This is a WWII Battleship that was an important war piece, especially after so many ships were destroyed in Pearl Harbor. It's now retired in Wilmington.
Right before we walk onto the ramp... Devin is antsy with anticipation!
We walk onto the ramp and I'm trying to get Cambry's little sun hat out of the backpack. My brand new phone comes out with it and falls right in between the up and down ramp to get onto the ship! It's like a 3 inch gap and drops 30 feet into the mud and rocks! I go back inside and ask the employees how I get down there and they tell me I can't go down there because that's where the alligators stay. ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?? A 19 year old employee that has huge mutton chops tells me to wait a minute. He comes back 5 minutes later covered in mud and holding my phone that has a giant mound of mud on it as well. He tells us that he went darting around down below just trying not to get too close to an alligator. Neither he or my phone have any traces of alligator bites! He cleans it up, and it works just fine - just has a few scratches on the screen protector. MY HERO!
If you look really close you can see a giant 12-14 foot alligator on the left and a smaller 8 foot one on the right.
20 minutes later... all aboard!!
Squatting down prego style isn't the prettiest, but these guns sure were cool.
Sleeping with Claustrophobia?? The beds were stacked 3 high and several deep. I have new respect for the men who served on this ship.
There were dozens and dozens of ladders going up and down to different compartments of the ship and was really exciting to explore it.
Seriously, this ship is so massive!
Check our our big guns!
I'm sad this picture is blury, but we were in the process of descending down into the engine rooms. The way Devin's face lit up in the candy store was nothing compared to this.
Cambry was a little nervous about being below deck and resorted to sucking her thumb.
Devin checking out the Low Pressure Turbine (a big part of the engine). The light on the glass is actually the glow radiating from Devin as he is figuring out how it works. Visiting this ship was Devin's favorite part of the trip- by far.
Your whole trip to Wilmington looks amazingly fun! That's one of the side trips we will have to take sometime when we come back there.
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