At first I wasn’t sure about this ‘museum’ as I am not really into aircrafts. But it absolutely blew my mind. It was so interesting to learn about what life on an aircraft carrier is like and to listen to various pilots’ stories (audio guide). I had also, by coincidence, just finished ‘Over to you’ (Ten tales of life as a wartime fighter pilot) by Roald Dahl at that time which was quite a perfect match… 🛩️

USS Midway is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. Commissioned 8 days after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal. She operated for 47 years, during which time she saw action in the Vietnam War and served as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned in 1992, she is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, California.

An aircraft carrier is like a little town on the water, it not only includes a little shop but all kinds of medical facilities as well, even a dentistry and a surgery. 😯

Seaport Village

Seaport Village is a waterfront shopping and dining complex adjacent to San Diego Bay in downtown San Diego.

The Village contains several freestanding buildings in an assortment of architectural styles, from Victorian to traditional Mexican. It is designed to be a car-free environment, with four miles (6 km) of winding paths rather than streets connecting the various buildings. 🤩

Tijuana campground

Our campground was literally next to the Mexican border and a town called Tijuana. When we went up a small hill we could look down on Tijuana at the ‘other’ side… What a weird world 😵‍💫

Strolling through San Diego

We picked up our camper van, a Winnebago Solis, in Phoenix. Size-wise and in terms of handling it was the perfect vehicle for beginners like us. But I have to say, it is not a German/European quality car. It can’t compare to a Sprinter, which is similar in size and design, in terms of steering for example and the gears shifted quite randomly sometimes (it was an automatic). Let alone minor issues like screws coming off, the zips of the fly screens breaking/ the net itself ripping and the indicators for the grey tank and toilet cassette didn’t work well/at all. (Despite the car being brand new! We were the second party to rent this particular van, it only had 4800 miles on it!!) 

Having said that, I would also like to point out that we thoroughly enjoyed that the Solis is much smaller than most RVs in the US (but that’s easy ’cause they are HUGE!!) and therefore you can usually park in regular car parking lots, and it’s way easier to find a campsite if you don’t have a reservation. And despite it’s small size it’s got a tiny kitchen and a micro (nano I should say) toilet and shower included.

☀️ My personal favourite: a solar panel on the rooftop, which meant we were quite self-reliant and never depended on a campground to have a full hook-up or partial hook-up site left but being able to take the cheaper dry camping sites! 🤑

Usually you have two water tanks for waste water: the grey water is the water that comes from your sinks and shower and the black water is the ‘water’ coming from the toilet. In the Solis, however, we had a cassette toilet. When it’s full you take it out (it looks like a trolley as it has a handle and wheels) and dump it in a toilet or at a dump station. If you have a regular blackwater tank you need to adjust a hose and you can only dump in dump stations.