Thursday, August 9, 2007

The USS Midway


So I went with the red one after all. I'll blog more about how fun the boat was but I thought I'd try to get a few pictures up although for some reason I can't get any more to upload. More later ..

Top picture is of me and Phillip in the hotel lobby. He had to wear a t-shirt from work so I didn't get to make a fuss over what he wore :(.
When we got to the ship Phillip had to check invitations for an hour before we went in together. I sat at a table and verified the guest list. By the time we got on board I was sooo excited. Because the Midway is a museum there were tons of aircraft and helicopter to look at on the upper deck. I had so much fun looking at them and being impressed by the enormity of the ship I didn't realize that the reason everyone was on the upper deck was to see the fireworks. They shot them off the very front of the boat and Phillip and I stood as close to the barrier as we could (about 500 ft away) so we felt like we were surrounded and at any minute one of the sparks was going to reach down and singe us. It was so cool!

After that we went below and mingled for a while. Since it was a cocktail party with 3,000 people we wanted to leave before things got too rowdy. Phillip was fed up long before I was so we stood outside and talked to a retired navy officer about the history of the boat and the role it played in Vietnam and the Gulf War (it was completed a few weeks too late for WWII).

Since Phillip and I had driven down on Monday and the party was the same night we were pretty tired and called it a day after wandering around midway park for awhile. It was surreal to go from such a boistrous party where food and alcohol was plentiful (although I couldn't get even a bottle of water anywhere ... weird.) to the park where many homeless had tucked themselves in for the night. I had brought some snacks from the party so I gave them to one of the many guys sleeping there I wish I had brought so much more.

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