Sunday, November 15, 2015

To the ship, to the ship

Today, Blake and I went on a date to Baltimore to check out four historic ships anchored in the harbor there.

We started with the USCGC Taney, a Coast Guard cutter that is the last ship afloat to have survived the attach on Pearl Harbor in 1941. She was also present at the battle in Okinawa when the war came to an end. She then served the Coast Guard until the 1980s.

Next up was the Lightship Chesapeake, which served in place of lighthouse where such a building couldn't be built. The light on the mast could be seen for 14 miles with 13,000 candlepower!

The third vessel was the USS Torsk, a submarine built in the 1940s. Those were some tight quarters! We know a couple people who have served or currently serve on subs, and we have a deeper respect for them now.

Our final stop was the USS Constellation, a sloop of war from the mid-1800s. We got to see a demonstration of the parrott rifle on the deck!

The decks were rather spacious, especially after the sub, but they were probably more cramped when filled with crew and supplies. I tried out a hammock, and it was pretty cramped, even for short little me.

We found out that most of these ships provide an overnight experience for classes, scout troops, etc. You get to sleep like the crew, have two historic meals, and enjoy other appropriate activities. That sounds way fun to me!

We followed up this outing with a Thanksgiving lunch provided by our apartment complex (free and catered by Boston Market - yum!) and grocery shopping (because sometimes that's what you gotta do). Since then, we've napped, taken Malcolm to the dog park, made pizza for dinner, and now we're watching the BYU football game. We also turned on the heater for the first time this season - we were outside so much today that we just couldn't quite warm up with our apartment only being 60 degrees.

It's been a great Saturday!
Malcolm's status at the time of this post


3 comments:

Heidi said...

Ships and sailing vessels are cool!

Giggles said...

You should see if they'd do an overnight experience for FHE. :)

AmandaStretch said...

I like that idea!