Museum Trip... and a New Book

Hello everyone!

Not much more in the way of painted figs, but I thought that y'all might enjoy some pictures that I took this past weekend when I was able to visit a couple of neat museums with my family. I was able to meet with my parents and younger sister on vacation in San Diego, and we took the time to enjoy the beautiful weather exploring the Maritime Museum of San Diego and the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. I mainly managed to take pictures of ship models (which I've always loved), though I did get a good picture of the Midway's island. A couple of the displays at the Maritime Museum were even Napoleonic themed: how about that?

Anyway, less talk, more pictures (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions):

A really cool model of the HMS Victory.

A really neat little diorama of the Battle of Trafalgar. Each ship is individually modelled with masts and rigging and labeled. The ships are approximately the size of the Sails of Glory miniatures.

"England expects..."

A ship-in-a-bottle of the USS Constitution, veteran of the War of 1812.

A very intricate ship model.

A model of the Star of India, the ship these pictures were taken aboard.

Another Star of India model.

The Star of India, the world's oldest working sailing ship, and one of if not the oldest iron ships.

A model of the Vasa.

A model of the Mary Rose.

A Dutch warship of the 17th Century.

 

My one picture of the Midway. A HUGE ship and a really cool museum.

(P.S. I took these pictures with my new smart phone, so some turned out better than others. However, I do see some significant potential for my phone and blogging.)

I was also very excited to find that the gift shop at the Maritime Museum had a BUNCH of Napoleonic Era naval books on hand, namely due to the fact that the museum is the berthing for the reconstructed HMS Surprise, which was used in the filming of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with Russell Crowe (sadly she was not there when I visited; I believe she was undergoing repairs at drydock). I was very thrilled (I "nerded out" according to my mother) when I discovered that they had the entire Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien and the entire Hornblower series of books for sale, something which I've never run across before. I also picked this up:

A very nice Osprey book with lots of pictures of uniforms, some awesome illustrations, and a bunch of good information on the officers of the Royal Navy during the early Napoleonic Wars.

All in all I had a wonderful time visiting these museums, and was blessed that I was able to do so with my family. So if you're ever in the San Diego area, be sure to check these museums out; there is a lot more to see and do besides look at ship models, with several ships you can get into and explore. Sadly no pictures of these, so you'll have to check them out for yourself!

Coming soon: I think I did a bad... it should be arriving in the next day or so.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck