History ...

When I was in school, HISTORY was a word that I always rolled my eyes or sighed over. I hated history class, every single history class I ever took. I never enjoyed ANY of it. Maybe I just didn't have great teachers, I don't know. But history was always my LEAST favorite class. After I married Steve, I discovered that I don't hate history, I just hate memorizing dates, names and facts. I like learning stories and experiences. Back in 2000, Steve and I took a trip to Pennsylvania and went to the site of the Battle of Gettysburg ... and that is when I REALLY realized I love history. So, when we were in San Diego in January and Steve asked to go to the USS Midway that is docked in the bay in San Diego, I was excited! We really enjoyed the time we spent there. We were there about 4 hours and could have spent another hour.


Background paper comes from SOE GoodFellas - the first picture - the one at sea with all the sailors and planes on it comes from online and the one on the second page of the entire carrier I found on facebook. :) I didn't get a good shot of the whole carrier docked in San Diego.

Some cool facts about the USS Midway ... It was finished in 1945 and was the largest ship in the world at the time - too big for the Panama Canal. It is 1001 feet long and 258 feet wide. The flight deck on top is just over 4 acres and there are 2 elevators that can move two fully loaded planes at a time up or down 2 stories in less than 10 seconds. It has 18 decks in all, weighs 69,000 tons, has 1500 phones, housed a crew of 4,500 men including 225 cooks at a time, the anchors weigh 20-tons and there is 2,000 feet of chain. Each link of anchor chain weighs about 160 lbs. It spent as many as 327 days at sea at a time, it used 100,000 gallons of fuel A DAY, 260 gallons per mile (wow - I'd cry if my car got that kind of mileage). But the number that blew my mind was that they served 10 TONS of food daily, 13,500 meals daily includingg 3,000 potatoes and 1,000 loaves of bread! WOW! Now that's a grocery bill. This carrier served from 1945 (just after WWII ended), during Vietnam, led the evacuation in Saigon, was the first carrier in Kuwait in 1990 and was the flagship of the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. It later rescued 1,800 Americans from the Mt Pinatubo eruption before being decommissioned. An impressive history and it now means so much more to me because I was able to be there, experience it, meet a pilot who served on board USS Midway and hear many recorded stories of sailors and Navy pilots who served aboard that ship.

So, now, to history, I say COOL!! I hope my children will learn history that way instead of always hating it like I did. I hope I can provide many opportunities for them to experience history instead of just learning the facts. Alyssa does enjoy watching the history channel with Steve (or even by herself) so I think we are on a good path with her.