TimeOut

Exploring San Diego's Embarcadero, Part 1

 

The word Embarcadero means place to get off of the ship. San Francisco has a famous embarcadero, but I'd like to show San Diego's, as we have done a "stay at home vacation" recently and enjoyed seeing so many nautical things.

Starting from the South, the most interesting item is the Midway - the longest serving aircraft carrier in the United States Navy. Its construction began as a battleship, but half-way through the Navy said to the shipyard "we changed our minds, can you build us a carrier instead?"

One of the unique aspects of the ship is the feeling that you are walking down a city street or across the square, but you are half-way up the office towers while being surrounded by aircraft.

The Midway was turned into a museum about 10-12 years ago, and it's a fantastic place to explore or even to have a special family event like a reception or party.

If you walk around, or have a boat handy, you can see some very interesting facets of the battleship/carrier.

If you are a ship spotter, on a good day you can look across the bay to the west and see one or both of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers whose home port is San Diego - the Ronald Reagan and the Carl Vinson.

On another day you might see one of those carriers coming or going from the harbor. It's a pretty amazing sight, as they are as wide as they are tall (250 feet) anymore than twice as long as any building in San Diego is tall (1092 feet). More than 5000 people are on each carrier.

Speaking of 5000 and carriers, this is a car carrier, not an aircraft carrier, and it holds 5000 vehicles. About 20% of the imported cars from Asia come through our port, and they come on ships like this one.

And then there are the people carriers aka Cruise Ships. We get a few each week and they dock about 100 meters down the road from the Midway. Here are two nearly identical twins bringing ~ 5000 people and their money to San Diego for the day.

If you are a typical Purist and more interested in 5000 as horsepower rather than tourist count, you might be interested in the Patriot. It's docked between the Midway and the cruise ship pier. For getting your adrenaline going, it's hard to beat. A thirty minute ride is all they offer, but in my stomach's experience, that's about 10 minutes TOO LONG.

The main goal is to race up to 45-50 knots then make a U-turn. Then repeat. Again. Again. Till all cameras, phones and lunches have flown overboard.

If you have a family with a more sedate disposition, or you just ate lunch, you might want to take a cruise on the SEAL which drives around the Embarcadero, then plunges into the bay and looks for aquatic creatures. The speed is a bit more to my liking, actually. While you are out on the water you might see more Navy ships, like these.

If it's a very special day, you might just be able to walk through the Independence or the Coronado and see what a few billion can buy. More aluminum than you have ever seen before.

Finally, as you stagger off the Navy ships and head for your hotel bar, yacht or sportscar, you might catch a glimpse of the Vibrant Curiousity,

it's 280 feet, cost about $100 million, costs $300,000 to fill the fuel tank, etc. etc.


or Roman Abramovich's polar exploration yacht Luna.

Stay tuned for more Embarcadero Adventure!

Cazalea

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