How unlikely would a  mini reunion in Southern California be of   former 1959 Jr High classmates from old New Bedford?  How original?  Well  it happened May 27th 2011.

It was our great pleasure to be reunited with Ray Ferreira and his lovely wife Claire in San Diego in late May 2011 for two days.  I had not seen Ray since 8th Grade at Normandin.  Ray & Claire live in Chandler, AZ. It is about a 6 hour drive to San Diego. 

We spend a couple of days touring San Diego, Coronado and Balboa Park including the Aerospace Museum. The history of flying pretty much began with Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St Louis epic flight.  The Spirit of St Louis was built by Ryan Aircraft in San Diego.   The building now is part of the Solar Caterpillar Turbines Manufacturing plant on Laurel and Pacific Highway where I worked for many years as a supervisor of manufacturing.  

Ray and Claire really enjoyed taking their shoes off and wiggling their toes at the Coronado Beach and touring the 100 year old California Historical Landmark, the Hotel Del Coronado.  I am sure they will return to San Diego to see more of our fair city.

We also visited the tip of Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument.  The National Park is a tribute to the discovery of San Diego bay by Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho. His statue, a gift from the people in the town in Portugal where he was born is prominently displayed overlooking the bay he discovered in 1542. Joao sailed for Spain then so they used the Spanish spelling of Cabrillo instead of Cabrilho.  However the statue's bronze dedication plaque from Portugal has his correct birth name shown.  This issue will not go away real soon as both cultures, Spanish and Portuguese, each prefer to be the folks who really discovered San Diego Bay.  I say they both were since Cabrilho was being paid by Spain.   But his real birth name is Portuguese. Next we stopped by the Bob Hope Bronze Vietnam Memorial and the USS Midway Carrier Museum by San Diego Bay.   

Then we enjoyed a 50-60's burger menu at the SD retro Corvette Diner where the singing 60’s clad waiters and waitresses entertained us.  The 55 Corvette at the entrance is an eye catcher.  The diner has flat screen TV's throughout  playing 50's and 60's video's and a full time DJ spinning  all the old tunes.  The sassy waitresses know all the lyrics.

http://www.sandiegorestaurants.com/review.cfm/restaurant/65/CorvetteDiner

(ABOVE)  THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO  BEACH

(ABOVE) THE CORVETTE DINER LIBERTY SQUARE, SAN DIEGO

THREE PORTUGUESE EXPLORERS!

THE SAN DIEGO AEROSPACE MUSEUM & A REPLICA OF THE SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS.

THE ORIGINAL AIRPLANE IS ON DISPLAY AT THE SMITHSONIAN IN WASGHINGTON DC.

Rick & Barbara Dias

NB Voke Class of  '65