3/9/11 - USS Lexington NHS

“Lady Lex” was a WWII aircraft carrier.  Actually there were 2:  the first one, CV-2, was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 2^nd one, CV-16, (the one we toured) was commissioned in 1943 with the same name.  I don’t quite get that, but I guess they do that a lot with ships.

“The Blue Ghost” (they often give ships nicknames—I do get that!) is now a museum, moored in Corpus Christi, TX.  There are 5 self-guided tour routes that take you to the flight deck, the bridge and the decks below.  You can probably figure out that George was more interested in the ship than I was, although it was pretty cool. 

We started out with a stop at the MEGA Theater for a 45-minute movie.  I expected it to be about the ship, or at least WWII—it was a National Geographic video of Lewis & Clark’s expedition.  I suppose you could at least call it nautical…

Then we headed 3 sets of steep narrow stair steps to the Flight Deck.  They had all sorts of planes that had actually flown from that ship while she was on active duty.  Except for one that had wings that folded up, they all looked like baby planes to me, and much smaller than the planes I’ve seen in old movies.  In fact, the whole deck didn’t look long enough to land a plane on!  We got to go up into the bridge, check out the anti-aircraft guns and wander around pretty much wherever we wanted. 

Then we went on the Foc’sle Tour, the Gallery Deck, Lower Decks & Hangar Deck.  We went up those steep ship stairs that are almost like ladders, then we went down them.  We went through all sorts of passageways, following signs that read “Tour Route”, which was all that kept me from being totally lost.  We saw the Offices Quarters, Dental Clinic, Crew’s Galley, Ready Rooms, etc., etc., plus a lot of exhibits that were dedicated to other ships or battles like Pearl Harbor.  There was a whole lot to see—you couldn’t possibly assimilate everything on one trip.  There were some volunteers that were pretty interesting to talk to.  As usual, there are places where George has to duck--or he gets another bump on his head!

 After almost 4 hours, we decided we’d seen all of it, and headed outside to find something to eat.  We found a little place just down the pier.  George had a cheeseburger (boring…) and I had a shrimp Po’ Boy (yum!).  Then I saw a sign that Happy Hour started at 4:00, so we each had a couple of 99 cent Margaritas (double yum!!)