We left late Thursday night, via tour bus, and drove through the night. Stopping for brief rest stops, and for breakfast
in the morning, we arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina around 9:00.
We arrived at the Discovery Place Science Center at 9:00, and we didn't leave until after 3:00 in the afternoon. I think that just about sums up how interesting a place it can be. Not only was it full of interesting things to see, most nearly everything was a hands on activity. One of the things I found interesting was the rain forest. It is a large room that has been turned into a tropical rain forest. It is full of tropical plants and animals, but the best thing is that you actually walk into the room, and look at things up close.
Even after you have been everywhere, and have seen
all the exhibits, although that takes a long time to do, you really need to see a show in the Omnimax
Theater. The Omnimax Theater is a movie theater, however, it is different in one very big way. In the Omnimax
Theater the screen surrounds the entire room. You can see the movie every way you look. It opens up a whole new
world.
By 7:30 P.M. on Friday, we arrived at Patriots Point in Charleston, South Carolina. By the time we got our gear together, and got onto the ship, the sun had set. We were given a fairly short introduction as to how things would work, and how the serving of
meals would be arranged. And then we were shown to our sleeping quarters. Our sleeping quarters were, in fact, the same place that the crew had slept before the boat had been decommissioned in 1970.
Lights out was at 11:00 each night, reveille was at 7:00 on Saturday, and 6:20 on Sunday for packing up. After reveille, we had until 8:00 before breakfast was served on the ship.
Breakfast was served on the Yorktown aircraft carrier both Saturday and Sunday. It was a good experience, to eat on the ship; and added to the feeling of living under the same conditions as those who had been stationed on the ship in the past.
The largest portion of the trip was a tour of the ships located at Patriot's Point. There are a number of ships in the harbor: a destroyer (the Laffey), a coast guard cutter (the Ingham), a submarine (the Clamagore), in addition to the Yorktown itself. Th
e boats have tours set up, with arrows directing you through the ship, or you can simply wander. The Yorktown air-craft carrier itself has seven different tours set up.
- TOUR ONE - Living and Working Spaces
- TOUR TWO - Engine Room
- TOUR THREE - Flight Deck & Bridge
- TOUR FOUR - World War II Carrier Rooms
- TOUR FIVE - Memorial Hangar Bay, Arlington of Carrier Aviation, Yorktown Association Museum & Ship's Brig.
- TOUR SIX - Captain & Flag Officer In-Port Quarters
- TOUR SEVEN - Shipyard Exhibit
In addition to the ships, the flight deck of the Yorktown is also a museum of various aircraft. The following aircraft are on display:
| F4F Wildcat | UH-34D Seahorse | E-IB Tracer |
| TBM Avenger | AD Skyraider | F-J Fury |
| F6F Hellcat | A7 Corsair | A-4 Skyhawk |
| FG-1D Corsair | F4 Phantom | F-8 Crusader |
| B-25 Mitchell | SBD Dauntless | F9F Cougar |
| F-11 Tiger | S-2E Tracker | N-2 Stearman |
| F-14 Tomcat | A-6 Intruder | HUEY UH1-M |
| HUEY UH1-H | HUEY UH-1 | SH-3 Sea King |
| QH-50A | D.A.S.H. |
Lunch was also provided on the ship as part of the tour; however, it was very simple, unlike breakfast. Everybody was given a bag lunch with a sandwich, an apple, and a can of pop. Not much time and effort was put into Saturday's lunch.
After lunch we boarded a small boat, and were taken through Charleston Harbor, to historic Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Fort Sumter is far different than it was during it's greatest hour when it was bombarded by shots du
ring the first battle of the Civil War.The walls around the fort had been knocked down during the Civil War, and never rebuilt. In some places you can still see the cannonballs stuck in the walls. All of the buildings in the fort were destroyed in a fire
during the Civil War, and later a new building was erected within the fort.
Supper was also served on the Yorktown as a part of the trip, supper went very well, and I found it just as enjoyable as breakfast.
After supper, all of the scouts on the ship attended a ceremony in which some of the scouts were awarded the Historic Trails Award for meeting it's requirements. The last requirement they met was to spend two days and one night at a historic site (The Yor
ktown).
After the ceremony ended we had a fire drill to assure that we all knew how to exit the ship in case of a real fire.
At 9:45 they showed the movie "Fighting Lady" on the ship, it is a movie about the USS Yorktown, and what it had been through before being decommissioned in 1970.
On Sunday, reveille was at 6:20 in order to give us time to pack up our gear, and go to breakfast.
Again we had breakfast on the Yorktown on Sunday, we then had a church service at 8:10 AM before departing at 9:00.
At 9:00 we boarded the busses once again, and left Patriots Point, to return home. At noon we stopped for lunch, and at 5:00 PM we stopped for supper, other than that it was almost constant driving until returning home late Sunday night. And, thanks to a flat tire, it was very late Sunday night.
