San Francisco - USS Pampanito SS-383 Submarine

We checked out from Travelodge on Sunday. It's time to head back to Torrance. The cashier gave dear Hubby a pamphlet of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. It is the USS Pampanito SS-383 Submarine, a WWII era submarine located at Pier 45 (again, within walking distance with our hotel), a maritime museum since 1982. Since Los Angeles is only about 6 hours drive from San Francisco, we decided to visit the maritime museum.

All of us were quite excited. We have never been in a submarine, let alone a submarine which has survived the World War II!

A little info on USS Pampanito:
USS Pampanito (SS-383), a Balao-class submarine, was a United States Navy navy ship, the only one named for a variety of the pompano fish (see gafftopsail pompano). She completed six war patrols from 1944 to 1945 and served as a Naval Reserve Training ship from 1960 to 1971. USS Pampanito's keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, on 15 March 1943. She was launched on 12 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. James Wolfender, and commissioned on 6 November 1943, with Lieutenant Commander Charles B. Jackson, Jr. in command.

After shakedown off New London, Connecticut, Pampanito transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 14 February 1944. Her first war patrol, from 15 March to 2 May, was conducted in the southwest approaches to Saipan and Guam. She served on lifeguard duty south of Yap, then scored two torpedo hits on a destroyer before sailing for Midway Island and Pearl Harbor for refit and repairs to a hull badly damaged by depth charges.

Pampanito’s second war patrol, from 3 June to 23 July, took place off Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Honshū. On 23 June, a submerged Japanese submarine fired two torpedoes, just missing Pampanito. On 6 July, Pampanito damaged a Japanese gunboat, and 11 days later headed for Midway Island.

Pampanito’s third war patrol, from 17 August to 28 September, a "wolfpack" operation with submarines Growler (SS-215)Template:WP Ships USS instances and Sealion (SS-315)Template:WP Ships USS instances, was conducted in the South China Sea. On 12 September, she sank 10,509 ton transport Kachidoki Maru and the 5,135 ton tanker Zuihō Maru, and damaged a third ship, which unbeknownst to them was a "hell ship" carrying POWs. On 15 September, she moved back to the area of the original attack and found men clinging to makeshift rafts. As the sub moved closer, the men were heard to be shouting in English. Pampanito was able to pick up 73 British and Australian survivors and called in three other subs, Sealion, Barb (SS-220)Template:WP Ships USS instances and Queenfish (SS-393)Template:WP Ships USS instances, to assist with the rescue. She then set course for Saipan, disembarked the survivors, and steamed on to Pearl Harbor.

Pampanito’s fourth war patrol, from 28 October to 30 December, took place off Formosa and the coast of southeastern China with Sea Cat (SS-399)Template:WP Ships USS instances, Pipefish (SS-388)Template:WP Ships USS instances, and Searaven (SS-196)Template:WP Ships USS instances. Sinking 1200 ton cargo ship Shinko Maru Number One, 19 November, she damaged a second ship before putting in to Fremantle for refit. Her fifth war patrol in the Gulf of Siam, from 23 January to 12 February 1945, with Guavina (SS-362)Template:WP Ships USS instances, was highlighted by two sinkings, the 6,968-ton cargo ship Engen Maru 6 February and the 3,520-ton passenger-cargo ship Eifuku Maru on 8 February.

Refitted at Subic Bay, Pampanito returned to the Gulf of Siam for her sixth war patrol. Operating with Caiman (SS-323)Template:WP Ships USS instances, Sealion, and Mingo (SS-261)Template:WP Ships USS instances, she sighted only one target before sailing for Pearl Harbor.

From Pearl Harbor the ship proceeded to San Francisco for overhaul, departing for Pearl Harbor again 1 August. With the end of the war, she was ordered to return to San Francisco. She was decommissioned at Mare Island on 15 December 1945. She remained in reserve until April 1960 when she was assigned to Naval Reserve Training at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Reclassified AGSS-383, 6 November 1962, she served as a Naval Reserve Training ship at Vallejo, California, until she was stricken from the Navy Register on 20 December 1971.

Pampanito earned six battle stars for World War II service.

You can visit her official website here.

The tour through the USS Pampanito descends into the rear of the sub, and it's actually just a short walk through the compartments. Into the rear torpedo room, the 2 engine rooms that reek of diesel fumes, the eating quarters, the tiny galley, the sleeping quarters, and the forward torpedo room.

