Every year the US Navy hosts a series of shipboard events called “Meet the Fleet”. Unlike the tour of the nearby USS Midway, which is a decommissioned World War II-era ship, these are modern active-duty warships. We thought it would be pretty cool, and we happened to have an event to attend in San Diego that evening, so we drove out early.
First we met up with a new senior missionary couple. They’d just moved to San Diego and were probably feeling a little lost as they began their missionary service (I know we felt that way!). We had a great lunch with them, and introduced them to the magic of Hodad’s.
After lunch we headed over to the naval base. We spent about half an hour in the line of cars slowly creeping onto the base. Then we spent over an hour standing in the line of people waiting for the tour of a small frigate docked nearby. We snapped a photo while we were waiting:
When we thought it was time to finally get onboard for the tour, we learned we’d be standing in another line. That one was about half an hour.
Eventually we made it to the ship, where we spent about an hour on a tour that should’ve taken about ten minutes. Members of the crew showed us a few features of their ship. It was interesting, I guess, but they couldn’t really show us anything because of course it’s an active ship and you can’t have the general public going around pressing buttons and pulling levers.
All in all, it was kind of a letdown. We’ll just go to the Midway again.