Today was the day I had planned many years ago in my head to bring the boys back to tour this battleship, but when I shared it with the girls, they were not as excited. But Wilmington was only about 40 minutes away, and the weather was rainy that morning on the beach and cold. Belle and I were twinkies today with our matching USS Alabama shirts. We got in the car and headed up for the day. Enjoying Pandora on the way, but on Magan's connected phone, we periodically have the music shut off and switch over to videos Magan is watching while making her one second a day thing on facebook. One moment made me laugh as we were listing to "American Pie", as the music shut off and Ruby asked "Hey, what happened to the music"...No hesitation, Belle said with a sad voice "It Died". That still makes me laugh. That girl cracks me up all the time with her quick wit and humor.
The USS North Carolina battleship museum is right across the river from Wilmington. It is a smaller battleship than the Alabama, but was in the WW2 pretty much from the beginning. For the below decks, it is just one continuous tour, unlike the Red and Green of the Alabama. While perhaps not their favorite activity, I know the girls enjoyed the tour, and we had some silly moments to laugh at later.
I noticed that the sailors ate lots of VegAll, and then noticed a very important piece of information. There is no broccoli in VegAll...coincidence or not that it is not included in a can that obviously has ALL vegetables. We tried to stuff Ruby in the big giant soup container..."We are making a Ruby Soup...dududududu". One thing they do better than the Alabama is capturing stories of all the sailors on the North Carolina at each section of the ship. One story made me laugh in that the sailors knew that all their letters were censored, so they all had to be careful what they put on the letters. They learned never to write on both sides of the paper because the censor would cut out something on one side and it impact the other thoughts on the other page. But in the end of the war, notice was sent out that mail would no longer be censored. One sailor said that his next letter to his girl was Xrated in content.
We also noticed that while the USS Alabama has a fun game finding "Women of Unintegrity", the USS North Carolina showed all the sailors typically in just shorts as it was so hot on the ship. So we decided their ship was "Men of Unintegrity". We also learned that Magan has absolutely no sense of direction, thinking that every stair was the stair we just went down to the machine shop. At the top of the ship, we found the place where they steered the ship, and I told them about the "Point Man" that stood in front of the captain and pointed left if they should go left and right if they should go right. I kept talking but then turned around to see they stopped listening a long time ago.
We also learned that the water fountains were called the scuttlebutts, and that is where the sailors would trade stories of the rumors going around the ship. That made us realize that is where the term came from, and why it is still talked about around the water coolers. I told them that this is where the Sailors first learned of Tommy and Suzy, and how Suzy was supposed to be with Billy. I kept talking and telling them what happened, but then turned around to see they stopped listening a long time ago.
After the battleship, I had one surprise museum for the girls. We crossed over into Wilmington to the Museum of the Bizaaahhhhh or the Museum of the Bizzarrrah depending on the voice I was using. Hahaha, I looked around google maps and saw this place, and figured we could not miss the sights of the Bizahhhhhhhhh. We later remembered that the voice of the Bizzarrah was Henrietty's mother from the Borrowers ("I think I could just die"). Girls...if you happen to ever read this...can you still hear it?
What did we see at the museum of the Bizarre? We saw an actual strand of Alexander Hamilton's hair...maybe more like a splinter size fragment. We saw an actual chupacabra hand, the fort Fisher mermaid skeleton, an Zoltar machine that told your future, and for some kids, turn them into an adult that would work for a toy company. We saw christmas cards from Charles Manson, and we chose NOT to see other serial killer paraphernalia. Magan answered the mysterious phone ringing in the corner, but did not have any crazy mishaps after that. And before we left, we went into the Mirror Maze. How much was this adventure you ask? Exactly $5/each...not too shabby. Did I mention the room with all the doll heads hung from the ceiling and the super nice guy at the front wearing the 666 hat. Oh yeah, this place definitely was Bizaaaaahhhh.
We finished the day with a visit to the Mexican restaurant back in Southport, a souvenir visit to "The Pacific", a quick picture at the Oak Island lighthouse, even quicker run back to the condo for both me and Ruby to the bathroom, and one last evening on the beach. We definitely picked the best day the previous day for the beach, as the waves on this day were not nearly as big, and it was about 7 or 8 degrees chillier. We waved good bye to the beach, having had much more time to enjoy it this time than the short time last year in Gulf Shores.
No comments:
Post a Comment