San Diego Air & Space Museum

On a blistering hot Saturday in late September, we enjoyed the air-conditioning and exhibits at the San Diego Air & Space Museum with Dan's parents. This was a first visit for all four of us, and I was very impressed by the museum's offerings.

The San Diego Air & Space museum is located in Balboa Park, a sprawling complex that includes gardens, museums, and the world famous, San Diego Zoo. Parking was free, although since it was so busy, we ended up parking in a lot that wasn't directly attached to the museum. Admission was $19.50 for adults and $16.50 for seniors, we also added five dollars per ticket to see the special exhibition; Da Vinci: The Ultimate Innovator.

Exhibits located at the entrance, were a taste of things to come, but also focused on the Apollo Missions. Dan's family has an inside joke about "Moon Rocks" that predates my joining the Germain family, and although they've explained, I'm still lost. Here are some pictures from the entrance, including the Moon Rock.

The Da Vinci: The Ultimate Innovator exhibition, focuses on Da Vinci's machines. The exhibits included drawings and models, with many of the models being interactive. Although the exhibition was well-worth the five dollar surcharge, I found it significantly less interesting than the exhibits in the main gallery.

My father-in-law is a retired British Airways Flight Engineer, and although we couldn't find a BA Fight Engineer Insignia, this is the closest we got, with a British European Airlines Stewardess Insignia. The museum had hundreds of insignias in a range of ranks, from airlines all over the world.

Surely, these portraits of inductees into the International Air and Space Hall of Fame, are meant to be funny, right? It's unbelievable that they are not done on black velvet. Not to disrespect their accomplishments, but we got a good laugh looking at these portraits and wondered why they weren't more dignified.

Yes, this last one is Harrison Ford, who is an advocate for private aviation. Nice earring Ford!

My favorite exhibit was a small display for the now defunct San Diego based airlines, PSA. I love the cool stewardess uniforms, especially those sherbet orange go-go boots!

The aviation portion of the museum is extensive, with a big focus on artifacts from both World Wars.

Even with all of the WW2 artifacts, one display was quite a shock. They had the suits of Winston Churchill, Hermann Goering and Adolph Hitler.

The space component of the museum was relatively small and I didn't take any photographs, except for this final one, of Dan in a ride simulator near the exit.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is a worthy addition to a San Diego vacation itinerary. If you go, make sure to have a snack at the Alaska Airlines Flight Path Grill. It's located on an upper deck, with outside patio seating and excellent views of downtown. As its name infers, we saw many planes soaring above us. I noticed that the museum had plenty of interactive exhibits geared towards children, including a 4-D movie experience. This is a great museum for all ages and something that you should allow at least three hours to tour.

Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites

During their visit, we went with Dan's parents to San Diego and stayed on Shelter Island at Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites. Our stay was for three nights and the pictures in this review were taken over the course of our trip, during different times of the day.

Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites was built in the early 1960's and it still looks it. A visit to Humphreys is like stepping back in time. I expected to see Don Draper having a cocktail poolside. The resort is completely decked out in a Hawaiian theme, from the plumeria trees perfuming the parking lot, to the longhouse style architecture in the lobby.

The lobby

My first impression of the resort was positive. Yes, it's an older hotel, but the theming is fun and it actually does feel like being in Hawaii, especially with the amazing weather that we experienced during our stay. The porter who took our luggage to our rooms was exceptionally friendly and helpful, giving us tips for local restaurants. Shortly after settling in our room, he saw us struggling with the pool gate and he jumped-in to resolve the issue, going to reception and making new keys.

The room was dated, but large and comfortable. Again, it very much looks like something that I've visited in Hawaii. The primary problem with the room was lack of lighting. The light was so dim, that I could only read on my backlit Kindle. Shades outside of the window, prevented natural light from touching the room. My in-laws also complained of the light issue.

Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites is a popular place for events. We saw a wedding take place on the lawn. Here are before and after pics of the wedding set-up.

