USS Massachussetts

Somewhat bummed about a cancelled playdate/sleepover last night and despite lots of sniffling all around, we decided we needed a family adventure to break out of the funk of a saturday without any plans. We really wanted to tour an ice cream factory but found that Breyer's closed in April and we weren't up for a trip to Burlington VT. So our final three choices were the Anheuser-Busch brewery in NH (beers for me, Clydesdales for the kids), a chocolate factory in Somerville, and Battleship Cove in Fall River. In an unbelievable upset, and much to Natalie's dismay, chocolate lost out to naval vessels.

But turned out to be a great choice! The place wasn't very crowded, so we didn't feel overwhelmed while crawling about in the ships. I mean, there were dozens of boy scouts hanging out (and sometimes getting ready to sleep over in the ship), but they were pretty polite. And there were more than a handful of veterans touring through, often with kids and grandkids. Catching bits of conversation, at least a couple had first-hand experience which added a level of significance to the trip.

Before even reaching the dock, we stopped in a giant shed for a quick peek at some PT boats. Pretty mean-looking machines bristling with weaponry. As far as Pip and Vivi were concerned, the shark teeth were all that was needed in a time of war.

Next stop was the USS Lionfish, a Balao-class sub commissioned in Nov 1944. Here is Pip climbing up for a peek into the conning tower.

Here's Vivi coming out of the rear-torpedo room. She got pretty good at the ladders, but did have one spill later in the day. Guess she got a bit overconfident. Later, on the ride home, Nat revealed that she placed a 5% probability on one of our kids falling over the side of a ship. She was serious about it. Guess we were lucky that Vivi fell down a ladder onto solid decking.

Here we are getting ready to head over to Big Mamie.

Truly awesome. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be on board when these bad boys were firing.

We almost bailed out, but I convinced the family to descend several decks under the forward turret to explore the powder and gun control rooms. I don't think anyone could look at a sailor the same way after seeing the environment they work in. Here, I was telling Pip not to sneeze.

Favorite part of the ship? The slidy-boards. I mean, anchor.

Thank you men of the USS Massachussetts and all veterans of the armed services!