It is a trip down memory lane for me every time we visit the USS Alabama. I have wonderful memories of a trip where I spent the night on this battleship when I was only 10 years old or so, then the many times with me and the boys have just nailed this into one of my favorite places of all time. The history of the ship and sight of so many pictures of the men that served on this ship, a generation almost completely gone now, I get very emotional every time I step on board. That with the memory of Sam's first trip down when he looked out the window and saw the USS Alabama for the first time. "My eyes are leaking" he told us...Mine too Sam, and they still are, and they did again while I did arrange the pictures below to show some of our memories and photo places over the years. The key pictures are out near entrance to the hangar, and always in the engine room. Magan and I came here in 2001 on our honeymoon, and last brought the full family in the summer of 2010, when belle was just a little chunk. 20 years of memories, and even more added as I watched Ruby bounce along the tour excited to take us from step 1 to 2 to 3...
The set up of the museum during COVID is completely backwards from our normal tour, but worked fine. We started on board the USS drum, touring the submarine, and I must say a little disappointed that the periscope area is currently blocked off. No Van Damme on the ship this time tho. After the sub, I was caught flirting with my favorite mannequin in the hanger...she really does have pretty eyes. On the ship, we showed the girls the hole in the back of the ship, then started on the tours. As I mentioned earlier, Ruby was our tour guide, and helped us follow the right path. Magan loved the mannequins as well, and one area of air conditioning was well received by her. Ruby found Magan a giant mixer that she would need, and Belle found her a giant camera. I shared a series of pictures with my belly boo (all of them are backwards from how they were originally shot), only because they just make me laugh. In her eyes and in her facial expressions I see my goofiness inherited from my mom, and I can't help but smile. I feel like I am in a magical moment right now in her life, where those eyes have not started to roll at my silliness, but instead, we trade goofy looks until one or the other laughs (usually me).
And we ended with the first picture directly below. A family shot that is not always that easy to capture, so I shared the behind the scenes look at the trashcan that was pulled from the parking lot into this green area, then new army man strategically placed in front of the camera to help steady and capture this classic image, that will probably be on the front of this blog book. :)
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