Let's play Battleship!

Our family enjoys a good game of Battleship, well, most of us. I will find almost any excuse not to play, truly, ANY excuse. I'm no good at it and I can't stand that it takes a million years to play it. I need not say anything about Monopoly if Battleship is too long. Anyway, if we have to play, let's play on a real life Battleship! That folks, is exactly what we did! We drove for an exceedingly long time to go visit the beach and a battleship that is parked on a river. It. Was. Awesome! Not the drive of course, because anyone that knows me knows that I detest the car for any amount of time. I am way worse than the children. I actually have thoughts when we're driving that sound something like this in my head," How am I ever going to survive this car ride?! We are never going to get there. I want to just curl up in a ball and cry my eyes out while throwing a huge fit that I am still confined to this blasted car seat!" No that's not a exaggeration. You can ask dear hubby, he'll tell you that I have actually told him my thoughts about the car, on more than one occasion. Anyway, once the awful drive was over, and I quite literally jumped out of the car, I was so happy that we had made the drive. We were staying for the weekend, so the first stop was the beach. Another well known fact about me is that I do indeed hate the beach. The sand, smell and feel of the salt on my skin are just a few reasons I don't like to spend time there. But the littlest offspring had never been to the beach. Not to mention the other three members of our family love the beach. In fact they love the sand and the smell and the salt water that is there in abundance to play in. I was just happy to be out of the car, so I'll take the beach! The day had turned rather blustery, but we didn't mind. We tried for a little while to only have little feet go in the water due to it being windy and cold, but little B just couldn't help himself. So, off came his pants.

Even when it's the beginning of April and it's cold outside, the water on this side of the country is WAY warmer than on the west coast. He didn't even act like it bothered him at all. I wouldn't let the waves wash over his legs, so when they came, I stood him up. But he loved the wet sand. He would pick it up and throw it towards the water. He loved to hold it and squeeze it through his fingers.

When I stood him up he would stomp his feet and dig his toes into the sand. 

This young one had no use for the water due to it being too cold. Not to mention, we had seen a dolphin in the water. He was convinced it was a shark and so there was no way he was risking the loss of life and limb. Not to mention, he had found not one, but two trucks in the sand and was happy to play with them while staying dry. He really wanted to walk on the pier, so we went up there. We couldn't figure out how to get onto it. There was a locked gate, but we could see that people were out there. So, we went around the building that was on the end of the pier. There was no way out there on the other side either. We went into the store to ask how to get out there. There was a door in the side of the store, that was the only way to get on to the pier. We started to go out, but realized that you had to pay to walk on the pier. Lame! Since we had been on a pier before, we opted out of paying and walked under it instead

She could cartwheel her way through life. She did stand upright once in a while, but mostly she just liked doing cartwheels.

They loved being at the beach so much that we ended up staying for almost two hours. I will admit that it was cool to see and hear waves. That didn't happen in Florida, so waves are cool and so was seeing a dolphin play next to a surfer.

We went to the hotel and went swimming in the freezing cold pool. OK, I was the only one that thought it was cold. They all loved it and I will say that I love to people watch and there are always interesting people to watch at a hotel swimming pool. The next morning was the trip to the battleship.

This is most of the ship. I tried to get all of it in the picture, but if I had gone back far enough to get all of it, the ship would have been tiny.

This the propeller that was on the ship when it was in use during World War II.  This ship was big enough that it could hold 2300 men on it at one time. Some of the crew were only on it for a few months and other's were on it for a few years. 

It was raining when we got there, so we wanted to look at the stuff on the main deck before the rain got worse. It was freezing! It was cool to read all the little signs that were on the ship. It was cool to imagine this plane flying onto the ship and being able to land it safely. 

These guns were all over the sides of the ship. They were on both sides. 

These were all over the front, on both sides. If I remember right, it took three men to use this gun. They had it locked in place, but if it hadn't been locked, B would have been able to stand up straight with the rest things on his shoulders and move it around like it was meant to be moved. I think it would have been terrifying to be the ones to use any of these guns. One sign said that the ship had hit a Japanese plane and there were Japanese soldiers in the water. The guy that had written the thing said that he looked down and saw this Japanese soldier looking at the ship. He knew that the Japanese solider was trying so hard to memorize this battleship so that if he got rescued or made it out of the water without being caught, he could tell his Captain what the big American ship looked like. But the Japanese guy never had a chance, as he was floating there, someone on the ship took him out with one of these guns. How awful! I am thankful there are men and women willing to keep us safe, but it has to be such an awful job!

There were four or five of these big pot things. Can you imagine being the cook for a ship that can hold 2300 people? Everything in the kitchen was huge. It would have to be, I know, but it was still amazing to see pots, pans and ovens that were big enough that you could cook people in. 

This is at the front of the ship. Want to see the bullets they used for those guns back there? OK, I'll show you!

Crazy right?!

The whole thing was so awesome! We spent two hours on the ship. We could have spent longer but M was truly freaking out because she was panic stricken that we were lost in the belly of the ship and that we were never going to see the light of day again. She kept asking if we knew where we were and where the door was to get out. One time I made the mistake of saying,"I don't know." in response to K asking what something was for. M thought I was telling her that I didn't know where we were or how to get out. I'll spare you the details, but I learned not to say that again. Not only was M a basket case, but the young one attached to me really wanted to get down, me not complying to his request resulted in a few good smacks to the chest by his head. K wanted to know what every single screw and bolt was used for and most of the time we couldn't answer him. So, after M falling apart because I said I didn't know, little B slamming his head into my chest for the millionth time and K asking,"what's that for?" for the million-billionth time, I was really ready to leave. 

This is how he felt about the ship-not impressed. He's the only one that didn't love one thing about this ship. The rest of us really liked it and are amazed at it's size and that it was used in real life!