Breakfast time!
We had a typical breakfast. Juice, scrambled eggs, toast, omelet, french toast, sausage. the total came out to $66 with tip. Pretty pricey for an Applebee's.
We finished out breakfast. Unfortunately, it was still raining. We donned our rain jackets and headed out to our first museum of the day, The Intrepid.
It was raining pretty good, and we probably should have just hailed a cab. But we kept on going. By the time we got to the museum, Alex and I were drenched. Our jackets weren't as rain proof as the kids.
Of course, just as we got to the museum, it stopped raining.
The Intrepid Air and Space Museum was an actual aircraft carrier commissioned during WWII. It was eventually made a historical landmark and turned into a museum. The museum now contains a hangar deck, a galley deck, the mess deck, flight deck, a submarine, and soon to be Space Shuttle pavilion.
When we first entered Intrepid, we found ourselves on the hangar deck. There were various displays of small planes, hardware, hands on exhibits, as well as a motion simulator. We made our way around the hangar deck first.
A rare picture of Alex. He totally hogged the cameras. :)
The boys have astronaut gloves on and are learning how hard it is to work with them.
Testing out the lifeboat.
At one point, the boys found a sound board where you could press buttons and various sounds of the ship would ring. There were some pretty loud alarm sounds. To our joy, Noah did not panic.
Look at Noah's smile, as Nik presses a button to cause an alarm sound. No fear!
Noah spotted the motion simulator, and of course wanted to go for a spin. There was an extra charge of $9 per person to ride.
I would never have survived G Force without puking, so Alex and I sat this one out. We were able to see the kids in their ride by video screen. They seemed to really enjoy it. After the motion simulator, we moved on to the flight deck. The sky looked ominous, but the weather held out for us long enough to see the planes.
We headed inside to check out the bridge. The hallways were pretty tight quarters.
After we toured the bridge, we headed back inside to check out the crew quarters. They did not have much room. A man could go pee from his bed, if he was a good aim. And you could wash your hands from bed too.
The guys in this room were lucky. They only had a few people in their room.
Officers dined in style.
Crew quarters. Look how many sailors were squeezed into that room!
More fancy officer dining.
Massive kitchen.
Lego replica of the ship.
We decided to head down to the anchor chain room. Once we entered the room, we were hit with the heat. It was so very hot and stuffy in there. There was a group of middle school children there on a school tour. They were with a tour guide who explained that this was a very difficult part of the ship to work in. On the floor, were massive chains. It took several sailors to operate each of the chains.
It was incredibly hot in the room, so we just made our way around quickly, then headed toward the exit. As we did that, One of the school kids started to slump over, and two teachers carried him out. They started to lay him on the floor just outside of the room. As we passed, we asked if they needed help, but they said they were fine. It looked like he had just fainted from the heat. So that gives you an idea of how warm it was in there.
After the anchor and chain room, we were pretty much finished touring the boat. We decided to try and find the 911 memorial that they had outside.
Along the way, we came across the Concorde. And just behind that was a nice view of the Hudson.
We finally found the 911 memorial. It's a piece of steel from one of the World Trade Center buildings.
Our admission also included a tour of the Growler Submarine. The Growler was launched in 1958, and was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. Once decommissioned, it was restored and brought to New York. The submarine is located right next to the Intrepid, When we walked over to the submarine, I looked back at the Intrepid, and could finally see the entire ship from the outside. It is massive!
We finally got the the Growler. As we entered, there was a sign warning people with claustrophobia not to enter. We also had to prove that we could climb through their passageways before we were allowed to enter.
Entering the submarine.
Once we entered the submarine, I knew why they gave that warning about claustrophobia. It was very tight quarters down there. You could not pass people, so if there was a slow poke ahead, you were stuck in a long line of human traffic. And this was the case with us. There was a couple up ahead, and they just stood and examined every little detail of the submarine. Nik started to get really frustrated, and a slightly panicked at being trapped into such a small space. We just kept telling him to calm down, and kept things light and cheery. But inside, I wanted to just push the people out of the way.
The annoying couple up ahead!
Tiny kitchen.
Dining tables.
Tiny sleeping quarters.
It looks like they squeezed in 3 sailors into this tiny room.
Periscope!
They had a game room that doubled as a mess hall.
Some poor sailors didn't even get a room. They had bunks in the corridors of the submarine.
It's like sleeping in a closet.
Another passageway. Get me off of the submarine!
God please! Is this the light at the end of the tunnel?
We are out!
The submarine was pretty interesting. I'm glad we checked it out. Going early in the morning is key here. It wasn't even that crowded, but we got stuck behind some annoying people. I can only imagine how packed it gets on a busier time of day.
Oh fresh air, how we missed you!
Giant kids and their shrimp mom.
That ended our tour of the Intrepid. Fortunately, it had stopped raining, so this would make a more pleasant walk back to the hotel. Before we started walking, we took some pictures of the ship.
Next up, Natural History Museum!
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