cabrillo national monument san diego

The best view of downtown San Diego from land probably is from Cabrillo National Monument. Unfortunately, in order to get there you have to go through Naval Base Point Loma, and the gates are closed from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.

Map through Naval Base Point Loma

If you go to Cabrillo National Monument, leave some time to explore World War II bunkers and other interesting stuff along the 2.2-mile drive through the Naval Base. You won’t be able to get too close to anything, but there are many vista points where you can pull over and gaze. Recently I pulled over and gazed at this:

SSC Pacific, Point Loma, San Diego CA

I have no clue what SSC Pacific.

Looks like a giant swimming pool.

Off to my resource library…. Nothing.

Off to Google…. Bingo!

SSC Pacific stands for “Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific.” Why not SNWSCP? Well, “Space and Naval Warfare” has its own acronym: SPAWAR. So SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific becomes SSC Pacific, which still leaves one wondering, Why not SSCP?

Along with SSC Pacific’s main facility here in San Diego, it has detachments in Hawaii, Guam, and Japan. Japan?

SSC Pacific is the Navy’s premier research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) laboratory for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR). A lot of big words.

Way beyond me, which means it’s way beyond Twitler, too.

For more on SSC Pacific, go here.

This post approved by Zoey the Cool Cat

I lived in Houston, Texas, from May 1977 to March 1982.

In addition to the City being the fourth most populous city in the United States, the Port of Houston is the busiest port in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage, second-busiest in the United States in terms of overall tonnage, and thirteenth busiest port in the world.

Unfortunately, trying to get the Port of Houston to watch the ships was an exercise in getting nowhere, and I suspect

The City of San Diego, where I have lived since May 1993, is the eighth most populous city in the United States. The Port of San Diego is, well, about all we can say is that it is the primary port of entry for Honda, Acura, Isuzu, Volkswagen, Nissan, Mitsubishi Fuso, and Hino Motors into the United States.

That doesn’t mean the waters of San Diego aren’t busy. Just to the south of the Port of San Diego is the huge 32nd Street Naval Station, the largest base of the United States Navy on the west coast of the United States. Naval Base San Diego, as it is known, is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, comprising 54 ships and over 120 tenant commands. It encompasses 13 piers covering 977 land acres and 326 water acres. The total on-base population is 20,000 military personnel and 6,000 civilians.

Across the bay is Naval Base Coronado. Under the command of the Naval Base Coronado are seven separate Naval installations encompassing 57,000 acres.

Naval Air Station North Island is the home port of several nuclear aircraft carriers, such as the USS Carl Vinson.

Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach is known as the Helicopter Capital of the World. From dawn to dusk on weekdays, hundreds of helicopters are flying in the air, practicing various maneuvers that might be critical in a war.

I’m fairly familiar with all the United States ships, and if I’m not Google will help me if I have the ship number.

Occasionally a ship comes into port that gets a lot of attention, especially tall ships at the Festival of Sail (coming up in September):

Occasionally ships from foreign countries also plow through our waters:

You can catch a cruise ship, sometimes two, at the cruise ship terminal built a few years ago:

I think the most excitement is generated when a foreign tall ship comes to town, such as the Esmeralda from Chile (top) and the Sagres from Portugal (bottom):

The Maritime Museum of San Diego has two tall ships, the Star of India (top), the oldest ship in the world that still sails under its own sails, and the Master & Commander (bottom), built for the movie filmed in and about San Diego and the northern peninsula of Baja California and then donated to the Museum:

If you know where to go, and I do, you can see submarines coming and going at all hours of the day:

I’ll be nice and tell you where to go to see submarines: Point Loma. Stop at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and you’ll be right above the submarine base.