It's remarkable on how small the place is within the subs. The inner walls are only a few feet apart. The inside of the submarine is sectioned off into small compartments, all separated by tiny water tight doors. To think 80 men lived for months on end within these cramped quarters takes a bit of visualization. And the smell...arghh..for me who is a bit of a claustrophobic and an anxiety disorder patient, it was quite a task to finish up the tour. But the historian in me get the best. Thanks to my dad's gene who was a History teacher. :)

Have a look at a few snaps inside the submarine.

The torpedo room. Yeah, that yellow and black things are torpedos. KABOOMMM!

We could see hundreds of meters and other sorts of control 'thingy'.

So small!

Gadgets again.

Dining area

Water tight doors between compartments.

The service men.

The tour was an educational one. Especially for Harith and dear Hubby who are interested in anything to do with gadgets, meters and all. Me, I'm just interested in the historical part. Hey, it's the WWII submarine ok! Even my Dad was just a little toddler at that time. For Adik Hannah, it was just a small playground. She had fun going through the submarine, climbing the stairs, lying on the bunk(although that wasn't allowed, of course), hehe..

So if any of you folks happened to be in San Francisco, go ahead and take the trip down to Pier 45. The ticket only cost USD7. But I can assure you what you will experience will worth much more than that.

Great Salt Lake and Crossing to San Francisco

Friday morning. Another day of adventure. Our next destination was San Francisco. It would be another 12 hours drive. We left Best Western around 10.30 a.m. We took the I-80 West highway. It meant we would left Utah, crossed Nevada desert and enter California through Reno. A few miles into the highway, we made a short stop at Exit 104. That was the entrance to view the Great Salt Lake.
The lake is the saltiest in the world after the Dead Sea. As a result, no fishes can survive in the lake. We can only find shrimps there. Too bad for dear hubby. Hehe...I could practically see his brain working out the times to spend if he decided to fish there. It was quite smelly too..the lake I mean. It had some kind of sulfur odor to it. Not sure what it actually was.

After about half an hour, we left the Great Salt Lake and continued our way to San Francisco. Along the way (still in Utah) we could see some factories. I assume those are the salt factories??

The salt area was so huge! When dear hubby researched for the ski area, he looked at the satellite photos. He saw a big white spot in Utah, so he assumed that was the snow. That's how he decided to take us here. But now he thinks that was actually the Great Salt Lake and the dried salt area. Thank goodness Utah turned out to be the most perfect ski spot in America. Hehe..
And so we headed to San Francisco. Crossed over the Nevada desert, and again...the most spectacular, breathtaking views. Since we couldn't go faster than 75 m.p.h anyway, we took our own sweet time. I was glad that the kids were behaving very well. We played in the car, made some jokes, exchanged some laughter, sang some nursery rhymes (Intsy Wincy Spider being their favorite rhyme and yeah, my little princess Hannah has memorized some other rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had A Little Lamp..I think for a 2 year old, she is amazing....Ummi loves you so much, Hannah!), popped up some quizzes and guessing games. That long drive was one of the best memories forever stamped in my heart :)

We reached San Francisco at about 9.30 p.m. Oh, we booked a room at the Heritage Marina hotel. But when I called to check in, they said they're over booked. I knew they were some kind of scam. I read the bad review of the hotel but dear hubby insisted to book it because of the low rate but good location. Grrr....looked around and luckily managed to get a room at Travelodge At The Bay. It turned out to be perfect. Only a few minutes walking distance from the Fisherman's Wharf which is a great tourist sport. Our adventure in San Francisco will be in another entry. Hmmm...tomorrow perhaps? If I'm still in the mood to blog. ;)

Our Snow Adventure in Salt Lake City

As I've mentioned before, we went to Salt Lake City, Utah during the long Thanksgiving weekends. We started out from Torrance around 9 a.m. (so much for early start, haihhh). It was a long drive, about 12 hours. We passed through a few states. From California, crossing over to Nevada, Arizona, and then Utah. We had a surprise when we reached Las Vegas. It was raining!!! Not the cats and dogs type, but a really heavy downpour. Dear hubby said it was a record as it has not rained in Nevada for years.

