Tuesday morning John and Jan went to work and Marian and I went to Sea World. We got to see all the shows and many of the attractions. Needless to say, it was a pretty busy day! Marian and I stayed out of the splash zones. Man, they do get splashed! Incredible! The first series of shots are of the Dolphin Show. Bottom Left and Right are Manatees. Lower Middle Right are a couple of sharks.
Below are a series of shots the Shamu, the Killer Whale, and Baby Shamu Show. Lower left are some Flamencos. The dark red and green shot in the lower middle right is of the Artic Penguins - The red light is because they are nocturnal. The area is refrigerated to 22 degrees. Bottom Right is an aerial view of one of the performance stadiums with a show going on.
One of the things that surprised me about the local area was the collection of large boulders that seem to be nearly everywhere. I don't remember seeing boulders in any of the stuff I have ever seen about Southern California. Of course, there are areas without them as well.
Tuesday evening we had Yellow Fin Tuna for dinner that Charlie (NN3V) had provided from his most recent fishing trip. Delicious! Thank you Charlie! Wednesday morning found John and Jan back at work and Marian and I went to the San Diego Zoo. This is a huge zoo that could take days to totally explore. KBob (El Presidente of the IOOK) would have enjoyed it, I am sure, as he has a degree in Zoology.
After leaving the zoo, we went to Anacomp where John and Jan both work.
John and I headed out to go to the Palomar Amateur Radio Club meeting. Marian and Jan did girl things.
Charlie (NN3V) is president of the club and Mark (KF6WTN) gave an interesting and informational talk about
BPL (Broadband Over Power Lines). Very nicely done, Mark! Afterwards a few of us headed to the San Marcos Brewery for an after the meeting meeting.
Delightful!
Thursday morning I started things off with a cigar and a bout in the hot tub as I have done several mornings. Most mornings this time of year, so I am told, are foggy and then the fog burns off after a while. A very relaxing way to start my day!
We then went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. This park has many animals in large natural habitat areas where they are grouped with other animals and can share the space. We took a train ride around the park and then saw a couple of shows that were offered. Marian got to feed a giraffe! Truly a beautiful setting and lovely day. Again, lots of walking, but we managed OK! We met John and Jan for dinner in town and then returned home for a relaxing evening.
By the time Friday rolled around we were tired of playing
tourists, so, we decided to make it an easy day. In the morning we ran a
few errands and did a few preliminary chores in preparation for our Saturday
morning departure. Marian and I played a bit on the boulders in the front
yard. I made a feed through for coax into the ham shack. John got
off work at noon and he and I installed new wire on the G5RV and repositioned
the end that attached to the house in effort to get the RF away from the ham
shack. As a last minute thing, we did a temporary install to a dual band
antenna - we bush mounted it! John and I also worked on the black box
again as he had found a schematic for it on the Internet. However, our fix
did not improve the SWR. When the gang showed up that evening for a last
visit and dinner, we asked Mark about the design to see if he could figure out
where we had made any mistakes. It turns out we had two wired reversed and
the transformer was canceling out rather than transforming. John and Mark
worked to reverse the two wires. Charlie made the necessary Technology
Department additions to insure "Quality" in the workmanship!
Mark and John look on in amazement as they discover the vertical antenna actually works OK now! Yippee!
This is the front view of John and Jan's home.
Marian and I would like to thank the San Diego California Area Chapter of the I.O.O.K. for making our stay such an enjoyable one! We would also like to offer our sincere thanks to our Host and Hostess for their generosity and assistance! We had a delightful visit!
Now, for those of you who have read all the diatribe and looked at all the photos and have managed to be still with me at this point, I congratulate you! By the way, out of nearly 500 snap shots I managed to cut it down to a mere 141 shots for the web! Now, I know 141 sounds like a lot, but, it really translates down to only 25 different picture panels. Now, isn't that better?
Respectfully submitted on July 12, 2004 by Keith Farley, WA8ZWJ.
