Morning walks with Seiko

Six thousand steps were all it took to circumnavigate around San Diego's jigsaw-puzzle-piece-shaped Vacation Isle. We've been there hundreds of times, from our earliest dates back in the Seventies, to conventions, dances, meetings, sailing, water skiing, watching girls track team runners, etc. but we had never walked around it. Until today. X Marks the spot where we started, should you care to join us. We are walking with two vintage Hi-Beats -- mine a GS and hers a Precision Chronometer with Seiko's 1944 movement. The moon is still huge in the sky as we started around the island in a clockwise direction. There's a path around most of the island which permits the general public to have "Coastal Access", even though one-third of the area is operated as the Paradise Point Resort hotel and grounds. The first action we spotted was on the water. Some crew boats taking advantage of still water, no wind, little current. Living here, alongside the Thames and in Seattl...

We walked during a lull in the rainstorm that has been bucketing down on California. You can tell by looking across the bay that something is coming this afternoon ... But it's very pleasant right now. Very few civilian craft are visible - high winds and rain are a deterrent to us, landlubbers. But they don't stop the Navy. On water we spot the Zumwalt #1000, the lead ship in a new class of destroyers, and a very unusual craft. We watch her maneuver in a haze of heated air Zumwalt is 610 feet long and can maintain about 30 knots Once envisioned as leader of a group of 32 ships, the fleet is now holding at just 3 of these vessels... We hear a roaring in the sky and our attention turns toward North Island. I'm afraid someone else will have to give us the ID on this fighter; I couldn't make it out. It looks lethal though. I know this one is a dive bomber and can spot edible material from a tremendous distance ... A Blackhawk or similar is landing on the helicopter pad,  wh...