We had a really nice day today visiting San Diego, CA. We started with a two hour drive from El Centro through some interesting terrain on Interstate 8. As many times as Chuck and I (before we met, and then together) drove back and forth between our home base in California and my family in Texas for holidays, I don’t think we ever took I-8. The rock formations reminded us so much of City of Rocks in NM. The winds were wicked too! Going west, there were no signs indicating it to be a very windy, dangerous area, but coming back east, there were numerous signs, the first stating “Strong Winds Next 63 miles”. Very scary if we had been pulling our RV behind us! In addition to the winds, the elevation gain was wicked as well – Sea Level to 4,000+ feet in less than 120 miles. Better have some good brakes and transmission.

We got to San Diego and first drove to MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot), right next to the International Airport. Chuck went to boot camp there waaaaay back in 1959! 50 years! Wow. I’ll let him write up a post on his deja vu, but I will say we both enjoyed visiting the base again. It’s a beautiful place – and so nice to be on the other side of those yellow footprints.

After MCRD, we drove around the area, especially the beaches, and in the process found out about a 25ft tall statue of the famous photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt during the VJ Day celebrations in Times Square in 1945. The statue was dedicated in 2007 and is located next to the USS Midway Museum in downtown San Diego (something else we didn’t know was there). As I’m sure many, many couples before us have done, we just had to strike the same pose and take a picture:

Not too bad, if we do have to say so ourselves. We’ve since learned that the official name of this sculpture is “Unconditional Surrender” but it ought to be called “The Kiss”, don’t you think?