Stay classy, San Diego

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) has a conference every summer in a different city (the only one I've attended has been the one held in DC two years ago). This year, the conference was planned for San Diego. So when my boss asked if I wanted to go, I think I said yes before he even finished asking. And we would be killing two birds with one stone; with so many Navy communities out there, we would have the opportunity to do some site visits and spread the gospel of good record-keeping.

My colleagues and I were going to start the trip in Port Hueneme, but I flew out a few days early to spend some time with the family. We celebrated my sister's birthday by seeing Pixar in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was actually my first time at the venue, and it was a great experience (the seats got to be a little uncomfortable though).

We could see the Hollywood sign from our seats!

After all the fun and games with the family, it was time to go to work! We visited the Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme, one of the many Navy museums within our command.

Then it was on to beautiful San Diego, where we stayed at the lovely Hilton Bayfront. (Don't worry, there was no "wasteful government spending;" we paid the economical government rate.) Our hotel was right on the bay across from Coronado Island and just "upstream" from San Diego Naval Base.

The view from my hotel room:

Across the street from our hotel was Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. We attended the Padres vs. Cubs game on our first night in town.

It's a pretty nice ballpark. They have a picnic area and whiffle ball field in back.

There's a "beach" in the outfield.

And they incorporated an old industrial building - the Western Metal Supply Co. - into the structure of the ballpark, which I thought was really cool.

The Padres ended up winning (7-4, I think).

The next day we conducted our site visits to the fleet. Our first stop was Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado, where we got a brief tour of some of the helicopter operations.

Then we went to Naval Station San Diego to get a tour of USS Independence (LCS-2), one of the Navy's newest littoral combat ships. I'd never been on an active-duty ship before, so this was pretty exciting.

 The cargo hold - pretty much the only place inside where I was allowed to take pictures.

The following day was a half-day at the conference, so we spent the rest of the day at the zoo. 

 They had a baby giraffe!

After the conference was over, my buddy Ryan came down from LA and we hit some more hot spots around town. First we went to Coronado Island and sampled the brews at Coronado Brewing Company (the Orange Avenue Wit was delish). Then we ambled around the island and took in the gorgeous scenery.

The famous Hotel del Coronado.

Our final stop was Old Town, which is where the Spanish originally settled. Old Town is allegedly the "birthplace of California."

After nine days of fun and sun in California (and work, of course), it was time to come back to DC and back to normal life. Overall, it was not a bad way to spend a work week!

Stay classy, San Diego. And thanks for stopping by.