Duke

A very gracious couple at Oakdale surprised Tim with the gift of two tickets to Friday night's Duke basketball game.  We decided to make the game a fun evening out for Tim and Christopher, who both really love basketball.  Although he has watched many Duke games on TV in his lifetime, this was Tim's first visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium.  How exciting!

Above, Coach K greets the Florida Atlantic coach.  

The Cameron Crazies!

The final score was 97-64.

Duke's National Championship banners.

(Tim couldn't get them all in one shot.  :D)

Wrightsville Beach

While we were in the Wilmington area visiting the battleship, our family decided to spend the night at nearby Wrightsville Beach.  What a beautiful beach!!!   The above picture was of the sunrise.

  I just don't know of much in life that is more beautiful than 

the North Carolina Coast...

 Found a seafood restaurant where Tim and I satisfied our "sea tooth:" it's like a sweet tooth, but for seafood.    

Can you guess whose meal was whose?  

(Hint: I'm the foodie in this marriage.)

Above: Crab cakes with Old Bay aioli sauce, garlic-sauted spinach, and Gorganzola-smashed potatoes.

Below: The Pick-Two fry basket. :D

This was our family's first time ever being at the beach in a non-summer month such as November.  The sun shone just as brightly, but the air and the water were a bit chilly.  So what do you do when you can't boogie-board or play in the water?  If you're the kids, you draw pictures and play in the sand.  Below is Christopher's version of Mickey Mouse.

 And if you're a grown-up, you enjoy taking a long walk on a beach that even in the afternoon is quiet and uncrowded.  NICE!

The U.S.S. North Carolina

WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW.

To complete our homeschooling study of WWII, our family took a little field trip.  We had an AWESOME time spending a day visiting the U.S.S. North Carolina, a battleship museum/memorial.  I've been to a lot of historic sites in my lifetime, but this was just about the coolest.  Why?  Because while most museums have the policy "Look but don't touch," this one encourages everyone to look AND touch! 

Just about everything in the battleship has been left exactly intact as it was in WWII.  There are endless doors to open, signs to read, buttons to push, chairs to sit in, wheels to turn, and on and on.  The U.S.S. North Carolina was the most interactive learning/history experience we had ever had.

 

 The kids truly got to experience what it felt like to be a soldier on the battleship...

Hands-down, without question, the boys' favorite part of the adventure was shooting the GUNS.  (Or at least pretending to!)

So what were some of my surprises on the battleship???

1.  I didn't get claustrophobic!  Perhaps I've seen The Hunt for Red October one too many times, but I was fully expecting to be cooped-up in the bowels of that ship, running out of oxygen, hyper-ventilating.  Not so.  There was actually quite a bit of room to move around in, and more than enough air to breathe.  :)

However, as 6'3" Tim demonstrates, tall folks needed to watch their heads.  All over the ship, orange padding had been added to prevent bonks to the head of more height-advantaged folks!

2.  It was homey.  The battleship did, after all, serve as a home for 2300+ soldiers for months at a time, so care had been taken to make the men comfortable.  Pictured below are the barber shop:

 The mailroom:

 And there was also a store, an ice cream parlor, a room where they showed movies, and a soda fountain.  But my favorite rooms were the mess halls.  The ship even had antique radio still playing 1940's music and radio programs, just like the men would have heard while they were eating...

 Below, Anna stands in the kitchen with the utility pots:

 And Christopher checks-out the industrial-sized potato peelers.  

They must have eaten A LOT of potatoes!

The kids loved the bakery, below.  They could open drawers and cabinets, see pictures of the breads that were made, and read stories of how lucky soldiers had friends in the bakery who would sneak them extra pies and cookies.  

3.  The soldiers who worked on the U.S.S. North Carolina were AMAZINGLY smart.  Everywhere we looked, there were knobs and dials and schematics which had tons of information.  I can only imagine how much training it must have taken to understand what they were doing.  Or to design a ship like this, where everything worked together...

(Tim and I decided that THIS was our favorite sign, though. 

We're going to put this up in our bathrooms when our kids become teenagers & want to take endlessly long showers. Ha!)

4.  It was a huge ship. Although time went quickly, we were shocked to discover that it had taken us 4+ hours to fully explore the vessel.

 Below, the operating room:

 Below, the kids are posing atop the 25,883 pound anchor:

Great respect goes to the men who fought on the U.S.S. North Carolina.  By visiting it this weekend, my family has a better understanding of who these men were and what they have meant to our country.

THANK YOU VETERANS!!!
Happy Veterans Day this Monday