Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Five

June 21, 2010
Home Coming – Santa Cruz to San Diego via San Pedro.

Coming soon.

Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Four, Part Two

June 20, 2010
Happy Fathers Day from Naval Station Treasure Island, San Francisco, California

After having lunch at the Bay Thai Cuisine in San Rafael (Yum), we headed back towards San Francisco.

Thirty-nine years ago this month, I reported aboard Treasure Island for duty at the Damage Control “A” School.  Even though I had received basic damage control instruction along with all of the other “boots” at Naval Training Center (NTC) San Diego, I was still a “wet behind the ears”, non designated Fireman Apprentice, with very little knowledge of what to do in emergencies on board ship let alone what a Damage Controlman did.

A Damage Controlman, for you non-sailors, is the “subject matter expert” when it comes to how to contain the effects of any kind of damage that threatens a ship and the crews survivability.

Damage Control “A” School provides the knowledge and hands on skills to contain those threats by teaching the concepts and techniques required to successfully fight and extinguish shipboard fires, maintain stability by controlling flooding, contain hull breaches and affect temporary repairs to restore operational integrity to the ship.  Included in the course of instruction are the techniques required for self and shipboard protection and decontamination against the effects of nuclear weapons and biological and chemical agents.

When we drove onto the base, finding my old barracks was easy.  It was just down the road that ran along the quay wall from the main gate.  The hardest part was remembering which one it was.  When you stand in the parking lot, you have Cosson Hall on your left and Sage Hall on your right.  After racking my brain I stood quietly in parking lot, closed my eyes, and zenned back 39 years.  Then I remembered it was the one on my left.

Damage Control School, on the other hand, was a bit more difficult.  I remembered that the school was located on the far side of the island but going from point A to point B on any Navy base is not as easy as it sounds.  When we did find it, I hardly recognized the place because there were many new firefighting simulator buildings that were not there during my tour.

Upon graduation, I became a designated striker, which meant I was now a Damage Control Fireman Apprentice.  I was then was transferred back to NTC San Diego, this time to attend the 12 week Shipfitter “A” School before my being assigned to the fleet.

Salamat Malaki for a fantastic Fathers Day gift and for allowing your Tatay to take a journey back in time and for patiently allowing me to remember and ramble (and ramble) on.

The next time we are on a long drive, remind me to tell you of what I remember about liberty in the Haight-Ashbury District, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown and the rest of the Bay Area during my tour of duty at Treasure Island.

Mahal Kita

Tatay

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same.  Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”  Don Williams Jr.

Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Four, Part One

June 20, 2010
Happy Fathers Day

We met in the breakfast room around 7:30AM and finalized where we were going.  San Francisco won.  After we ate we turned right out of the motel and headed north on California 1.

The drive to the city by the bay went smoother than I was expecting for a Fathers Day with very little traffic.  As we entered the city, I started to remember how much “fun” it could be driving in San Francisco.  The drivers there are in a world of there own so I remained on my best behavior so I would not tick off someone therefore, we found a gas station to top off the tank and headed towards CA 1 and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Both CA 1 and US 101 meet at the San Francisco side of the bridge and when we came to Manzanita, we exited left to continue on CA 1 and back to the coast.

My intention was to show my daughter how far her mother and I went up the coast when we were on a short vacation in the mid 90′s.  It did not quite work that way.  We drove right past the spot where we stopped and turned around.  I think it was a lookout over Muir Beach but that is only a really big guess

However, the drive turned out to be really beautiful… and fun if you like really narrow and winding roads.  The nicest thing about this part of the drive was that we were going through little towns that look like that time stood still and had somewhat of a 1960′s look.

When we came to a town called Olema, we stopped, as we needed to take a short break.  After stretching our legs my daughter picked up the driving and we started to head back.  Neither one of us really did not want to go back the way we came as traffic was starting to get heavy.  I then noticed a sign pointing towards San Rafael so we headed that way.

The drive through the forest was a complete change of scenery from the coastal drive we just completed.  The cut was just wide enough for a two-lane road and not much for a shoulder.  There were times that the sun was really trying hard to break through the canopy.

About the time we arrived at the city limits of San Rafael, we were both starting to get hungry and since my daughter was driving, using the iPhone to look for a place was out we needed to look for a place to eat the old fashion way… sign spotting.  We kept to the rule of eating only at local establishments so it took us a little bit of time to find a place that was not crowded because of Fathers Day.

We eventually found the Bay Thai Cuisine on 4th Street in downtown San Rafael.  What a great place to eat.  She had Pa Thai while I had the Blue Plate Special.  Great food at fantastic prices.  It is too bad that this hole in the wall place was not in the San Diego area.  I would make it a point to show up as often as I could.

As we started to head back to San Francisco via US 101 we somehow managed to get on I-580.  This ended up being a good thing as we ended up taking I-80, then crossed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and ended up in the middle of the bay on Treasure Island.  I asked my daughter if we could take a quick look around the old Naval Station Treasure Island before we headed back to Santa Cruz and she said it was not a problem.

The only problem it turned out to be was instead of a quick look, it ended up being around a three-hour tour back in time.

Continued on:  Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Four, Part Two.

Father-Daughter Central California Coast Trip – Day Three, Part Two

June 19, 2010
The Wedding in Carmel.

My daughter will be posting her experiences of the wedding as soon as she can.