Passing Las Vegas, I can't help but thinking of A-Tom. I was secretly wishing somehow A-Tom will magically come up to our car. You know, just like the movie 'Toy Story' where the toys found their way to their owner? Hehe..pathetic...pathetic... :-P

Anyway, as the days are short, (night by 4p.m.), there's not much to be seen when we reached Arizona. I so wish it was still bright. I could see lines of canyons and rock mountains. Tried as I might to squint my eyes, I still couldn't get a good look. We reached Salt Lake City around 9.30 p.m. (that was 10.30 p.m. Utah time, 1 hour difference from California) and checked in at Best Western Inn. As the kids has had a long nap during the trip, I had to stay up with them. Around 12.30 a.m I managed to get them to sleep, with the promise of a trip to play with snow. So around 7 a.m., Adik Hannah was already up and about, getting ready for her new adventure.

Unknown to us, we were actually very near to the most famous ski spots in Utah. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Utah is well-know for her ski resorts. There's Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Brian Head, Sundance etc etc. We were near to Cottonwood Canyon where Brighton Ski Resort is located. So off we went. It was quite a mountain to climb. We took our time, admiring the scenery as we went up. The view was breathtaking. Definitely not to be find anywhere in Malaysia (ye la kan....dah namanya negara tropika, mana ada snow, haiyaa..). I'll let you see a few snaps.

And then, we spotted the snow.

We decided to make a quick stop. The kids really wanted to touch the snow. (Termasuk la umminya jugak...haha..tak ngaku la pulak)

Then we went further up.
We reached Solitude Ski Resort first. We decided to have a look.

Then, we decided to go further up! Yeah..to Brighton Ski Resort. It was at the end of the road...the furthest you can go at Cottonwood Canyon.

We went to the ski area and snapped some pictures. I wish we could have gone skiing. Unfortunately we didn't know how, and I didn't want any of us to end up in broken bones. There's a ski school over there, but it cost quite a bomb. Furthermore, we didn't have enough equipments: the snowboards, the ski, the shoes etc etc. Sure we can rent them, but again it will cost another bomb. As this is considered a budget trip, we had to make the best of what we could have lah.
We spent about 20 minutes there. We were actually at the foot of the ski slopes. We didn't want to get knocked up by the skiers. So dear hubby and I decided that we would take the kids to the camp site where we could have some privacy and where it was safer for the kids to goof around.

We spent about half an hour playing in the snow. Then, the kids got too cold. So we said goodbyes to 'Diego', our snowman, and made the trip down the mountain. Along the way, we made a few stops at some creeks. I could't help but admiring the scenery. It was really, really, be-au-ti-ful! Amazing! Fabulous! Indahnya alam ciptaan Tuhan. I felt really blessed to be given the chance to witness the spectacular view. Alhamdulilah, my kids got their chance to experience this in their young age. I had to wait 33 years before I could feel what snow is like! Alhamdulillah...thanks to Rapiscan System who had sponsored our tickets here. Hehehehe.....

Then it was time for lunch. But since it was Thanksgiving, all the restaurants were closed. Even McD! We had to go to Walmart and grabbed some frozen meals. Thank goodness there's a microwave oven in our room. Dear hubby and I planned to go out to the city at night. But we ended up sleeping in the evening and woke up around 7 p.m. By that time the enthusiasm to explore Salt Lake City had already faded away, plus Harith was glued to the tube, watching Spongebob so we decided to pass. And it was freezing. Didn't want the kids to catch the cold so we ended up lazying around in the hotel room. Went to sleep early, getting ready for yet another day of adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving

Picture credit to Mom to Mom

It'll be a long holiday through the weekends. Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, 27th November 2008. The next day is Black Friday. And then the normal weekends. So, dear hubby will be on holiday from tomorrow till Sunday. Insya-Allah, we will be taking a trip to Utah, Salt Lake City to be exact. It will be quite a long drive, around 9++ hours maybe. So right now, I'm frying some chicken to be taken as our bekal tomorrow. The days are getting shorter nowadays, so if we want to reach there when the sun is still up, we should probably not make any stops.

Anyway, what is Thanksgiving? Normally, when we say Thanksgiving, we will straight away come up with an image of smoking roasted big fat turkey surrounded with all the yummylicious dressing in the middle of a big dining table, surrounded with big happy family. There will also be apple/pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, corn bread, green beans, etc etc etc. Those are traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Sort of like ours ketupat and lemang for Malays, rendang for Minang, burasak for Bugis, sambal goreng for Javanese, errr...now I'm a little bit carried away there...yumm..yumm.. I've been having a blasting time for the last few days watching the Food Network channel. They're having shows after shows of Thanksgiving feast. Learnt lots of recipes and cooking tips.

