A Day in San Pedro, CA

We arrived in LA yesterday on an afternoon flight. Nothing special to write ( except for a few issues with the car service) so I did not blog about it. 

Today is a relaxing day before we board the ship.  

I wanted to visit the USS Iowa when we were here in 2017, but it was raining that day so we did other things.  But today was a beautiful, sunny day so we walked over.  I enjoyed it a lot, and I think Mary liked it better than she expected.  

The USS Iowa fought in WWII, the Korean Conflict, as well as showing the flag in the Middle East in the late 1980's.  Her main role was shore bombardment, both ahead of a number of island invasions as well as two Japanese ports late in WWII.  

The ship was quite open, with a self guided tour that went up to deck 8 and down to deck 2.  This involved climbing and descending quite a few narrow, steep ladders.  But I loved seeing the ship up close and personal.  Climbing up and down was way cool, and Mary did OK on all the ladders as well.  The thickness of the armor was quite impressive.  One time a 6" shell hit the #2 turret and just left a small dent. 

Picture Descriptions:

I posed with a 16" gun turret on the top right.  Middle left is the view toward the bow from the navigation bridge.  Middle right is an enlisted bunk, followed by two pictures looking into an officer's cabin.

They had a special section on the bottom deck about ships lost during various wars.  This included the HMS Hood, Bismarck, two german subs, and many others.  Each ship had a model and a placard describing its sinking.

There was also a nice display about the researcher who is locating famous WWII wrecks on the bottom of the Pacific. I found this photo of all the ships lost off Guadalcanal quite interesting.  (Click to expand so it is readable) 

I also visited a LA Maritime museum in the afternoon.  Lots of ship models and history about the development of this Harbor. 

Tomorrow we head to the Sapphire Princess for our 6 day cruise up the coast to Vancouver.