On our third day in Hong Kong, J. had to stand duty. This meant that he had to be back to the carrier by 10:00 a.m. and wouldn't be back to the hotel until after 10:00 a.m. the following day. It wasn't the best day of our trip, but I knew in advance that he would have to have duty one day and I was just glad it was in the middle of our week so we got time together on both ends.
I also was able to go out to the carrier and visit him while he was on duty, so I still got to spend some time with him!
The view of Hong Kong from the ferry boat
Stonecutters Bridge
Hong Kong Island
USS George Washington
It was a pretty cool experience going out to the boat. It was my second visit to the USS George Washington (I blogged about my first trip here). The ferry boat ride took about an hour and it definitely was not a smooth trip, but it was a great view of of the city and it was fun to experience first hand what the boys go through on a port call when the boat can't pull directly into port.
I also got another tour of the boat and saw some new things:
The freebie board.
Every time they land on the carrier, the pilots get a grade on how well they landed. The greens are the best ... I forget what yellow means, brown and white are bad. J. actually got an award this half of cruise for being one of the best new pilots on the boat! Even though he went on a partial deployment last year, he is still considered a new pilot (nugget) since he wasn't there for the whole cruise. They award the Top 5 Nuggets and J. got second! Another guy in his squadron got fourth, so obviously our new guys are doing pretty darn good!
The view of Hong Kong from the flight deck
It was so humid that my camera lens kept fogging up, so some of these pictures are blurry. It was cool to actually see the jets on the flight deck. It kind of puts everything in perspective, size wise.
Jets with the tower in the background
Nose to nose with J.'s jet
More jets + the tower
Hong Kong ... I thought this was the best view of Hong Kong I saw all week
The tower
America
After we wandered around the flight deck, we went up into the tower. It was pretty cool and the guy standing duty in the tower showed me Hong Kong Disney through the binoculars! I asked him if he spied on people on the flight deck with those binoculars and he told me yes! Haha, he also told me it was amazing what people do out on the flight deck, thinking that no one is watching.
The flight deck from the tower
J. in the Air Boss chair ... he looks pretty good huh?
The boat does not have stairs ... it has ladders. Just walking around the boat is exhausting.
The hanger bay with the American flag and the Chinese flag which was hung up for the reception that was held on the first night
I can't remember what the official name of this room is, but it is the anchor room
There were two huge anchors holding G.W. in place
Anchor #2
You could see right down into the water!
After my tour, we went back up to the flight deck to watch the sun set over Hong Kong. This was my favorite activity every day!
The sun setting over the outlying islands and an American Destroyer
The sun setting over Hong Kong ... J. took these pictures so I'm not sure if he used a different setting or if this was just the color variance between the two sides of the sky
Hong Kong
Jets + Tower + City
The tower lit up
The sun setting over the jets!
Afterwards, I took the ferry boat back to Fenwick Pier where I met up with Mr. and Mrs. S. We took a cab back to our hotel and everyone came up to my room to hang out for a bit.
This was definitely not your typical tourist day in Hong Kong. I feel pretty lucky to have had the opportunity to see Hong Kong from a vantage point that most tourists don't get to see. And it was nice to be able to see J. even though he had to be at the boat all day!
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