Wednesday, October 13, 2010

USS Constitution ("Old Iron Sides")

On Sunday we were able to tour the USS Constitution commonly known as "Old Iron Sides" and is the oldest commissioned war ship in the United States (it was commissioned by George Washington in the 1790s and still sails at least twice per year). Derek was very excited for this and it was pretty neat to see.

Here is Braedon and Derek waiting patiently for the tour to start...25 minutes before the first tour put us in the front of the line which grew very rapidly and was probably an hour wait by the start of our tour.

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The outside of the ship.

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The top deck.

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Braedon steering the ship.

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The second deck.

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What you didn’t see was Braedon licking the cannon.

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The third deck. The crew slept in hammocks.

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I can’t even imagine how bad it must have stunk in there! About 400 men!

Braedon was happy for the tour to be over.

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I wish I could tell you all that I learned from the tour, but I was a little stressed out trying to keep a one year old under control and didn’t hear much of any of it. He only spilled milk on the beautifully waxed floor once…I kind of wanted to crawl under a rock. Oh, and I already mentioned the cannon licking. So if you want more history behind these pictures then just look it up.

3 comments:

Grandma Wilson said...

Oh my gosh Lacie, you crack me up, 'cannon licking'? I could feel your stress though, but very glad Derek got to take it all in.

Derek said...

Hey, I spent as much time corralling Braedon as she did!

Lacie said...

Yes, that is very true.