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Texas History Tour - WW2

Today, we jump to the WW2 era for our history lessons. Last time we visited, we were only able to visit a small portion of the ship, so we decided to spend as much time as we needed to fully experience the USS Lexington.  We arrived just after it opened....









The USS Lexington was one of the first carriers to house women. Looks like open footlockers for beds.  Dressers were either storage units across from the bunks or, on the bottom, under your mattress.


One of the machine shop areas - looks a lot like a machine shop we toured on last family day.


The industrial size serving area and kitchen were interesting.



You can go to the dentist on this ship?

There was an awesome special exhibit on the Texas Navy and their part on the Texas Revolution. 



There were many exhibits covering parts that were used in the workings of the USS Lexington.  The boys loved seeing all the parts!



The USS Lexington staff were great about having a 2 yr old on board (we've been places where they aren't allowed to tour the equipment).  However, touring does require lots of climbing and descending stairs.  All of the stairs have watch your head warnings.  We told R to watch her head and she put her hand over it to keep it from getting hit.  Everytime we went on stairs, she would cover her head to keep it safe!





Apparently, to be in the Navy and on the fire team, you need to be tall!  A is on tip toe and her finger tips just reached the edge.  There is no way she could have turned it.





There were some exhibits about navigation equipment and then we reached the other side of the cafeteria.  S found the food samples and told us they looked just like the food in the cafe at school!  Scary thought!



We found a very cool room that had many many models of both ships and planes.  Z has decided that he now wants his room decorated like it.






Our next stop was the deck.  The boys LOVED IT!  The girls enjoyed it too.









Everyone walked through one of the gun turrets and R didn't want to at first but when she saw everyone come out smiling, she decided she needed to go through too.



































While the bigger kids visited the captains office while the ship is on maneuvers and the ships control deck, R and I found some lunch and some lunch buddies on the main deck.























This was the captains quarters when in dock and where he entertained important visitors.






This section of the ship also held the pilot briefing rooms and some of the communication offices.  Several of these rooms are seen in the movie Pearl Harbor.





Apparently, to work in this section, you need to be short. 







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