Thanksgiving is a traditional public holiday here in North America. Black Friday is also a public holiday. Black Friday is when all the shopping malls and factory outlets will be having their Midnight Madness sales. All prices would be slashed down to almost 80-90% of their original price. Woowwweeeee.... (Too bad dear hubby has given me that 'We've already spent too much, honey' look...huhuhuhu). Boleh la yanggggg....??!!??

Anyway, here's some info about Thanksgiving that I've Wiki'ed.

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, at the end of the harvest season, is an annual American Federal holiday to express thanks for one's material and spiritual possessions. The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day often is called the holiday season. Most people celebrate by gathering at home with family or friends for a holiday feast. Though the holiday's origins can be traced to harvest festivals that have been celebrated in many cultures since ancient times, the American holiday has religious undertones related to the deliverance of the English settlers by Native Americans after the brutal winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The first recorded Thanksgiving ceremony took place on September 8, 1565, when 600 Spanish settlers, under the leadership of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, landed at what is now St. Augustine, Florida, and immediately held a Mass of Thanksgiving for their safe delivery to the New World; there followed a feast and celebration. As the La Florida colony did become part of the United States, this can be classified as the first Thanksgiving. El Paso, Texas, has also been said to be the site of the first Thanksgiving to be held in what is now known as the United States, though that was not a harvest festival. Spaniard Don Juan de Oñate ordered his expedition party to rest and conducted a mass in celebration of thanksgiving on April 30, 1598.

Thanksgiving was originally a religious observance for all the members of the community to give thanks to God for a common purpose. Historic reasons for community thanksgivings include the 1541 thanksgiving mass after the expedition of Coronado safely crossing part of Texas and finding game, and the 1777 thanksgiving after the victory in the revolutionary battle of Saratoga. In his 1789 Proclamation, President Washington gave many noble reasons for a national Thanksgiving, including “for the civil and religious liberty,” for “useful knowledge,” and for God’s “kind care” and "his providence." The only presidents to inject a specifically Christian focus to their proclamation have been Grover Cleveland in 1896, and William McKinley in 1900. Several other presidents have cited the Judeo-Christian tradition. Gerald Ford's 1975 declaration made no clear reference to any divinity.

The tradition of giving thanks to God is continued today in various forms. Religious and spiritual organizations offer services and events on Thanksgiving themes the week-end before, the day of, or the week-end after Thanksgiving. Bishop Ryan observed about Thanksgiving Day, "It is the only day we have that consistently finds Catholics at Mass in extraordinary numbers...even though it is not a holy day of obligation."

In celebrations at home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace. Found in diverse religious traditions, grace is a prayer before or after a meal to express appreciation to God, to ask for God’s blessing, or in some philosophies, to express an altruistic wish or dedication. The custom is portrayed in the photograph “Family Holding Hands and Praying Before a Thanksgiving Meal.” The grace may be led by the hostess or host, as has been traditional, or, in contemporary fashion, each person may contribute words of blessing or thanks. On Thanksgiving Day, families and friends usually gather for a large meal or dinner, the result being that the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. In the United States, Thanksgiving is a four-day or five-day weekend vacation in school and college calendars. Most business and government workers (78% in 2007) are also given both Thanksgiving and the day after as paid holidays. Thanksgiving Eve, on the Wednesday night before, has been one of the busiest nights of the year for bars and clubs, both in terms of sales and volume of patrons, as many students have returned to their hometowns from college. Since being fixed at the fourth Thursday in November by law in 1941, the holiday in the United States can occur as early as November 22 to as late as November 28. When it falls on November 22 or 23, it is not the last Thursday, but the second to last Thursday in November. As it is a Federal holiday, all United States government offices are closed and employees are paid for that day. It is also a holiday for the New York Stock Exchange, and also for most other financial markets and financial services companies. The Friday after Thanksgiving, although not a Federal holiday, is often a company holiday for many in the U.S. workforce, except for those in retail. It is also a day off for most schools. The Friday after Thanksgiving, colloquially known as Black Friday, is usually the start of the Christmas shopping season. The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

So here's wishing Happy Thanksgiving for my visitors who celebrate the holiday. Cheers :)