December 19th, 2009 
Cheryl 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?
We just came back from seeing 
We celebrated Veteran’s Day this year here in Las Vegas with a very ‘Las Vegas’ thing to do – we went to a Casino! We’re not really into gambling (especially playing the slot machines which seems quite mindless and a waste of time to us) but we had to go to 
MCRD San Diego 50 years later
Me, Cheryl & Shadow standing on the Grinder (Parade Deck)
We drove to MCRD yesterday from El Centro, where we are staying. 50 years ago when I went through the main gate I thought I went to Hell, but I was in Marine Corps Boot Camp. Only a few minutes after arriving I was standing on yellow foot prints painted on the deck. The next minute I was gasping for air, a Drill Instructor had his hand around my throat. He said, “You were smiling; do you think I look funny?” I knew I was going to die because I could not even talk.
He let me down and for the next 13 weeks I never even thought of smiling.
Funny how you can remember things that happened 50+ years ago. MCRD has changed a lot but in some ways it was the same. It is a beautiful base. See more pictures of MCRD.