Humphreys has a summer concert series, located on a different lawn area. On the weekend that we visited, they had a UB40 concert that was sold out. We could hear the music from the pool and Dan's parents said that they found a spot in the pool area, where they had a good view of the stage.

I'd recommend checking the concert schedule prior to booking a stay. Our visit was in the early fall and although the concert was full, the pool area was busy, but not packed. The pool is a good size, but there are not very many lounge chairs, and I can imagine that it's a nightmare on a busy summer day. Also, I think the crowd could be dramatically different depending on the band. The pool was filled with middle-aged ( slightly older than us) adults, some with kids. There was a lot of drinking going on and skimpy swim-suits. It had a bit of a Las Vegas vibe and although I wouldn't say "Don't Bring Your Kids", there are probably better family resorts.

Parrots on property

Twice, we ate breakfast at Humphrey's main restaurant. Excellent food and stunning views of the marina.

My cantaloupe wearing a hat was a delightful surprise.

One of the biggest reasons to stay at Humphreys, is it's a short walk to many excellent restaurants. On our first night, we ate at the Brigantine Seafood Restaurant. The swordfish was outstanding.

We also dined at Bali Hai (song stuck in your head?), another tropical throwback to the 50's/60's. The food was very good, but beware of the ridiculously strong Mai Tais, made with only alcohol. Apparently this is authentic, but I say bring on the fruit juice! It's a good thing that we were a five minute walk down the road.

I was having a mostly positive experience at Humphreys, until our final day. We spent Sunday morning/early afternoon at the USS Midway and returned to find that our room had not been made-up. No big deal, it was still early in the day. We called down to housekeeping, to let them know that we would be spending a few hours by the pool, and to request that it be made during our absence. No problem, they would send someone right up.

After the pool, it was still a mess and we didn't have dry towels. We noticed that they were near our room, so we took a walk around Shelter Island to give them a little more time. We returned and it was still a mess. It was five o'clock. We took turns showering and used the wet towels.

After showering, still no peep from housekeeping, so we gave them another call. We told them that we would head to the mall for an hour or so, again, we got reassurances that someone would be right over.

We returned at six-thirty and still nothing. This time we went to the lobby to complain. We had dinner reservations and needed to get ready. We told the front desk clerk, David, that we would sit in reception until he verified that it had been cleaned. We heard nothing from him. He ignored us and as we could see our room from reception, we noticed that housekeeping went inside about 7:20 and came out fifteen minutes later.

What bothered me most, was the lack of customer service. We never received an apology for the inconvienance and we were never given a reason for the delay/ mix-up. If they had told us that they were short on staff or would be late, that would have been much better than giving us the run-around. I think that they forgot to clean our room and that the staff had left for the day, sending them scrambling.

The room looked okay, but then we found some passive-aggressive stunts. They didn't move anything, except for my medication, which I always leave in the same spot. After hunting for ten minutes, I found it wedged near the coffee maker and hidden behind tea/coffee packets. The shower nozzle had been moved to point directly up at the ceiling. These seemed like deliberate moves.

Dan complained at check-out to David, who had been at reception to deal with our problems the evening prior, was very rude. Our experience took a nose-dive with that experience at check-out. I doubt that we would give Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites a second chance.

The Queen Mary

Last Weekend, Dan and I headed to Long Beach to tour The Queen Mary, with our German friend, Niklas. Thank You to Niklas for treating us to the "First Class Passport", which included two guided tours; Ghosts and Legends of The Queen Mary and Glory Days.

We arrived early on a Sunday morning, just prior to the first tours. Arriving early, we didn't experience large crowds, but the tour groups were definitely getting larger later in the day. Here are some shots that we took on the upper decks, prior to our first tour.

The Miss American Starlet Pageant (aka California Toddlers and Tiaras) was happening on the ship. Lots of hairspray, tulle and fake lashes.

