I promised stories about our vacation so here goes...
The first attraction we visited while on vacation was Battleship, NC, home of the USS North Carolina!
This ship was originally designed to hold 1900 men and ended up being filled to the brim with 2400 men at one point! It had sailed for over 100 years when it was used during WWII and carried some amazing heroes in its day!
Before going aboard the ship there was a nice little onshore museum that told the story of the USS North Carolina. There was a neat replica showing the original design of the ship giving you an understanding of how it evolved over time...
...uniforms and metals worn by and awarded to some of the soldiers that sailed aboard the USS NC along with their stories of valor....
...the Naval Presentation Silver that was on-board...
...some really neat artwork!...plus so much more!
Outside the ship was turned into an amazing hands on learning museum! The kids really enjoyed getting on the turret and cranking the wheels to make it spin in circles and raise and lower the guns!
Josh really liked the big guns around the edges of the deck!
I, of course, thought the kitchen areas were especially interesting! There were separate areas for baking, butchering, cooking the meats and stews and sides...which weren't even all on the same level of the ship. The crew baked 1600 loaves of bread a day...plus cookies, cakes, pies and a slew of other foods!...This was actually the first ship that served meals cafeteria style to make sure that the soldiers were getting foods from all of the food groups. We were told they were allowed seconds if they were still hungry, but they had to finish their first serving before getting extras.
...This beautiful cake was actually made on board in 1944! I love the attention to detail in the decorating! They had some really amazing talent on that ship!....
...This machine basically sanded the peeling off the potatoes for them to help with the food preparation process! I would love to have one of these...just maybe a little bit smaller...
...This giant mixer was for mixing the bread dough for all that bread they were making! ...
...And of course there were tons of loaf pans for all that bread they were baking too!
...They even had a stew pot that was big enough to hold Isabella and Emma...buuuut when I tried to put Emma in there too, she wasn't having anything to do with climbing into a stew pot! ...Lol... Aiden was disappointed that he was too big to get in, but he was definitely amused by seeing Isabella being cooked up for dinner...LoL! Below are a few more of my favorite pictures from our visit! This is a great attraction and very reasonably priced too! (Kids 5 and under are FREE!)
Josh standing by one of three anchors on the ship!
These big guns are on both sides of the ship. behind each of them is a ladder that leads inside the guns where they were manually loaded and fired!
This is the view from the walkway leading to the ship!
We had to climb down two levels of ladders to get down to the engine room where part of the floor was made of grate that showed through to the floor below. We were told stories of the soldiers getting bored and pouring coffee on the men below and starting water fights in the engine room. It sounds like sometimes it was really fun on-board!
On of the planes on the boat and the crane that picks it up out of the water when it lands.
An up close picture of the plane!
The girls taking a break on a bench!
A sexton.
Magnetic Compass
First level above the deck...sideways view.
Side/Back view of the "Big Guns"
Alligator hanging out around the ship!
Looking at the "Big Guns" from the other end of the ship!
Engine room gauge panel!
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