San Diego Attractions

On January 10, 2004, the USS Midway made her final voyage into San Diego Bay. The aircraft carrier had a 47-year military history that began a week after the Japanese surrender of WWII in 1945. By the time the Midway was decommissioned in 1991, the warship had patrolled the Taiwan Straits in 1955, operated in the Tonkin Gulf, served as the flagship from which Desert Storm was conducted, and evacuated 1,800 people from volcano-threatened Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines -- in all, more than 225,000 men served aboard the Midway. The carrier is now moored at the Embarcadero and has become the world's largest floating naval-aviation museum. A self-guided audio tour takes visitors to several levels of the ship, telling the story of life on board. The highlight is climbing up the superstructure to the bridge and gazing down on the 1,001-foot-long flight deck, with various aircraft poised for duty. What really brings the experience to life is that the ship has not been restored cosmetically -- incomplete paint jobs litter the walls with the occasional graffiti, the austere bunkers look like the inhabitants just stepped out. Check into docent tours, many given by Midway vets, to add insight to your visit.

- Frommer's