May 22, 2014, 4:04 PM
Today, our last full day in Charleston, we went to see the destroyer USS Laffey. She is docked at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum along with the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier, and the USS Clamagore Submarine. Our last visit we were able to see the Yorktown and Clamagore, but the Laffey wasn't there. So this time we got to walk all around that ship. I really do enjoy doing things like that. It is sort of awe inspiring to know that men lived and laughed and fought and died in the very place that I am walking. We watched a short video in the rear gun turret on the Laffey about how the ship had been attacked and almost lost to enemy fire. The rear gun turret had been pretty much blown apart and of the fourteen men that were in it only 6 survived. And let me tell you, there really wasn't room for more then three or four people to stand and then to know that they were moving around and the turret was moving around and they were loading munitions! I just don't know how it was possible. It's very moving to just take it in. My heart breaks thinking about what they must have endured and the horror of it.
On a lighter note, I do enjoy looking at all of the machinery. In a strange kind of way it is pretty. There are crazy shapes and everything is painted and I know these things all serve important purposes. I think sometimes there is a tomboy trying to get out, although she still wears pink, I love the shoot'm up bang bang kind of movies, just plunk my butt down in front of action and adventure or sci-fi and I'm happy. I see flowers in knobs on valves and faces in dials and I love to find out what all the different pieces of equipment do, even though I still don't have a clue after I get the explanation.
There is one thing I have come to realize though, every ship we go in has a funk. It is a cross between stale air, sweaty bodies, and oil, and that is when there are just visitors going through. I can't imagine filling every available inch with men doing laborious work for months on end. I doubt a clean air scrubber has been made that can fix that. Why is it we walk around these damn boats/ships whatever when it's 90+ flipping degrees. I mean, it was brutal today. Oh and then the disrespectful children and their parents/teachers/chaperones. We went into the Medal Of Honor Museum and in my opinion it is nearly hallowed ground. The news is reporting that there are people out there that don't believe the holocaust really took place and here is a museum that honors the extreme sacrifice of men who not only were the bravest of the brave in WWII but in every other war since the Civil War, and there are kids running around and shrieking and the adults with them weren't much better. SHAME, shame on each and every one of those adults that didn't take the opportunity to take a loud child aside and explain why that is not appropriate behavior. But I don't know why that shocks or even bothers me anymore. There is no decorum, no manners, or civility anymore.
Thank goodness we got one more chance to have a meal at The Boulevard Diner. It is only right down the street from Patriots Point so we stopped in for a fabulous lunch. Oh and for desert we split a piece of hummingbird cake. Oh my God in heaven it was so good!!!!!!!!!
Well guys, this is pretty much it. Steve and I are going to relax and the first thing in the morning we are going to head out for home.
