USS Alabama

I totally recommend visiting the USS Alabama (Battleship Memorial Park) in Mobile, Alabama. We visited the gulf last week and this was definitely one of the highlights. The first thing that strikes you is the size of the battleship. The tours on the ship are self guided and as soon as we went below decks there was a distinct smell, a bit like the smell of aircraft, but unique...I am guessing unique to WWII Navy ships and maybe even ships today; a bit musty, electrical and historical all together. I know this is one of my Grandpa Murphy's favorite places probably because he served in the Navy during WWII on the USS Sampson ( Destroyer DD-394) and the USS Milledgeville (Frigate PF-94). I thought that he would surely recognize the smell of the ship and I thought of him when I saw the motion picture locker since one of his duties in the Navy was showing films on board in addition to radio operations and various repairs of electronic equipment. All of this reminds me I should call him, he just turned 86 on Monday...
Anyway, in addition to the Alabama they have a hangar of historic aircraft that I found interesting and they have a B-52 and B-25 on the grounds....and I almost forgot...they have a submarine too the USS Drum, but as you can see from the picture Teddy was a bit in the red zone on this morning due to the heat and a seizure that afternoon we didn't know was coming. But, we managed the park and would love to go back.In fact, the only reason we went to Alabama this year was because Teddy liked to say Alabama and decided that it was his favorite state...so since he was motivated to visit, we used this to take the longest vacation since he was born and it all worked out pretty well. Teddy insisted that we both buy USS Alabama ball caps and we both wear them all the time now!