Okay, I confess, it wasn't totally without dogs. Last Sunday I left home with Gimme and drove to my parents' house. We left her safely in a crate in my car in a cool space (a place that I know from personal experience stays cool all day) while we took a day trip to Seattle. It was Fleet Week as well as Blue Angels day. We (me, Mom and Dad) met my brother and his family at the port to tour the USS Bonhomme Richard. There is interesting historical significance to the name of this ship - read more about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonhomme_Richard_(LHD-6)
It was very interesting since I'd never been on a large naval vessel (not counting touring a submarine when I was a little child). Trust me, pictures and movies don't do justice to the humongous size of these things. Here are the best of the photos I took... These first two are pictures of the ship from the outside. Since they are taken from the dock, you really can't get a feel for the size of this ship. About half of it is below the dock. I couldn't help but wonder how they stay afloat.
In this picture, I was looking down on the dock from the upper deck (of the area we were allowed access to... there are several stories above us). You can see that white van down on the dock... its one of the larger type of passenger vans. Those large "canisters" you see on the edge behind the railing are rescue dinghies. If I remember correctly, they each seat 12.
They had dressed up the mid-deck with flags aplenty. It was really beautiful in the saturated lighting. That part of the deck was probably 100 feet across. The next picture is looking out one of the access doors to the deck... they were just monstrous and reminded me of hanger doors.
These boats are in the back of the ship on the lower deck. They are both boats and hover craft. So when they open the back "door" of the ship, they float in and then hover to snuggle right in. There are four here. That funny white edge at the bottom of the picture is a bunch of rope draped on the railing - the flash caught it and turned it white. The next picture is my niece holding up a piece of that rope. Its so big, I couldn't close my hand around it. I have no clue how our sailors ever manhandle that stuff around to use it.
Just because I can't do anything military without admiring a helicopter... (some of you may not know I was an Army helicopter pilot in my former life, BD [before dogs, a/k/a before retirement]).
In this helicopter picture, you see part of my family. The gentleman closest to the helicopter (red shirt) is my dad, Gerald Baker. Directly to the left of Dad (in the foreground) is my mother, Gloria Baker, and brother Sam Baker (white & blue checked shirt). They were waiting for my nephew Harrison to get his turn to sit in the cockpit. I have no clue who the rest of the gawkers were.
We planned the day (really brother Sam did all the planning) in hopes of getting to see the Blue Angels display from on board ship. My efforts to take pictures were notably unsuccessful. My camera is so slow that by the time I clicked, the aircraft were long gone and all you could see was a nice picture of a contrail. Most of the Blue Angels' display was up on the hill over Renton, so they weren't very close to us. However at the very end, they flew directly over the USS Bonhomme Richard. These two shots were from that flyover and are the best ones I had, they actually have aircraft in them! What a novel concept...
My brother realized they were coming just in the nick of time to get a nice video of the flyover. Naturally, a video cannot capture the majesty and excitement. Rumor has it that this is supposed to be the last year for the Blue Angels, but that rumor has been floating around for many years. I've been unable to find anything on line to confirm or confute the rumor.
No trip to see a naval vessel could ever be considered complete without viewing the traditional navy "Don't Tread On Me" flag... Here's a real one waving in the breeze.
And now I really must get off this computer. A certain spotted someone has been trying to engage me in play the whole time I've been writing this. She's been patiently bringing me every toy she has, one by one. There is a substantial pile of dog toys all around the chair I'm sitting in. I fear if I don't give in and play with her, she may decide to change her efforts to something less innocent.
Next post - back to more doggie topics...
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