We headed to Mobile, AL, this morning to tour the Battleship USS Alabama and the rest of Battleship Memorial Park. They are on a small peninsula jutting out into Mobile Bay. When we checked TripAdvisor to see what attractions or activities people recommend, visiting the battleship shows up as number one.
This tour, unlike the Navy aviation museum in Pensacola, is not free. Seniors pay $13 each to get in, a fairly high charge, but it goes to provide maintenance and improvements. No taxpayer money at all is involved in the Battleship Memorial Park. It depends entirely on volunteers and fundraising from ticket sales, gift ship, and cafe, plus donations from supporters.
We've never been aboard a battleship before. This one is quite impressive. There are three self-guided tours, and we did all of them, so we saw the ship from stem to stern and from top to bottom. We had to take a break in the middle to eat lunch.
We also toured the submarine USS Drum.
We certainly got a lot of exercise climbing ladders and going through hatches and watching our heads. The sailors and Marines about these vessels were definitely more fit than we are. They had only three minutes to get to battle stations.
In addition to the two vessels, the park includes memorials and lots of aircraft and military equipment. We were running out of steam after spending more than five hours at the park, so we didn't spend much time on the rest of the displays beyond the battleship and the sub. We've decided that we've had enough of aircraft and ships to keep us for a while.
On the way to the ship this morning we stopped at Target in Daphne. Our mission was to buy a Cosco step stool to replace the one I damaged by leaving it set up just in front of the dually tires and then pulling forward. I had the stool out so I could climb into the truck bed while we were still hitched up to clean the love bugs off the end cap. Fortunately Target still carries that step stool, which we love.
When we walked into the store, we saw a sign indicating that flu shots were available in the pharmacy. We went to the pharmacy and asked if they had the Fluzone High Dose vaccine. They did, so we got our flu shots. Now I have a slightly sore arm, but that's a small price to pay for developing some immunity to the current flu viruses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment