We drove from Padre Island over to Corpus Christy to visit the USS Lexington. Below at the entrance of museum we took some pictures

The USS Lexington is a 910-foot, 16-deck, 33,000-ton aircraft carrier that sits right on Corpus Christy beach since 1991. You always see them in movies, learn about them in history class, but it’s an unbelievable feeling to be aboard a ship like this one, surrounded by history, a bit overwhelming if I must say so.

We started by looking around the Hangar

There are several tours to take, hard to decide which one to see 1st, but we all agree that we want to head straight up to the flight deck. Once you go up the flight of narrow stairs and come out into the open, no matter what side you look towards it’s amazing! You are standing on a 910-foot long and 142-foot wide “airport”. As I look at Carolina’s wide open mouth checking out all the fighter jets I tell her something I read in the brochure in my hand: Did you know you could play 3 football games or 14 basketball games at the same time on USS LEXINGTON‘s flight deck?

And that aside, the views of the beach, the bridge, the people that now are starting to look more like legos, the nice salty breeze, it’s great up here. Some pics of our favorite finding up here.

Time to head up up higher. Hi Mom & Dad!

As I climb up the stairs I think of how I have to come back down, and to me it’s eerie and a bit claustrophobic.  Carolina thinks it’s cool to sit in the Captain’s chair and look at all the buttons, imagine having to steer this monster? How does it even float? I don’t know how to explain it because I was thinking the same thing!

Time to go on to the next tour: The lower decks!

As my claustrophobia gets worse, there we go down under… We see the cafeteria, the barber, medical wing, the eerie sick bay, the post office, the OMG claustrophobic sleeping boxes, because that’s what they were 3 tiers of sleeping boxes, if I had to sleep in there I’d be sick I know 😉 This part of touring probably gives you the best insight on what life on the ship would be like. Carolina enjoyed going through all the corridors, going up and down the narrow stairs and being amazed that the ship was like a mini city (not so mini really).

On the next tour: the Forecastle. We got to see the huge anchor, Carolina said: Wonder how many people it took to pull that anchor out of the water! In this section they had an exhibit of Pearl Harbor.

And this is how we chose to spend Memorial Day this year -Taking in the history behind WW2 and everything that our brave navy endured while aboard the USS Lexington. It’s amazing, overwhelming, scary, and a lot of other emotions that are hard to explain in words. We all felt especially close to our grandfather, who wasn’t on this particular ship but was in the Navy during WW2. This excursion gave us a great opportunity to teach Carolina about history and about our grandfather.

And with that…Thanks Grampi especially because your our near and dear to our hearts and thanks to all of those that have fought, that fight and that will fight for our freedom – Happy Memorial Day!