle of the street, dodging traffic just for a picture. IMG_2432

Now from inside the “Texas school book depository”.  On the 6th and 7th floors, there is now a museum dedicated to the entire assassination event.   Very interesting.  I took about 2h to see everything.

This is the view from (almost) where Oswald would have taken the shots.

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Finally, being an true nerd, I went off the beaten path for this JFK story.  I suspect most people will stop at the museum and Dealey Plaza.   Here, as you can see is someone’s backyard in a somewhat sketchy part of town.  If you are a JFK buff, you already know what this is.  Cool isn’t it?  It has barely changed in over 60 years.  If you have no clue what this is, see the picture below this one.

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Oswald and the infamous backyard photo with his rifle.

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New posts about Cayman coming soon 🙂