My trip to the US! (4 Viewers)

[TomNT]

Hi all

I have recently returned from my trip to the US and during my wanderings I visited several forum mates, did some sightseeing and travelling and also attended the Texas Toy Soldier Show in San Antonio. The following pic’s show the start of my adventures and I will progressively add more over the next few days and weekend as there are quite a few to upload into this thread.

The first pic is when I stopped over in Inchon International Airport in South Korea on my way to LAX. When I landed in the US I cleared customs and since my eyes weren’t hanging out of my head to much, I jumped into my pre-booked hire car and started driving up the coastal highway towards San Jose to visit my good mate, the big dude Chris McKenna!

The next lot of pic’s show the seaside area of San Luis Obispo, a small city and coastal region about halfway between LA and San Francisco. It’s a cool place and you can see some seals chilling out on a boat mooring berth that’s next to a fishing wharf in the bay.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

The next lot are in the bay area of San Fran. Chris and his good wife Sarah (aka the KGB : ) were awesome as they showed me around the area. The first day we visited the museum aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet. She is parked on the other side of the bay alongside some US Navy reserve (but still active) transport ships. The ship is maintained by volunteers (Chris is also a volunteer) and the funding to maintain her comes from special events and from the entry cost to visit her.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

Here's some pic's of some of the aircraft below her decks. They recently restored a Grumman Wildcat and there's also an Avenger parked below deck. We also witnessed a US Coastguard helicopter training session that was performed in the bay a short distance from the stern of the Hornet. You can see the USN active reserve ships moored alongside.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

The US Hornet was also involved in recovering the Apollo Moon Landing capsules. Here's some of the choppers, recovery van and capsule used. I have also included a pic of one of the AA guns being restored by the volunteers. They are all great blokes and I met many of them when Chris and Sarah took me to there smoko room to say hello.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

Below deck there are some very cool models of ships, planes as well as USN fleet carriers and escort carriers.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

The next day Chris and Sarah took me for a tour around the bay area. Before we left Chris had to show me he was "croc wise". What I mean by that is, that I gave a sticker to Chris and I got it from my work which hands them out to locals and tourists here in Darwin. The sticker has the words "crocwise" and a crocodile head on it. We have a few issues with the croc's around my neck of the woods and Chris loved the sticker that much he stuck it onto his Audi's bumper which you can see in the pic! ^&grin

We visited the SS Red Oak Victory which is a World War 2 era liberty ship that's moored in the bay area. As you can see Chris is preaching to the gods ^&grin and I'm trying to fire off a few rounds with the Oerlikon 20mm cannon! {sm3}{sm4}

Tom

 

[TomNT]

Here's some more pic's of when we were on the SS Red Oak Victory. We also visited a little museum that's close to the ship and inside the museum there was this cool World War 2 jeep that's still brand new and flat packed. Suffice to say I wanted to take it home with me!!!

Tom

 

[TomNT]

We drove to a few nice spots around the San Fransisco area and one of them of course had to be the Golden Gate Bridge! We also visited a couple of War War 2 coastal artillery concrete bunkers that's on the hills at the entrance of the bay.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

The next day Chris drove me to Big Basin State Park to look at the giant Redwood trees, then we went to the coastal town of Monterey followed by Pebble Beach which is an upmarket and somewhat expensive to live coastal community. Me and Chris had a great day and again I thank him for being a tour guide, albeit a croc wise one! ^&grin

Tom

 

[TomNT]

Pic's from Pebble Beach...

Tom

 

[TomNT]

On the last day I took some pic's of Chris's awesome Toy Soldier collection. Sorry about the quality of the pic's and there's quite a few to upload so please bear with me.

Tom

 

[TomNT]

More pic's..

 

[TomNT]

and more

 

[TomNT]

More

 

[TomNT]

and even more..

 

[TomNT]

Some more..

 

[TomNT]

More..

 

[TomNT]

More....

 

[TomNT]

Nearly there..

 

[TomNT]

Last lot! I didn't manage to take pic's of the entire collection either!!! Chris mate, you have a big collection!

Tom