With Navy Friends

After "work" on Friday (which was only getting my Phase 3 liberty signed off on), and after lunch at the galley, my friend Witte and I, along with 3 guys decided to go explore. We visited the bigger NEX across the highway and then got on a military shuttle to downtown. Explored a huge mall for several hours... I got strawberry & chocolate ice creme at Ben&Jerry's, a blue-flowered, button-up, long-sleeve shirt at Amer. Eagle, and got plastered in a game of giant checkers (pieces are about a foot in diameter... had to be kicked around :). When we were done, we wandered around Fourth Street and found an excellent place for dinner. The Rock Bottom Brewery. Had fancy mac'n cheese with tender chicken and crunchy stuff on top. And then we managed to find a taxi back to base.

Today I got a ride from a friend of mine from ATT school to the air show at the Island Air Station on Coronado's Naval Base. He and a friend of his (who came as well) are both fleet returnees, 2nd classes who are having to re-classify and get a different rate, are a little older and are fun to hang out with. We went to Denny's for breakfast and got little things at the NEX nearby before leaving. And I think we took too long! The traffic was horrible! We were stuck still on the base while planes flew by... but at least we could see them all! I saw a B-17 in flight for the first time, along with a WWII F4 Wildcat... and lots of others.

By the time we were out among the exhibits, the grand finale flew overhead... 30+ Hornets in a long formation (almost like Independence Day) and a few others... Prowlers and Hawkeyes. Very neat. We had something to eat and looked around at the jets. Cole showed us how he worked on the Hornets for his previous job... and that was pretty neat. He was so excited about them. The drive back went much faster, and when we returned to Point Loma we went out for some fish and shrimp tacos at a swank place that they've discovered nearby. I think I shall have to go back there. :)

Jp