Week with Dad~3

Since the boys had Friday, 26th, off of school we decided to head up to Virginia to see some of the sites.  Andy looked up fun things to do around Williamsburg since we wanted to go to Busch Gardens as well.  He found Nauticus, a naval museum, and the USS Wisconsin.  It is the largest battleship in the world!  We also found a boat tour of the harbor that shows all the Navy ships in port at Port Smith, VA. 

We picked the kids up from school early and headed up to Oceana Naval Air Station near Port Smith to stay spend the night on base.  They have a LOT of fighter jets at this base.  It was awesome!!

Dad and Nathan reading for family scriptures study before bed.  Nathan needed a little extra TLC!

We discovered that Nathan is not the best traveller at this time.  We hope he get better as we go.  :0)



Friday morning we had to check out the jets on base.  Daniel was super excited to go out and see the jets.  We could also hear the jets taking on and off at the run way through the trees.

Daniel, Bradley and Eliza...

inspecting the decorative jets.

This particular jet had 30 bombs, or replicas, attached to it.  That is some serious fire power capabilities!!!

"Wow!  Did you see that jet?"

After checking out of base we headed over to Virginia Beach.  We had to stop in quickly since we were so close.

The waves were perfect for boogy boarding and the kids were sad we didn't have any with us.  Eliza thought we should play in the water, but it was a little chilly for that.  Plus they were setting up for some big event.

 

They had some pretty nice tents set up and rows of port-a-potties!

We didn't stay at the beach for long because we had to head over to Norfolk to the naval museum and our boat ride.

We arrived just in time to catch our two hour boat tour of the harbor.

Despite how they look in the picture the kids were very excited to go on the ride. 

It was over cast all day and we got a little drizzle while on the tour.  

Luckily we stayed in the bottom which was protected from the wind and rain.

Here are a couple "boats" in for some repair/maintenance in dry dock.

I think the guide said this is one of, if not the biggest, dry dock in the country.  They can flood it so the ship can enter and then they pump out the water and the ship is in place.

A look at the USS Wisconsin.  We toured that after our boat ride.

The round white brick building is part of an out fort.

These are cargo ships owned by the US government...I think. 

We saw a lot of boats.  :0)

The guide said that when this particular cargo ship is filled to capacity the weight sinks the ship until the red is completely below the surface of the water.  That is incredible to me, that that much weight can float!!

I think they said this is the largest port in the U.S. currently in operation.  The cranes are 4 or 5 stories tall...I think.

This ship was at the coal loading station. 

This machine can load a train load of coal onto the cargo ship in just a couple minutes.  That just blows my mind!

 

Here are the long a waited U.S. Navy ships/boats.

Another cargo port across from the Navy yard.

 

The guide gave us the stats on all the different classes of boats in port.  Most of them were made to just barely fit through the Panama Canal.  He also talked about the fire power these ships have.  I can honestly say I wouldn't want to mess with our Navy.

 

This was one of the many cool tug boats cruising the harbor.

 



Daniel and Bradley enjoying the ride.

They said the reason these ships have some many angles is so the radars from other ships will deflect off of them.  This makes the ship  appear smaller than it actually is.  That is pretty stinkin' cool!

 

Another interesting bit of information is that two ships can have the same call number if they are different classes of boats and in the same fleet.

One of the air craft carrier in port that day.

They said several of the ships had already headed out to sea to ride out Hurricane Sandy.

 

These last ones have a compartment they can flood to allow smaller crafts to drive right up in.  They also a larger medical capacity than most other ships.  Are they like the one you are on Uncle Jake?

 

Nathan and Dad

 

 

We will only say this once...out loud...the U.S. Navy is pretty awesome. 

Take my advise and never mess with the U.S. Navy. 

(That was for you Uncle Jake!)

Oct. 26, 2012