Charleston Day 2

We started our morning off over in Mount Pleasant for breakfast at Page’s Okra Grill. It was quite possibly the best food we had the entire trip (which is saying a lot in Charleston) but unfortunately we had a less than stellar experience with the restaurant itself. It took us an hour to get our food (breakfast food!) after ordering, and along with some other not so great things that happened. Needless to say, we weren’t happy that it was 11:00 before we even made it back to the truck to go sightseeing.



I got the Housemade Pimento Cheese Sandwich and it was delicious. It was grilled Texas Toast with fried green tomatoes, egg, bacon (which I passed off to Adam), and pimento cheese. It was to die for! Adam opted to go with the Shrimp and Grits and said it was delicious as well. Like I said, best food we had the entire trip.



Despite our morning being taken away from us, we still said this particular day was our favorite of any day in Charleston. We headed to Patriots Point to tour the USS Yorktown (CV-10).



The tour was self guided so you could travel through at your own pace and opt out of certain tours if you wanted.We figured we would spend maybe 2 hours here, but 4 hours later we were still going strong!



(This is a picture of a picture..hence the reason its crooked…)

The USS Yorktown (CV-10) is the tenth aircraft carrier to serve the US Navy. Under construction as BON HOMME RICHARD, this new Essex-class carrier was renamed YORKTOWN in honor of YORKTOWN (CV-5), sunk at the epic Battle of Midway (June 1942). Built in an amazing 16-½ months at Newport News, Virginia, YORKTOWN was commissioned on April 15, 1943, and participated significantly in the Pacific Offensive that began in late 1943 and ended with the defeat of Japan in 1945. YORKTOWN received the Presidential Unit Citation, and earned 11 battle stars for service in World War II. Much of the Academy Award-winning (1944) documentary "The Fighting Lady" was filmed on board YORKTOWN. (it was also featured in the infamous Tora! Tora! Tora!)

Yorktown displaced 27,100 tons during WWII and carried a crew of 380 officers, 3,088 enlisted men and an air group of 90 planes.

In the 1950's, Yorktown was modified with the addition of an angled deck to better operate jet aircraft in her role as an attack carrier (CVA). In 1958, YORKTOWN was designated an anti-submarine aircraft carrier (CVS), and would later earn 5 battle stars for service off Vietnam (1965-1968). The ship also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule (December 1968). YORKTOWN was decommissioned in 1970 and placed in reserve; and in 1975, was towed from Bayonne, NJ to Charleston to become the centerpiece of Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.

You walked onto the ship through the Hangar Deck and then 6 different tours would lead you through different areas of the ship.



Crew’s Berthing area



This room was the ship’s chapel.



Torpedo workshop



More sleeping quarters. I just have to pause here to say… Can you imagine?!



We walked through the bakery area and they had a recipe posted for 10,000 Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I snapped a picture, because you never know when you might need to make 10,000 cookies…



 





 



These were the fire escapes, there were a couple of things we learned on this tour, well correction, there were a lot of things we learned, but one of the main ones was that I couldn’t do what these people do and I am eternally grateful to them. It was hard enough slowly walking up and down the stairs, I can’t imagine having to do it at any point during an actual attack.



We climbed up and and and up and down and then at one point we went down, down, down, down and made it to the very bottom level of the boat. I again, just can’t imagine. I’m not a claustrophobic person, but this ship nearly pushed me over the edge. And we were not surrounded by the thousands of crew that would have been on this ship.



There were close to 3,500 total crew aboard this ship, I can’t imagine- I know I keep saying that, but words just can’t describe how much respect I have for those that give their lives to protect us and have to spend (or have had to spend) their time serving on a ship like this. Not that other jobs in the military are “comfortable” but it brings it home when you walk on a ship like this. Adam actual made the comment in some areas you still, all these years later, could get a sense of death.



 



It was welcomed relief when the tour took us up out onto the flight deck.







Ava on the flight deck with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (overlooking the Cooper River) in the background.



The tours took us all through the ship, so many places I didn’t take pictures of everything, because it really was ev.er.y.th.ing. which we appreciated because it really helped us see just how it would have been. Also, can I just say when Ava saw the ‘dental spaces’ I didn’t think I would ever get her to the dentist! haha! She did however enjoy being in the pilot house and pretending she was steering a the ship.

 



The ship did a good job of trying to place aircraft just as it would have been when it was active..





One of the most comical and random things we saw was the Escalator, which was installed for the pilots….







Selfie



Before we left the ship, Ava climbed up into a F9F Cougar and we took her picture. This particular airplane was one of the last accepted by the Navy in 1959, it was built as a training version and it spent its career at the Naval Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan and until 1968 and then in Pensacola, FL until 1974 where it flew the last of its 4,321 hours.





After getting off the USS Yorktown, we walked down to the sub they had on site. It was  small sub, only holding 80 people, but I’m sorry, we walked through it with about 20 people and I just don’t know how 80 people fit on this thing….



Adam (and even I) had a hard time climbing through doorways. He and another tall guy behind us joked that they were not designed with tall people in mind.

The sub was the USS Clagmore (SS-343) and was a 322-foot diesel-powered submarine. It was commissioned at New London, Connecticut in June 1945, a few weeks before the end of WWII. She spent her 30-year long career operating out of Key West, Charleston, and New London. She was decommissioned at Philadelphia in 1975.

Another view of the USS Yorktown

There was also a destroyer located on sight- the USS Laffey (DD-724). It was named for Seaman Bartlett Laffey, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. Its 376 feet, 6 inches (because those 6 inches really matter…) long and commissioned February 8th, 1944. While operating off Okinawa on April 16th, 1945, Laffey was assailed by a massive air strike of 22 Japanese bombers and suicide kamikazes. 5 kamikazes and 3 bombs struck her and 2 bombs scored near misses to kill 32 and wound 71 of her 336 man crew, who in heroism shot down 11 attackers and kept her afloat. She was decommissioned in 1975.

And in case you are ever wondering…this is how we do family vacations…we always find the Ace



We passed by the Ace Hardware in Mt. Pleasant when we were going to breakfast, so we stopped in for a looksee after we left Patriots Point.



We also took a nice walk along the water and saw boats, paddle boarders, and shrimp boats.





After leaving Patriot’s Point, we headed back into historic Charleston to walk along the water and check out the houses.



I felt weird taking pictures of people’s houses this close, but I did manage to snap a few.

Ahh…they are all so beautiful, but I’m sure a bear to keep up!



We finished out the night with dinner at the Hominy Grill. We had originally planned to eat breakfast here but the wait is so long we decided to come back later (of course we didn’t realize it would take us forever at the place we stopped, so we probably we would have been better off with the wait).



We all enjoyed the boiled peanuts they bring to the table





The food was good, but what was even better was the chocolate mousse- it was rich, but since we all 3 shared it, it turned out perfect- it was delicious!

We headed back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and chit-chatting about the day. Adam found a video on the USS Yorktown and he cuddled up next to Ava and they watched it together. I’m pretty sure in that moment, watching a documentary about the ship they had just been on with his little girl he couldn’t have been happier