Midway between the water and the sky

Today, on impulse, I toured the USS Midway, the first aircraft carrier commissioned after WWII. Aircraft carriers are farking huge—you could play two baseball games simultaneously on the hangar deck. (They also smell exactly like Hallowell. Wacky.) I poked around in engineering, climbed into a couple of restored cockpits, took the guided tour of the conn tower, taking many pictures along the way (which will probably be posted at some point). I'm a pacifist, but I can ooh and ahh over 1940s engineering and anchorage charts like nobody's business.

I spent longer than I expected on the Midway, then slunk around downtown, seeking coffee shops and bookstores. (I found the former, but only an abandoned storefront where the latter once lived.) Then an excellent Afghan dinner with adfamiliares and a few of her classics friends, topped with a sundae at the Ghirardelli ice cream parlor.

Tomorrow, zoo!

Someone told me it's all happening

I had another muffin & cocoa breakfast at Café Noir, where I was again the only customer. The cute barista from yesterday ran outside immediately after I sat down, saying "Don't steal anything—I'll be right back," which I thought was rather charming. Then, tonight, I got a Mexican mocha at Café Bassam at 4th and Market, a caffeine and tobacco bar with rifles hung on the walls and fifty blends of tobacco for sale to those who want them. (I sat in the clouded room and sketched out the character of the second horseman, who'd been a cipher up until now.)

Today's main attraction was the San Diego Zoo, characterized by a crisscrossing network of paths, roads, walkways, stairs, and escalators that make it difficult to determine which paths you've walked and which you haven't. Six hours wasn't really enough time, but I got to see many wonderful sights: a monster hippo tip-toeing through the water like a smiling dirigible, a baby panda peeking at me upside-down from a tree, pygmy mongeese wrestling in the dust. I saw two okapi, close enough to touch, and a whole herd of the amiable, yak-like, rock-climbing takins, which I'd never even heard of before. All of the zoo is richly jungled, with palms and cycads and flowers and banana trees. Some bird spread its wings and squawked threateningly at me. Everything was quite wonderful, except the $15 cheesburger-Coke-and-cookies I ate for lunch.

Tomorrow, eight hours of airplanes.