2 posts tagged “vallejo”

Yesterday the Zigster and I headed out to the old hometown to stomp around Mare Island Naval Shipyard, one of the victims of the widespread base closures that happened during the early/mid-90s.

Since it's been closed they've gotten several businesses and agencies to move in and even developed a chunk of area for residential use. However, a large majority is home to several decaying buildings that used to be filled with the hustle and bustle of a busy naval base.

The area brought back a lot of memories for me. My Dad worked there for the majority of my life growing up and it was always kind of this nebulous place in my imagination. It's where my Dad would disappear to early every weekday and was the cause of him not being able to talk about work much. Mare Island did a lot stuff with nuclear submarines for a time, so there were a lot of projects my Dad was involved in that were top secret.

Accompanied by my Obaa-chan, I learned how to swim there in its overchlorinated pool (and almost drowned once... ha). I went to birthday parties at its bowling alley. I spent many a Sunday morning grumbling along while my parents went grocery shopping at the Commissary. Later on after it had closed, I used its empty streets to learn how to drive with my Dad.

So Zignormous and I wandered around and did our first jaunt in "urban exploration". We took pictures like tourists of everything and anything we thought was interesting, climbed up precarious ramps and stairs, wandered through a burned building, left footprints through dust covered floors, stepped on broken glass and braved strong gusts of wind on rooftops. Needless to say, it was hella fun!

Zigizzle took some awesome photos which you can see here. I seemed to keep up a theme of empty chairs and/or texture with mine. Here's some favorites: