The ship had many different type of Aircraft up for control and many of them we were able to get a fly by from. These are 2 F/A18's from the USS Kitty Hawk. We even had 2 B52's do a fly by. I'm going to get the video of that and will post as soon as possible.

This is the SM2's that were fired from Port Royal. They get out of the launcher quick. There are 2 missiles in the video.

Here is a great view of sunset, underway in the Hawaiian Operating area. This picture was taken from the Bridge of the ship.

Here the ship does a early morning Underway Replenishment. We are in the Hawaiian Operating area and the ship you see is the delivery ship HMAS Success. This is an Assie ship. I visited this ship in Sydney in the late 90's. Anyway this is a good morning shot.

This is a Harpoon shot. These are very rare. The ship shot wo of these weapons. Again the ship enjoyed success firing this weapon. Unfortunately, they fired the weapon at some older ships that I use to get underway with. It's sad when you see ships that you are familiar with being sunk to the deep. This day was the ex-Cushing and Ex-Horne last day above water.

During our mission we shot many different weapons. This is a good shot of the SM2. This is the navy's Standard Air to Air missile. The ship shot 2 of the these weapons and both were good missiles. I the forground of the photo you see the 5in gun. The ship exercised that weapons system too. The gun workedvery well.

Another mission to Hawaii. This time I'm underway on USS Port Royal. She is home ported in Pearl Harbor. As you exit the harbor you alway get a great view of the Arizona memorial, what a wonderful reminder of those who made the ultimate sacrafic for our freedoms. Any this mission we were asked come support RIMPAC 2008. Click the link to learn more about the exercise. http://www.c3f.navy.mil/RIMPAC_2008.html

No Sailor should ever go to Washington DC without stopping by the Navy Memorial. Here Diana is keeping the Lone Sailor company. If you are familiar with DC it is located behind the National Archeive. Here is the link to the memorial: http://www.lonesailor.org/

Snapped this video with my phone and Yankee Stadium. The Padres played the Yankees. Too bad we lost 2-1 but it was a great game. On a great day and one we won't soon forget.

Ok we are up to date. Our NYC - Philly - DC trip was amazing. We saw so much and at the same time we saw so little. Amazing things... In a short 232 years of this country's exsistance we have come so far. We have so much and we should appreciate. We will have to go to DC again. I recommend this the most of all. Stay here for a week and expose yourself to everything you can. Then go to Philly.... what a journey and we've only begun to scratch the surface.

To finish a good trip we had to see one more ball game. The Nationals vs. Angels. This is the first year for this ball park. It's beautiful but the food sucked. They got to work on that. We got lost on the way to the stadium. We rode the metro to RFK stadium. BTW scary neighborhood. NAT's park is in the NAVY Yard area. This area has come along way.

This is the Wright brothers plane. It's at the Air and Space. This is was very interesting.

This is a self protrait of Rembrant. They had hunderds of his works. I guess I could say we had hunderds. The National gallery is onwed by the US...

Diana and Ryan inches away from one of the greatest works of art....

Day two we spent at the National Archeive, National Gallery and the Air and Space Museum. I was impressed with the Gallery. We saw master works of art just hanging on the walls. You dare not touch but you could. Monet, Manet, Rembrant, Van Gough, and on and on... You see more.

We saw all the major memorial's I can't post them all. This is the WWII memorial. This is wonderful tribue to the men that fought in the greatest of wars.

This is the Vietnam Memorial.

Diana has fallen... Didn't you read?

I think we all have this figured out. Yep this is Lincoln.

This is RFK grave site. The house in the back ground belonged to Robert E Lee.

This is the view from JFK's grave site of Washington DC. This is very fitting of his importance to the American people.

This is the burrial site for JFK and family. About 100 yards from here is Robert Kennedy's grave site. Two great statesman and taken way too early.

