JULY 5TH ~ THE MIDWAY AIRCRAFT CARRIER

after hanging out with my grandpa for awhile, we had lunch back at my grandma's and then headed to downtown San Diego to go to their science musuem.

little did we know, the 1st Tuesday of every month is "free day" for the museum.

Lovely.

you couldn't find a parking space for at least a mile.

we gave up.

decided to drive down by the water and "wing it".

John has been DYING to tour the Navy's Midway Aircraft Carrier (docked in San Diego Harbor) for year now.

We decided to see how much it would cost us to go.

not cheap.

but we didn't know what else to do.

and the kids agreed it sounded like fun. :)

so we paid the small fortune and decided to spend our afternoon touring The Midway.

these pics DO NOT do it justice. until you are on a ship this size, you really have no clue how ginormous it is.

they call it a "floating city" and it truly is.

Welcome Aboard!

this is the first level below deck -where they would keep many of the aircraft

this was the "main deck" for us toursist....with your entrance fee comes your own personal headset/earphone guided tour.

you know -one of those little handheld devices that, at each "stop" there is a sign where you punch in the number and it automatically ques up that part of the tour.

enlisted men's bunks.

talk about claustrophobia!

3 bunks high.

not much head space AT ALL.

all your personal belongings are kept underneath your bunk (mattress lifts up) and a SMALL closet/locker

(keep in mind -the Midway was decommissioned in 1992 -VERY recently -not like it's some ship from "long ago")

narrow doorways and each one you have to "step up and over"

"The Brig" ~or the jail :)

the Engine Room

this is personal for me.

My Grandad served in the Navy ~he was a "lifer". He served during the 2nd World War out on the sea.

He didn't serve on an aircraft carrier ~he served on destroyers and battleships...but he served here -in the Engine Room.

There was an actual tour guide in this room ~when I told him my grandad worked in the engine rooms on his ships, he explained to me what my Grandad would have likely done..."when he first started out he probably worked here"..."then he probably worked his way up to doing this".....really cool for me. :)

up on the flight deck.

again, you have no idea how BIG these carriers are until you're ON THEM!

they had several aircraft open for the public to get in ~so each kid except for Janae and Andrew jumped in the cockpit of this figher jet

Biruk in the cockpit

there's Elizabeth
she grabbed the controls and started pushing buttons pretending to really be a fighter pilot. :)

can't remember what this is called -but it's the control tower :)

If you look closely -right by the "E" on the front of this helicopter you can see that this is one of the recovery helicopters for the various Apollo missions ~cool eh?!

we had to drag them out of this helicopter!

looking down the runway ~they have a runway for taking off and 1 for landing. I believe this is the taking off one. :)

another aircraft carrier across the harbor from the Midway


We all had an absolute blast touring the Midway.
We're SOOOO glad we spent the money.
It was a great way to spend our afternoon ~and a great way to show the kids how cool serving our country in the Armed Forces can be.