The USS Midway

Friday the USS Midway became my all-time favorite field trip. As the website explains "The USS Midway Museum is an unforgettable adventure for the entire family. Guests can spend the day exploring more than 60 exhibits with a collection of 29 restored aircraft. The self-guided audio tour, narrated by Midway sailors, bring the carrier's history to life."

The idea of sleeping in this idea of "personal" space gave me the willies!

The self-guided tour really made the USS Midway a great experience. There was a tour for adults and a tour for children. If the children filled out a questionnaire of what they had learned they received a junior pilots flight wings. I went around looking for my wings, but I guess the whole experience was supposed to be reward enough. Sigh... to be a child again.

Here our Mr. Simon Chief (or as he calls himself Mr. Fimon Feef) sits in the appropriate ready room seat.

Kaeley was very intent on filling in all her blanks. Okay, so she listened to the tour at every moment whether she was "supposed" to be or not, but the point is she listened to the tour at least once.

More pictures of the bunks.

Mr. Crawford does not mess around on tours, let me tell you! If you want your kids to learn every ounce of a learning experience you bring the Crawfords. He almost didn't allow the children to pass the knot-tying area if they didn't tie a knot. Well, it was a good try, but I couldn't even tie a knot so I gave my children a hall-pass.

A whole room of helicopter models.

The kids learn about the ready room, but in all reality they only learned about the fun desks that folded up and down.

The naughty kids are sent to the brig... probably by Mr. Crawford for being bad students.

We ate a picnic lunch at the cafe's patio area, which was actually an elevator for air crafts. That blew my mind and made my entire day.

On the deck of the ship I "learned" about a dozen different air craft, of which I could tell you nothing about at the present moment. Alright, I admit it, I deserve the brig.

Kaeley and Simon and I went through the admiral's and captain's quarters and the control room and the radio room. I was fascinated. Kaeley really enjoyed "working" with radar.

She could have sat at that desk for half the day if I had let her.

Kaeley and Simon both just stood in awe of all the buttons and dials in the radio room.

While the tall-enough people took a special tour through bridge, the two not-tall-enough kids and myself went way down below to visit the "City at Sea" which explored the 2nd through 4th decks. I was fascinated! We learned about how the food was served, the laundry was washed and delivered, etc. It was my favorite part of the ship.

Don't tell Mr. Crawford... my two middlers didn't finish their entire brochure. However, we all learned a lot and had a great time learning about something we knew nothing about before the trip.

No, I didn't get my wings, but I did beg Brad to bring me back another time so I could spend a good two days slowly inching my way through this fascinating piece of history. 

Until next time, Midway.