This is truely a hallowed place. The Tomb of the Unknown. This is the changing of the guard. This watch is stood 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When we are not there to see this in the middle of the night they still execute the ceremony. The soliders and sailors honored here are the true hero's. They deserve the ceremony and our respect.

Francis Scott Key was located in the harbor behind Diana and Ryan. Ryan is attempting to be taller than his mon. Note the tippy toes...

This is the original flag post and location the flag was at when the song was written. The Fort is very interesting. If you didn't know the Anthem was written during the war of 1812. The battle at Fort McHenry and the defense of Baltimore was in 1814. This was the last chance for the British to reclaim the US but, as you can guess, it didn't happen.

when you sing the National Anthem have you ever wondered what a rampart is? Well if you look to the far left you will see one. In fact your looking at the rampart that is written about in our Country's song. My back was so bad we skipped Gettysburg but we spotted in Baltimore, this is Fort McHenry. The place where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

What a awesome ball park Citizen Bank park is. We saw the Philly's play the Angels. We really came to see the Fanatic. He's a great mascot. The Park is a little uncomfortable. Seats are cramped but the food and beer are cheap. The atmosphere is very great and there isn't a bad seat in view in the place. Lot's of parking too. The sports complex is the best I've ever seen. 4 venues in one spot all with thier own parking so lot's of tailgating space.

Ryan on the bus. Just looking at all that Philly has to offer. I think he's thinking about the next cheessteak. I believe in the background you can see the Rocky Statue By the way it isn't at the top of the steps any longer.

Here we are on the Philly bus tour. It's a beautiful city. I recommend everyone go there. Too much to see and little time to do it.

What trip to Philly would be complete without a trip to Geno's or Pat's for a cheesesteak. Wonderful South Philly, 10PM and we are eating... Ryan had cheesesteaks every day we were in Philly. These are the best. Pat's the originator and Geno's with the flash.... Diana had the other famous sandwich made in Philly.... Anyone for a guess? If you said Hoogie you are right. Both good

Birth of a nation. This is the room that Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and many of the legendary founding fathers wrote the priciples of this country. The head chiar is an original piece of furniture. Washington sat in that chair. Philly was the original Capitol city of the US.

Guess where we are? If you guess Boston. Wrong... Philly is the right answer. Here Diana and Ryan (Yellow) stand next to the Liberty bell and yes that building behind Ryan is Independance Hall. Guess what was written there? Declearation of Independance and a draft of the Constitution. Yep that is correct. You see more of that later.

Her we are on our way back to the hotel. The city of New York behind us Ryan took this photo of us... We will be back some day. There is much to see on this planet and I'm not sure when. First of many long vacation days down. NYC was excellent.

This is where the twin towers would be if it weren't for evil people. I miss them very much. It's lack of presence is a reminder that people are out there that want to destroy the greatest nation in the free world. Everyone should be reminded that freedom isn't free and to never let your guard down.

Here is a good shot of the Brooklyn Bridge. It really pretty. That's right I said it! However, I thought it looked tiny compared to what I expected. Interesting story about how it was built.

We found it. Can you see it. We are on a double decker bus. There is a bus infront of ours that looks very simular. Good tour of the town. Ryan kept pointing out I am Legend locations. The movie.... I'll have to watch that again.

We heard the neon light are bright on Broadway. Well it's day time and not too many light right now. Funny story... We came out of the Subway at 42nd and Broadway. We were looking for that classic triangle building but could not see it... We gave up and went on to our night tour of NYC and guess what. Life is about prespective. We wer standing next to the building when we were looking for it earlier.

This is what it loks like inside the guts of the stadium... Very crowded

This isn't the greatest photo of Yankee Stadium. What a honor to be in the ball park that some of the greatest players of all time have played. They don't call this the house the Ruth built for no reason. The Babe played here, along with Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio, Lou Gerhig, Brooks and Frank Robinson, and I could go on. Goosebumps... too bad that they are tearing down this historical land mark but you can see why once inside. The stadium was comfortable but no luxury items here. the food was expensive, beer 10.5o a cup. That is the highest price I've ever paid for beer, ever. With that in mind Diana and I went on to drink 63 dollars in beer. Oh and our batter's died on the camera. so we have very few photo's but lot's of memories. I hope I never forget.

