California - San Diego Coronado Island and USS Midway April 2019

We had a whole day and half of the next day before our flight home, so we spent most of the day Friday on Coronado Island. I really like Coronado, the island and the town. When I was a teenager, my family would go to Disneyland and San Diego every year on Easter vacation. We would camp in Mission Bay but we always spent a day on the beach at Coronado.

We took the harbor ferry across to the island (Yes, I remembered my hat and the sunscreen today) and walked through town to the beach. We stopped off along the way at a little Mexican fast-food place for lunch. Sooo much food. It was pretty windy at the beach and the water was freezing cold, but if you could find a place out of the wind it was warm enough for a t-shirt and shorts. We spent some time at the beach and I dabbled my feet in the water a bit. We walked through the grand old Del Coronado Hotel grounds and started a leisurely stroll back to the ferry landing. We decided to walk a couple of blocks off the main street on the way back and saw lots of charming cottages and houses. No cookie-cutter stuff here, they're all different.

Back to our hotel to change clothes then off to Little Italy for dinner. We ate a restaurant called Filippi's that has apparently been there a long time. You have to access the restaurant through a small Italian market and the line was out the door when we arrived. It moved pretty quickly though and we were seated within 20 minutes. Good old-fashioned Italian food in giant proportions. We shared a pizza and had salads but I saw the plates of spaghetti with meatballs the size of tennis balls and a giant plate of lasagna. Yummy stuff and a fun relaxed vibe.

Our flight the next day didn't leave until the afternoon so we spent the morning on the USS Midway.
The Midway is a decommissioned aircraft carrier turned into a floating museum. Both Mike and I have been here before, but it was interesting to see it again. We chatted with a docent who had served on the Midway at the end of WWII, and the guy looked great considering he had to be 90 years old. He told us a little about his experiences on the ship and it was just a real pleasure to speak with him. We toured the interior of the ship and the hanger bay, then went topside to the deck and checked out all the planes, helicopters and jets on display. They frequently have ceremonies own the deck and today was no exception. They had just finished a ceremony for a female pilot being promoted to the rank of colonel.  We had seen some other ceremonies as we went by on our harbor cruise the other day too.

                             Bob Hope Memorial with USS Midway in the background

Restaurant entrance is through that little arch you can barely see at the end of the aisle