I am currently in San Francisco for "Fleet Week". A week that they celebrate here every year celebrating the Navy. They have tours of the boats as well as an air show with the Blue Angels in it, among various other activites. I had duty for two of the four days that we were in this port so I didn't get out much. Was hoping that I could get a tour of Alcatraz, but they were booked full.

The trip over here was not bad. A lot of work, but there is not much more to do when you are out in the water. Nowhere to go after work or anything. We fixed various little discrepencies with the boat, including blown fuses and a bit of painting and such. I did not mind it at all. I enjoyed being out in the water... almost seemed peaceful, especially at night when you don't have the city lights all around you ruining your view of the stars. That is one thing I really enjoyed doing was looking up at the stars.

We pulled in San Francisco on Friday. We did what they call the parade of ships. It was us, a carrier, and three other boats all came in under the Golden Gate Bridge. I was up on the flight deck manning the rails. As we passed under the bridge, people were cheering and whistling at us. For that moment it made me feel proud and respected. I couldn't help but smile. It's times like that that it all seems worth it... fighting for my country so that they can all be free. It's also times like that when I feel that people somewhat recognize what we do, and they all congradulate us in a way... and thank us. Friday night I got off the boat wearing my dress whites, went to eat out in town as well as did some souvineer shopping. Not much, just a little to remind me that I had a port call here. As a friend and I were waking down the street on our way back to the boat, one small child said "Hi, Sailors" as we walked by. It was too cute and it got a smile and a chuckle out of me. How nice it is for them to be looking up to us.

On Saturday, I had duty. I hung around on the boat and went top side from time to time, where people were riding by in their personal boats looking at ours because we were still parked out in the middle of the bay. People were waving and yelling up things such as "Thank You". I would wave back and smile. Again, it just made me happy that there are some people that are patriotic and are also proud of what we do for them. Sometimes, I don't feel like people really know how much we give up and go through for them. But a thank you once in a while really is helpful.

Sunday, I left the boat again and did some looking around. I ate lunch at a place on the pier and then walked around downtown looking a bit. Even walked through China Town, but didn't stay there long. Then we walked to a movie theater where they were doing a special showing of "Men of Honor" for those of us that came up for fleet week. I found it to be a very good movie. I just thought it was cool that we were able to watch this movie before it was offically realeased. A big thank you to go out for all those that set that up for us.

Here it is Monday now, and I am on duty again, but that is alright because I think I am done looking around in this town. I took my pictures and did my looking around and shopping, and now am ready to move on to the next port, even if it won't be for a while.