USS Midway

Last weekend was probably the best three days of Isaac's entire life. Or as he puts it, even better than the best! (see quote book) He and I (and Lydia) flew to San Diego to visit my parents. I can't even tell you how much I love San Diego. But I can tell you Isaac loves it more. The Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center (think: cannons, muskets, battles, panning for gold, brick-making) + The USS Midway Museum (think: gigantic ship full of every airplane and helicopter imaginable) + The San Diego Festival of Sails (think: real pirate ships with live cannon battles, Spanish galleons, lots of tall ships like the HMS Surprise and the Star of India, submarines, and fair food) + the Pacific Ocean (think: wave-jumping, body-surfing, seaweed and sand) + the best grandparents in the universe = boy's dream come true.
Isaac spotted this model of the "Spirit of St. Louis" at the airport when we first arrived. He went crazy with excitement and could hardly contain himself. He had no idea what else was coming. That same afternoon we headed over to the Midway Museum and oh my goodness. . .
I have never seen a happier kid.I seriously had tears in my eyes watching him go from being overwhelmed with excitement to reverence and awe at every turn.Every visitor at the museum gets to wear these cool headsets that, with the push of a button, tell you about every airplane. I loved them because they made us all look like air-traffic controllers. Isaac could not get enough. In fact, two days later when he had a choice to go to Sea World or Legoland, all he wanted to do was come back here. So we actually went twice. Isaac was in heaven.
Here he is in front of his favorite plane: The WWII Corsair.
And high up in the radio tower watching the ships come in.
Flying a helicopter.
Steering the USS Midway.

Controlling take-offs and landings from the patrol tower.
Piloting an aircraft in a virtual flight simulator. Very scary for me - I was co-pilot.And posing for picture after picture. My dad and I had so much fun taking pictures!
A you can see Lydia loved the USS Midway as well.Especially walking around with Grandma and Grandpa.
And now I'm going to ask Isaac about it and dictate word for word. Lucky you:
"It's the most awesomest place on earth! My favorite part was looking at that awesome, I mean huge Corsair and looking inside the escape cockpit and working all the millions of control buttons and thousands of instruments. (he's talking a million miles an hour) I loved flying in the flight simulator too. You (mom) were so scared when we were doing that but I was brave trying to get the plane in control in all the dozens of times I crashed, like AHHHHhhhhhh. Alright and now I'm done."

Good times. . .