Our last day of vacation with my sister, Camyll, and her family, we spent at Patriot's Point in Mt. Pleasant, SC, just across the bridge from Charleston. The site has a WWII aircraft carrier, battleship, submarine, a Vietnam military camp replica, and such that can be toured. I could have probably spent an entire day in the aircraft carrier alone, but Nate and I were on a bit of a tight schedule due to some pressing issues at home. So we split up from Camyll and her family, and did our own touring and traveling home for the day.
The aircaft carrier was impressive.
Coop was ready to go see some boats and planes.
Just inside the main hangar entrance was this fighter jet. Cooper would have spent the whole day in this thing if we'd have let him. Getting him to do anything else meant battling lots of fits and running around.
The boys were excited to sit in the cockpit in the pilot seat, and see all the dials, switches and buttons.
We did walk through a few floors of the aircraft carrier. It was SO BIG--I was afraid we'd get lost.
Here's Cooper in the briefing room, getting his assignment.
Both my grandfathers served on aircraft carriers in WWII. I'm not certain what carrier my Grandpa Mower served on, but my Grandpa Christensen served on the USS Roi, and I know he did something with the radar. So when we entered the radar room, I got a little teary-eyed thinking of Grandpa, and we took lots of pictures.
I had to wonder if Grandpa sat in a spot like this one.
The flight deck was incredible with all the planes, but most incredible was the shortness of the runway. How in the world did they do it?
It wasn't long before Cooper found another plane to sit in and try out.
Our grandfathers who all served in WWII were certainly on our minds as we toured the various parts of Patriot's Point, and it was something we all mentioned to each other. There were old veteran volunteers working the information desks, and I couldn't help but think how fun it would be for Grandpa to have a job like that.
We didn't have time to tour the battleship, but we did take a quick tour through the submarine.
It gave me the heebie-geebies to think of the real purpose of all the hatches we climbed through. The sub was one straight, narrow walkway the full length of the sub. There were a few locked hatches here and there, barely big enough for a small man to fit through. I couldn't imagine living on a submarine for more than a day, and never below water. I couldn't wait to get out of it.
Proof that I was in attendance. :)
At the entrance were these guns from a battleship.
Coop thought they were pretty neat too.
We didn't get to spend the day with my sister and her family, but we did happen to see each other around lunch time. I thought these pictures of their family were too cute not to share.
Nate, Coop and I left Patriots Point a little after lunch time. We didn't get home until about 6:30 p.m., making the 3 hour drive turn into almost 6, thanks to our potty-training son who had to stop to go every 20 minutes or so (NOT kidding). We were so ready to be home after the long drive.
Camyll and her family had to leave for home early the next morning, and with exhausted kids and adults, their last evening visiting us was pretty uneventful. We were so glad they came to visit, and that we had such an amazing and memorable vacation with them. Come again soon!!!
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