U.S.S Hornet

    Our first day in Alameda was spent relaxing and emptying out the car. It's amazing how much stuff we had shoved in there for the first part of the trip. Once that was done we drove over to Oakland for a late lunch along the waterfront followed by a treat of ice cream. We finished the day by grilling with Aunt Carol.

    The next day the kids were anxious to get to the pool so headed over there for a bit. We let them play in the water until lunch time and then returned home to clean up before heading out. Our first stop was a walk along the shore at a place called Crab Cove. It had a nice little nature center there where the kids got to touch some shark skin and see some of the fish that inhabit the bay.

    After that we drove up to the old navy base for a visit to the U.S.S. Hornet. It's an aircraft carrier from World War II that is now a museum. Not many people were there so we basically had the place to ourselves. A guide brought us around the ship and the kids got to do fun stuff like steer the boat and sit in the captain's chair. There was even a cockpit from a fighter jet that they all climbed into.

    It's amazing how many rooms and hallways can be squeezed into a place. It's a huge ship, but everything was still maximized for space and I brushed the top of my head through quite a few places. The girls liked going down the steep steps while we held our breath to make sure no one fell.

    One of the coolest things about the Hornet was finding out about it's connection to the first moon landing. They were the ship that picked up the astronauts' capsule and hosted the President as they returned. A replica of the capsule along with their quarantine quarters were on the ship along with a bunch of planes and helicopters that once flew from the deck. It was a fun and unexpected trip for us.