San Diego Seal Tour Adventure

Today, April 7th, 2014, was the first day of our Spring break. Uncle Paul, again, flew down from Chico and come visit us. Unfortunately, boys' school has their Spring break two weeks after my break week, so I have a week off while boys don't, it's kinda bad since we can not do activities together, but on the other hand, Uncle Paul can take me to some places that boys might not want to go, so it's also nice! Yesterday, before Uncle arrives, Jason took Ethan and me (Brennan was feeling sick) to a huge electronic store called "Fry's Electronics" just to look around, that store (or let's say, mall) was incredibly big, it even has a restaurant and a small aquarium in the mall! And it sells everything as well, from speakers, TVs to electronic parts, it's just unbelievable! Well, maybe it's just another "American size" thing, nothing too special Haha. After looking around at the electronic store, we went to a place called Invasion Laser Tag to play a quick Laser Tag game. We actually went there before once, and it was still fun this time! We then had lunch in Southern California Style fast food restaurant - In-n-out. Although it's my... 4th time having In-n-out (and having the exact same food), their classic cheese burger still tastes so good!

(For title picture) We saw a aircraft carrier drove by when we were on the boat tour

Ridiculously huge Fry's Electronics store

Inside the store, can you believe that it is actually a "electronic store"?

A small aquarium in the store!

Huge. On the left hand side is the restaurant.

Ha, in a electronic store? really?

Laser Tag!

In-n-out! Southern California Style <3

So anyway, Uncle Paul and I went to Downtown San Diego by our-self today since boys have school (oh poor boys). We took the San Diego SEAL Tours and had a wonderful lunch in the Cheesecake Factory. We started heading to downtown after Uncle Paul took boys to school, it's about 10 o'clock when we got there, the traffic was not bad at all, and the weather was extremely nice, as our tourist guide on the boat said, it's just another day in San Diego! I wore my "California Snapback Cap" that I bought online with my since the sun was pretty shiny, and I think it actually looks good on me! Haha. I believe this was actually my 7th or 8th time going to Downtown San Diego, I really love Downtown San Diego since it is clean, fine and nice, unlike some big cities such as LA and San Francisco, I hope I can live in here one day, really hope! Soon, we arrived Seaport Village, it is the place where we can buy SEAL tour tickets and get on the boat, there are also some fine gift shops there, so before we got on the "Boat with Wheels" (this is what they say on their website), we looked around these fine shops, and we also just sit on the bench and enjoy the great view of San Diego Harbor.

Heading to Downtown!

Arrived Downtown!

Nice HYATT hotel buildings. I bet their rooms have good views as well!

Tickets booth! How cute!

Very nice area!

Some fine gift shops!

Me and...

Other gift shops.

The weather was just so nice today!

Ready to board!

The seating area of the boat is about 10 feet above the ground, so we have to climb a stairs to get on the boat. Since the seating area is high above the ground, the view on the boat was definitely better than in a regular tour car. After some tour on the ground in Downtown, we then goes into the sea. I thought that we will feel big difference in the moment we goes into water from the ground, but it actually feels kinda the same! You can't tell you're already in the water if you keep your eyes closed! Ha ha. On the boat tour, we have the opportunity to view the Harbor of the "America's finest city", it was fantastically gorgeous! With some California-classic palm trees and hills as background, the view was just so great, I will never want to leave the boat! A good thing about taking the SEAL tour is that the tourist guide will give us information of everything we see, he literally never stops talking! We also saw some seals taking rest on the floating things (I'm sorry but I really don't know what's that called, even in Chinese! Please just look at the pictures below), they are so cute and adorable! They are such lucky seals since they lives in San Diego, whenever they want to take rest and want to do some "sunbathing", they just need to jump onto these floating things. Haha.

Our tourist guide.

Downtown San Diego!

San Diego Airport! It was so close to us!

Finally, we are on the ocean now!

Bay.

Me // Uncle Paul.

Really nice view!

This is what it looks like on the boat!

See that cute seal? And the bird on the top!

Everything looks just fine until a Naval Security (with a rifle in its front) boat came to us, I actually don't know what happened, I think they were telling us to get out of the way or just greetings, who know. But after looking at the back side of the boat, I finally know the answer, they were telling us to get out of the way. A HUGE AIRCRAFT CARRIER were just behind us, coming from nowhere! Literally, coming from nowhere! I am sure I didn't see any aircraft carriers when we get into water, but... well, they did a great job hiding their military power!! Haha just kidding. it keeps come toward us, it got so close to us that we were be able to see every detail of the ship, including all the people on the ship! I was kinda scared while looking this close to a real American Navy Mothership, it was just like in the movie, I saw all the radars and communicate tools, imagine if I am currently in a war... wow, I was really amazed! WE can actually look into the ship from the back side of the ship, it was just huge inside, I can't believe how they built this! Some people says that they saw dolphins swimming along the ship, however, I did not see one. Beside the main ship, I also saw at least 3 military supplies helicopters flying back and forth between the ship and the base, it was just cool! Our tourist guide says that since today was Monday, they are also going out to "work", and they will be back on Friday!

The security boat was coming!

The security boat. Even a small boat is pretty scary... yeah, it's 'merica...

Finally saw the aircraft carrier coming from nowhere :D

It's getting closer!

This close! Haha

Very nice and powerful hahaha

Supplies helicopters.

I saw at least 3 military supplies helicopters flying back and forth between the ship and the base, but it's not on this picture...

It was a really, really, really great experience to look at a real, in-service aircraft carrier this close! Our tourist guide said this doesn't happen everyday! Well, to me, it was a truly unforgettable moment! Since we are in San Diego, the city that has many military bases, we also saw some military, in-service submarines, the tourist guide told us that one of them was nuclear-powered, and will be able to easily blow up the earth! How scary!

Heading back to bay! Southern California Style!

Yep! We are in San Diego!

Where we are going to eat! Haha

Getting off the boat.

After the awesome SEAL tour, we went back to where we get on the boat, and we had lunch in Cheesecake Factory. If I'm not wrong, this was my fourth time having the Cheesecake Factory, but as always, it was fantastic! And today, for the very first time, I tried their actual cheese cake! I ordered the "Mango Key Lime Cheesecake", it was really good! We then just walk around some fine gift shops and enjoy the time. And we arrived home at 2 o'clock. Today was really fun and fantastic, thank you again, Uncle Paul!

Walking to the Cheesecake Factory. Google+ automatically created this awesome "motion" picture :D

Sitting in the outside area is always nice! (of course, only in Southern California. You won't want to sit in the outside area in South Dakota. If fact, there is no even a "outside area" in South Dakota!)