Navy Fleet Tour

It was fleet week at the ports of Seattle, which means we were able to tour a real Navy ship! And the best part was that kids under eight weren't allowed, so Grandpa Nils stayed behind to babysit and we got a day of freedom!

It was pretty neat seeing all the different parts of the ship.

And we noticed that there were signs everywhere giving instructions that we thought are pretty common sense. For example, they had a gun with a cover on it, and printed largely on the cover were the instructions to "remove before firing." Hmmm.

We learned that the ship we were touring had been in action at Desert Storm.

And that the flags all meant something different. For instance, one flag means that the captain isn't on board but his assistant is in his stead.

Honestly, we were sort of scammed in the tour guide selection, because our Navy man didn't say anything! Unless you asked him a question he sure wasn't going to explain anything. We learned more when we were passing other tour-groups and hears what their Navy leader was saying.

But it was still neat to look around and see the guns, walk the stairs ( I would die if I were on a ship like that because there are so many narrow stairs with ledges all over the place and if I were in an emergency situation I would trip and break my neck in an instant.), and imagine what goes on when the ship is out at sea.

My mom dared us to ring the bell, but we all chickened out. We decided it wasn't worth the risk with men in uniform carrying huge guns and walking around.

The front part of the ship was the most interesting and we noticed the obvious instruction labels weren't as apparent. We figured you had to be a bitter smarter to work in this part of the ship...

We did find this awesome pair of binoculars that was so powerful that we could see individual people across the Puget Sound on a ferry. I don't think we were supposed to be messing with them, but we had fun spying on others anyway. It was my favorite part of the tour. I decided I need to get me a pair of those babies.

It was all a bit exciting with all the high security and thinking of the actual action this ship had seen. And it sure had me thinking how grateful I am for men that go and fight to keep me safe while I'm eating ice cream and sitting on my bum at home.