Here is the back side of Lady Liberty. From the New Jersey side you will never be closer. We viewed Ellis Island and the Liberty from Liberty Island State Park, New Jersey. This is right off the Jersey turn pike, just north of Newark.

Here we are on our way to New York City. Ryan, Diana and I are riding the Water Taxi across the Hudson River. We stayed in Edgewater New Jersey. We had a wonderful time there. The bad news is I had a very bad back injury and was in pain most of the trip. Diana twisted her ankle but we made the best of it. We saw a lot this day. You'll see in the follow on slides.

Diana is hear with Big Al. Ok it's really a statue but she seems to be enjoying his company. we are not sure what he is pointing at.

Ryan and I are here in LA. This building behind us is Griffith Park Observatory. It is a wonderful place to learn about the universe. By the way I learned that it's really big!! On the left is a replica of the Palomar mountain observatory. On the right is an observatory dedicated to viewing the sun. Yep the sun. With filtering you can look at it. I also learned it's a star.... Just kidding it's a flaming ball of fire. That burns at 11,000 degrees. No wonder it's hot in the summer.

Yep it snowed only 15 miles from the house this year. Palomar Mtn is 5000 feet in alt so it's no surprise when it does but we thought we should go play in it this year. Palomar also has one of the greatest observatory's in the world. The stars are beautiful in Valley Center but at Palomar they are spectacular.

This is what baseball is all about. The boys are happy and so am I. They gave me everything I could ask for. We started out 7-6 and finished 18-9. That is all a coach can ask for. the player got better, they all matured. These are 13-14 year old boys and it took a bit of convincing them that this was thier team. Once they got it, they proved they had it. In the pool is Ryan, Cole, Zach, Ronnie, Matt, and Adam.

Ryan Played lot's of different position's this year. SS, 2B, all OF, but here he's on the Pitcher's mound. He talked me into putting him in to pitch and after being on me for 2 years, he got in the game. He hit the first batter. I told him that he needed to prove himself. He didn't disappoint. Getting the next 3 batters and that was the end of his pitching debut. Next year he might get more time on the mound but this wasn't his year for that. He played most of the year at 2B....

Here I am talking to the boys after they played there first away game. This was the first for many of the boys. Thinking back the boys lost a close game but they fought hard. We ended up 18-9 and 11-3 on the road this year. I was very proud of all of them.

Let's get caught up. This year Ryan's Junior division Baseball team was the Dodger's. Terrible name but what a year. Here is Ryan in the first game of the year. The coach is Bill Pugh. The Padre player in the back ground was one of mine last year, Ryan Gerlach. I was the Manager of the Dodgers this year. Bill was my co manager and Pat Preston whom I will point out in future photo's was my coach. I'll say more in the next blog

This was too good of a picture not to post. Scoreboard perfectly aligned. Note the Chargers are killing the Texans. I believe the Chargers had just score a TD and there was much happiness to be shared.

This was the morning of the first fire in San Diego County (The Witch creek fire). We were totally safe the first day. As you can see the fires were to the south of us. The second day a new fire threatened Valley Center so we were told to evacuate. We packed up the RV and lived in the RV for the next 3 days. These fires ruined Halloween for VC.

A Little pregame preparation. Diana and I are at Dick's Last resort before the game. I do believe that is Fat Tire Ale we are enjoying. The bog one!!

This was a awesome night at Petco park. This is the weekend before Tony Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame. We love our Padres. Jason, Diana and Ryan seem to be ready for the game. Too bad the season ended on a bad note. We lost to the sinking Rockies in a playoff. I hate those guys.

Diana is sporting the Antonio Gates baby blue jersey.