Today we drove to Alameda to see the Hornet, the carrier that picked up Apollo XI and XII after their moon trips. The day started rather oddly, me off the computer and Rich reading the newspaper... I finally asked "When were we planning to leave?" Usually I'm reading "just one more page" and he's hustling me out the door. We got down to the ship by 10:30, though. We got a military discount. We were immediately greeted by a docent, and he took notes on our comments about the Web Page (no times and prices, and the directions don't take into account the completion of the Nimitz Freeway.) He also was interested in my story of my father having been killed on the Franklin. (They show a movie on the second deck about the Franklin.) After a little video about the history of the Hornets (this is number 8. Number 7 was sunk in early '42. Number one, a Continental Navy Sloop of 1776-1777, was the first ship of the U.S. Navy. This ship had been the Kearsarge, and was renamed. It shot down 668 planes, destroyed 742 on the ground, and sank or damaged 1,268,710 tons of shipping.

June 5, 1945 a typhoon damaged 24 feet of the flight deck, so it was refitted with scrap from another carrier, but by the time it was ready, the War was over. The Hornet brought troops home. 8000 could be fitted in the hangar deck. It was recommissioned in September of 1953, and the flight deck refitted, at an angle for jets, in 1956. The carrier was in VietNam, mostly as a sub watcher and search and rescue. In 1966 it picked up an unmanned Apollo, and then was used to pick up the first two moon Apollos. I'd forgotten about the quarantine, but they have the outline of the quarantine trailer on the floor (right after "Armstrong's footprints") and it sure wasn't very big (though larger than the space capsule!) Then in 1970 the ship was mothballed and waited at Bremerton for somebody to want it. It came to Hunter's Point in 1995 and was going to be scrapped, but it was used for the 50th anniversary of D-Day and the Hornet Foundation came to be, and it became a museum in 1998, opening to the public last August.

When they talked about the Hornet Foundation, I kept thinking I was on campus at CSUSacramento, again.

The space exhibit was so-so. I did enjoy the spinoff displays, the things that came from the space program, because 30 years ago, in England, I got into a major tiff with someone about this. She claimed it was a huge waste of money when we could be helping the poor. Well, some of the spinoff technology is what you're reading this on, cordless drills and vacuums, reflective insulation film, smoke detectors, life rafts that inflate automatically and stay upright, Xenon-arc lights, warm & cosy pads and survival blankets, bulbmisors. The whole Landsat, of course, and energy satellites. Lots of things that make our life what it is.

Then, as we were touring the ship (you can do the Hangar Deck, the Second Deck, and the Flight Deck on your own, and join a docent tour of the Bridge) a man admired my hat, and asked if I listened to KGO. Well, I used to, when we lived in Novato and for quite awhile here in Sacramento, back when they had Owen Spann and Jim Eason but I'd changed stations some time ago. I explained that I had been on the KGO Team for the Bay to Breakers and then stuck my foot in my mouth and asked if he was Jim Dunbar. He was RJ, and I haven't the least clue who that is. (Jim Eason went home to the south and used to broadcast from there, but I don't think he's there any more. I don't know what became of Owen Spann. For a long time, and possibly still, Ronn Owens has been there, but those are the only people I've ever listened to. I don't listen to Bernie Ward, too conservative for me.(!)) He muttered darkly about Jim Dunbar being a lot older than he is. Oh, well. He said a couple of our local TV stations would be coming to the ship this week.

One junior officer's quarters, for two men, was fixed up and viewable. It was at least as comfy as a college dorm room. The Marines, on the other hand, had a 38-man barracks at the stern of the ship, which looked, well, crowded.

Then we went up the "authentic WWII escalator" (my words) which is stationary, and out to the flight deck. We were lucky enough to hook up with a docent who really liked his topic, and who had been the "clerk" (drat, I've lost the name!) for the Captain on the Hornet, and knew his stuff. He took us up to Primary Flight, and they weren't taking anyone else up this high, and then the rest of the bridge. He showed us the navigation chart machine, a mechanical computer that shone a light on the chart hopefully where you were supposed to be. There were radio tubes, which some of us old-timers recognized. I looked at the list of captains but only recognized Sample. (There was a Doyle, but no relative.)

Back on the flight deck Rich was interested in the "curb feelers" which are actually antennae for the radio.

We ate and looked around a little more, and I bought a book (what I really wanted was a thirty year patch for Apollo, but I suppose we should have gone to NASA Ames for that.) Then, 4 hours after we stepped aboard, we went off. They had some brochures about other things in the area, and I noted Crown Memorial State Beach just down the way, so we went there.

Here we have this nice State Park sticker, and nobody was there to not take our money. I feel downright cheated. The beach is nice enough, and there's a protected area. The visitor's center is closed on Mondays. Most interesting is the ground squirrel population. These guys are HUGE, almost marmot size, but with long tails. There were many juveniles. I watched two fighting and they looked just like my kittens. The groundskeeper said that they were getting to be a problem, and they didn't know quite what to do. I thought a couple of coyotes would be good, but of course then you have problems with people's pets. They should "accidently" let a couple of dogs off their leashes. Import a bald eagle or a couple of peregrine falcons, though I can't imagine a falcon being able to take one of those big squirrels. They're fearless, and it's obvious people are feeding them.

We'd walked, what with all over the ship and then the beach, 5 miles. I know the ship wasn't actually that, but I was doing stairs and ladders and more ladders and figure the body benefit is probably the same.

Then we drove to the bird sanctuary. We saw many interesting sea and shore birds, but they should issue nose plugs, I think. Those are nice apartments overlooking the estuary there, but I suspect the odor cuts the rent considerably.

And so home, at the start of rush hour. The worst spot was right at the foot of the Bay Bridge, and then it cleared up about Berkeley. The dog was, hooray, still in the backyard when we got home. We left him there and turned around and went to the Discovery Museum Volunteer Thank-You party, Blue Jeans and Old Lace.

Texas BBQ outdoors. I enjoyed it, and the country music, and the presentation of awards by the channel 13 weatherman. He took credit for the weather, and said that if channel 3 had done it, we'd have had the party last week in the 108 temperature.

This year the museum operated in the black. They actually came out $100 to the good. There were 150,000 visitors to the two museums, 75,000 of them students, and 12,000 have done the Challenger program. OK! People were given rewards. I especially liked the two groups who were nominated for the Science Center. Both are Trekkie groups, both started by being Klingons for the Challenger opening. The group that won got more interested in the whole museum, and were involved with the Golden Tea(!) and even the RailFair.

There were a pair of sisters in their 70s from Roseville who were in the original "Friends of the History Museum." They had been involved in WWII (my day made a big circle) and they had a great time correcting the weatherman about their lives.

This time when we got home, we let the dog in. The cats were driving him crazy, especially Fitch, who seems to be on a suicide mission. He'll go by drowning. He grabs Sailor's leg and attempts to eat him (apparently Fitch has delusions of lionhood) and Sailor tries to lick him off or bite him off, and this kitten gets very wet indeed. (Yes, we are right there keeping the dog from laying tooth on the kitty, which is very frustrating to the dog.)

A good day!