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Tampa, Florida (1949-1959)
This was where I was born and where I spent the first ten years of my life. You can learn more about this early part of my life by clicking here.

Washington, D.C. (1955?)
My family visited this city to spend a few days with my aunt and uncle. Of all the attractions we visited here, I remember the Smithsonian museum the best, especially the section on the dinosaurs. I thought the White House was a bore.

San Diego, California (1968, 1970)
I went through Navy boot camp and radioman school here. I spent many a liberty in places like La Jolla and Balboa Park. I came to love the city. Couldn't deal with the seismology of Southern California though.

Tijuana, Mexico (1968)
Many a night of my liberty was spent in this dirty little Mexican border town and, perhaps, a few too many dollars on its sordid attractions. But I will always remember the place. It was like another world.

San Francisco, California (1968)
I only spent about 24 hours in this city. It was during a layover that I had on a flight from my home in Decatur, Georgia to Clark Air Force Base in Manilla in the Philippines. I did manage to take a brief liberty call in China Town while I was there though. That and maybe a sordid attraction or two.

Honolulu, Hawaii (1968, 1969)>br> My first visit to Honolulu lasted for about 45 minutes, another flight layover on my way to the Philippines. The second time was when my boat stopped there for a couple of days on her way back to San Diego. About all I had time for on this second call was a few hours in the Enlisted Men's club for a few beers with some of my shipmates. Not even time for a few sordid attractions. Sighhhh!

Olongapo, Philippines (1969)
On the beautiful shores of Subic Bay. My ship, the USS Ticonderoga, was homeported overseas here while not out on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf. That's off the shores of Viet Nam for any of you who may only be familiar with those places through history books. The thing I remember best about Subic Bay was the spearfishing and snorkeling I did off a small island in Subic Bay, what time that I wasn't serving soft drinks, burgers and beer to the sailors there on liberty. Oh yes, Olongapo had some of those sordid attractions similar to the ones in Tijuana. I spent some time on those too.

Sasebo, Japan (1969)
I was privileged to have visited this wonderful port of call twice while on my tour of duty in the Western Pacific. It's a beautiful little port and the people are very friendly there. No, I didn't visit any sordid attractions here. The attractions they had were much better than that (and so were the women).

The Mohave Desert (1969)
One weekend, while the Tico was in the yards at Long Beach for a conversion to anti-submarine support, George (a shipmate buddy of mine, can't remember his last name) and I rented a Volkswagon and took off across Southern California into the Mojave Desert for a little adventure. We explored some desert trails in the VW, did some plinking with a .22 cal. semi-automatic rifle I brought along, and camped out one night on the shores of the Salton Sea. God, it gets cold at night in the desert! We didn't even bring blankets. But you live and learn on adventures like this. While on this trip, we also stopped off in Palm Springs for a quick look around.

Congaree Swamp Nat'l. Monument, SC
This nationally protected wilderness area, just a little south of Columbia, has one of the few remaining stands of virgin forests left in the United States. There are pine trees there that are more than five feet in diameter! It's an incredible place, especially for someone who likes swamps, like me.

Tucson, Arizona (1993)
In the summer of 1993 I made two trips out West. The first of these was out to Tucson, Arizona where I hiked the Hugh Norris Trail up to Wasson Peak, the highest point in the Tucson Mountains. Located in the Saguaro National Monument West, the trail traverses 4.9 miles over a mountainous terrain of desert, gaining 2,000 feet in elevation before terminating at Wasson Peak which is over 4,000 feet in elevation. The view from the top is spectacular! You can see all of the Tucson valley below and the eastern mountain ranges in the distance. I will always remember this trip. Someday I hope to go back there.

Tombstone, Arizona (1993)
I came by here on my way back from Tucson. There was a chili cookoff going on in town while I was there. I visited the OK Corral and walked where they fell, then visited Boot Hill and walked where they buried them. I saw the Boot Hill epitaph that was featured in the movie Tombstone: "Here lies Les Moore, four slugs from a forty-four. No Les, no more." Really! That's what they wrote.