The Queen Mary was decked out for the holidays. Here are some snaps that we took while walking around the interiors.

The Queen Mary started out as a luxury passenger liner in the Cunard Line and had her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936. In the summer of 1939, she was painted battleship grey and was used to transport troops. She was converted back into a passenger liner after the war.

The ship is filled with nods to her service in WW2, including a room of propaganda posters.

Unfortunately, The Queen Mary has had many onboard deaths during its years of service.

With all of these deaths, "Ghost Sightings" are part of The Queen Mary lore. All over the ship, they have notes were these sightings are supposed to have taken place. Like at this piano...

I think it's more interesting to note that Liberace was a frequent traveler on The Queen Mary and would play this piano for the second class passengers.

I don't believe in ghosts. Personally, I think all of the "ghost sighting" stuff is silly. However, that doesn't mean that it isn't fun to hear the stories. Our first guided tour was the Ghosts and Legends of the Queen Mary Tour.

I'm a complete mess when it comes to haunted houses and theme parks. It's not because I'm scared, but I can't handle being startled and jumpy. Although the Ghost and Legends tour has loads of special effects and dim lighting, it does not have any jumpy moments. The guides really play up the whole "last chance to bail if you're scared" spiel. It's not scary at all, but it is a disappointment.

The focus is so much on making it "scary" and using special effects, that you don't have a decent chance to see the very cool and interesting rooms that are highlighted on the tour. In particular, the First Class Swimming Pool and the Boiler Room. We were left wondering why they bothered trying to make these "scary", we wanted to get a good look with the lights on. It's a let-down. It would be so much better if they combined the tour of these areas with the Glory Days Tour and cut out the cheesy ghost theme. I could have done without the corny "you made it out alive" jokes, in favor of a serious tour of the ship. Go ahead and keep the ghost sighting signs for people that like that sort of thing and ditch the ghost tour.

The Glory Days Historical Tour was awesome. This tour focused on the design and function of the ship.

Here is the First Class Travel Office, where passengers could make shore travel arrangements.

Equipment from the First Class Gymnasium.

A new business on the First Class Shopping Promenade.

The current Queen Mary Royal Wedding Chapel, not it's original function.

Art showing various woods used on The Queen Mary. This is not a complete list, but it's interesting to note that several of species of wood are now extinct.

First Class Nursery, with many original toys.

Our tour guide explaining a very rare photograph showing The Queen Mary, The Queen Elizabeth and The Normandie in New York.

The First Class Smoking Room, the only room on the ship with a wood burning fireplace.

The Queen Mary was always in a competition to break speed records for transatlantic crossings. In its early years, the competition between The Queen Mary and The Normandie ( a French liner) was fierce, with the two liners swapping records, but eventually The Queen Mary won the record and held on to it for many years.

Winston Churchill stayed in this suite and we were told that he used the bathtub, filling it with dirt, to plan the Invasion of Normandy.

Clocks

When The Queen Mary was purchased by the City of Long Beach, it was decommissioned and turned into a hotel. You won't get to cruise, but you can still stay aboard.

We ended our afternoon with cocktails at the Art Deco themed Observation Bar. Originally exclusive to first class passengers, drinking here was like time traveling to another era.

We didn't do it, but as a separate admission, The Queen Mary has a holiday themed event called Chill. It includes ice skating, ice sculptures, a North Pole Village, et...basically an explosion of Christmas!

My big tips for visiting The Queen Mary are to arrive early and budget. Make sure to look at their official website prior to arriving and look over your ticket options. There are several choices, some bundling multiple tours or special exhibits into a single package. It can get pricy. Our "First Class Passports" were $36.00 each and parking was $20.00. This was a basic fare, as there were many other things that we could have added on. It can add up quickly! Make sure to explore your options, figure out what fits your needs, and then look for discounts.

The Queen Mary is an amazing piece of history that we are lucky to have docked in Los Angeles. I've visited several times and each visit brings a new perspective.