Maritime Museum

I'm behind on posting about several excursions from our last two weeks. I'll try to catch up in the coming days!

On the day that we went out on our whale watch—posted a week or two ago—the day didn't end when we came back into port. Our tickets granted us admission into the Maritime Museum of San Diego, which has a very fine collection of historic ships. (The America, which we went out on for the whale watch, is just a replica, but she docks among the historic vessels.)

We were a little weary, but all four of us were happy we carried on for a couple more hours. In fact, Josiah said that he loved going down into the Russian B39 sub even more than the whale watch!

Before touring the ships, we checked out the cannons on the dock. Bombs away! 

Then we headed down into a Soviet B39 sub. The boys thought it was super cool; for me and Jesse, it was kind of creepy-cool. It was in service for 20 years and fully equipped to take down US ships with its torpedos. It felt very "real" since it hadn't been stripped of things like the stickers and signs stuck on it by its crewmen of decades ago. 

 

 

We also went down into the USS Dolphin—which set a depth record for operating vessels back in the 1960s that hasn't been beaten even today! It also is famous for being operated by the youngest ever submarine pilot:

(When done at the wheel, William announced: "Okay, we're at the park!"  Cracked us up.)

Among other ships, we also boarded and enjoyed the Star of India. It still goes out in water at least once a year, making it the oldest active sailing ship anywhere. So beautiful! It was built in the early 1860s on the Isle of Man, exchanged hands several times through the decades, and conveyed thousands upon thousands of passengers and emigrants plus tons of cargo during her active days. Super interesting (although we were getting a little too tired to fully enjoy by then...)

And...before signing off...here's the money shot of the day.