Incredible Beauty, Endless Sun and Good Friends Meet Us in San Diego

From the port guide and the port lecturer, we learned about numerous places of interest that awaited us when we docked at the Broadway Pier in San Diego. These treasures includes the world-famous San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, the Old Town, the USS Midway, Seaport Village, Balboa Park for it flower gardens,the Botanical Building built in 1915 for the World Exposition and numerous museums. However, the first question that a person asked of our port lecturer Debbie was, "How do we get to the nearest Walmart?" What we learned was it wasn't that close but we could meet our need to buy most of the items that we had forgotten or not packed enough of at the drug store in the Westfield Horton Plaza that was about a 20-minute walk up Broadway from the terminal.

After we cleared immigration, we were picked up by my friend Jennifer and her husband, Don, who live in San Diego, for a tour of their city. Jennifer and I am "fake" cousins. Her mother's sister married my mother's brother. In the same year, all three couples had baby girls so we share a real cousin Paula. In the town in which I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, having "fake" aunts, uncles and cousins was the norm. No differentiation was made between real and "fake" relatives. In addition to attending Grades 1-12 together, Jennifer and I joined the same Girl Scout troop, were initiated into Rainbow Girls and took tap dancing lessons together.

Ken (once a Marine, always a Marine) had requested that we tour the Marine Command Museum. We spent most of our time in the exhibit for the Vietnam War in which the Marines were first ones with their boots on the ground in 1962 and the last to fly out of Saigon in 1975. At the entrance to that section is a quotation from Ronald Reagan, "Who can doubt that the course for which our men fought was just. It was however imperfectly pursued, the course of freedom." We appreciated a replica of the Cu Chi Tunnels, where Ken's cousin Ricky served as a tunnel rat, and a listing of the names of those who received the Medal of Honor that informed us that the men who wear it call themselves recipients, not winners, for what they received it for was not a contest but a time of terror and death. Unfortunately, the gift shop was not open on Saturday so Ken could not purchase a souvenir.

Then Don drove us to the Point Loma section of the city for a casual lunch at the Red Sailfish Restaurant on its fantastic outdoor dining deck with a picture-perfect view of the yachts in the San Diego Bay and California-style crab cake sandwiches that are lump crab meat without the added ingredients that are formed into a cake on the East Coast. Then we walked along the bay at Point Loma, enjoying the high 80s temperature thanks to the Santa Ana winds, the clear turquoise water and the view of Mexico because San Diego being so close to the Mexican border.

After our walk in the sunshine, Jennifer and Don honored our request to find stores in which we could purchase the items we had forgotten, not packed of enough of, or decided would be nice to make our stateroom more like home (such as a folding end table). Liberty Station, a part of the former San Diego Naval Training Station, perfectly blends the exteriors of its shops into the historical, architecturally accurate restoration of 26 buildings in their Spanish Colonial Revival-style splendor. Jennifer brings her dog there to exercise on the days that the park welcomes our four-legged friends.

Don and Ken obliged Jennifer and me as we reminisced about what has happened to us since we both left Big Run after our high-school graduation. Jennifer met Don at a bar in San Francisco, where she worked for the federal government, when she was celebrating a friend's 21st birthday. They dated on and off for five years, deciding to marry in 1973 when Don received an offer to sell yachts in San Diego. Their marriage in 1973 took place at the condominium of Don's aunt, and their honeymoon took them to San Diego where they searched for a place in live. Jennifer worked for four months as a meter maid, deciding whether or not to give tickets to drivers who pleaded with her not to depending on how much they irritated her, before being hired by the police department to care for its horses. Don waited until they had paid off their 30-year mortgage before retiring so they now both enjoy all the benefits of retirement. Their son, Brian, who is now 30, graduated from San Jose State College and works for Southwest Airlines, where his benefit package includes free air travel for him and his family. So it is not uncommon for them to meet in a location such as Denver to have dinner together.

All too soon, it was time to return to our ship for the 5 p.m. sailaway. We were met by many of our fellow passengers who were carrying shopping bags of the precious treasures they had purchased to make their travels more enjoyable. On Sunday, I talked with Tom (husband of Lynn), who lives in San Diego and had gone home for the day to exchange clothes and enjoy a reunion with their children and grandchildren. When he asked me what we had done in our day in San Diego, I told him that we went to Point Loma. He exclaimed, "That's where I suggested that every one go!" so Jennifer and Don had taken us to the "best of the best" that San Diego has to offer from its extensive list of must-see attractions.