Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum

Drum roll please!!! bbbddddddddddddddddd,
I give you, Review # 100!!! (applause! applause!)
My 100^th review belongs the wonderful, rich and just darn right cool Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.
As a kid in the Boy scouts I remember taking a trip to Charleston where we got to sleep on the USS Yorktown. It was July and about 30 of us crammed into the sailor bunks for 2 nights. With NO air conditioning! ugh! But in the end, I got to spend the time climbing around the ship with my brother and one of my best buddies at the time so that made for a very memorable experience. Fast forward 30 years and I find myself revisiting with the woman I love, a child hood friend of mine. Her husband and their 2 kids. Again, the stuff memories are made of. — Now that I’m older I find myself really loving everything war related and the history behind it. WWII happens to be one of particular interest to me and how cool is it that I live in a city where an air craft carrier that fought in WWI is actually docked and turned into a museum! Lets face it. It’s an aircraft carrier that has fighter plans and helicopters that were in actual wars. How can you NOT love this place. For me, the best part of the visit was getting to go deep down into the ships engine room. 24 hours removed and I am still in awl of how they built this thing and how 3,000 sailors lived on it for days, weeks on end! Truly an engineering master piece.
Along with the USS Yorktown, you get the battle ship USS Laffey, the USS Clamagore. A US military submarine and the Vietnam war experience. Trust me when I say, there’s a LOT to see and do here.
I won’t bore you with the details of my trip, but what I will do is give you some much needed advice. I wish I had read more reviews in hopes that someone would have given me the very same advice.
1 — Get there early as the entire experience is a full day. We spent well over 6 hours at Patriots Point and we were beat afterwards.
2 — Take snacks inside with you. Carry a back pack, or have a mom, wife or girlfriend carry «the big purse» and take energy snacks and bottled water with you. Trust me on this one! Your going to need it. Besides, food on the ship is ridiculous! My buddy spent $ 20 dollars for one plate of chicken strips, cold fries and 2 drinks for his 2 kids.
3 — Wear comfortable clothing and shoes. Your climbing around on a ship for crying out loud! Up and down stairs. Through tight pathways and around sharp corners. Don’t be like my girlfriend and wear boots. Her legs ached for days after our visit.
4 — What ever the temperature is outside, it’s worse inside once you get deep into the belly of the ship. If it’s cold out. It’s colder inside the ship. It’s hot out. It’s hotter inside the ship. Dress appropriate.
5 — Have fun! explore and let it sink in what this ship actually represents. The many men and women that spent time on this ship. The lost lives. The saved lives because this ship was in a battle. Let your imagination wonder to what it would be like living on an aircraft carrier with 3 thousand other souls.
Get lost in history and if you can do it all with someone or someone’SSSSSS you really love, then you just made a memory to last you a lifetime my friend.

Happened to be in town for a work trip and a co-​worker suggested I make time for Patriots Point. I’m so glad I did! Wow, this place is truly something special!
I visited on a nice, weekday in January and it turned out to be the perfect time to go. No crowds. No kids. I had the place to myself which for