So... one of the places that was recommended to us for a breakfast option in Charleston was Hot Little Biscuit (actually called Callie's Hot Little Biscuit) and so we decided to start the day on Friday with a trip to King Street to grab some biscuits (and coffee - always coffee). I went with the Pimento and Cheese biscuit because it's been a long while since I've had good pimento cheese and man - it was a tasty choice! Hot Little Biscuit has two locations in Charleston and I'd say it's worth checking out!
The second stop on Friday was the USS Yorktown - an aircraft carrier that had been spied across the bay on Thursday and immediately piqued the interest of both Ryan and my Dad, especially since the flight deck was littered with all sorts of aircraft. Doc and Ms. Marilyn were also interested and so we bought tickets, walked the plank (sort of) and boarded the aircraft carrier for what would end up being quite a long tour... or set of tours, as it was.
The USS Yorktown was commissioned for use in WWII and fought in the Battle of Midway; interestingly enough, the construction of the Yorktown began six days before that attack at Pearl Harbor and only took 16 months to complete. The Yorktown was an integral part of the battles that took place in the Pacific during WWII and even retrieved the Apollo 11 Module when it landed in the ocean. The ship definitely had a storied history and it was fascinating to be able to wander from bow to stern and everywhere in between.
A portion of the ship was dedicated to Medal of Honor winners and one of the men who won a Medal of Honor for the Air Force was John L. Levitow - and as we perused the exhibition, my Dad quietly mentioned that during his time in the Air Force he'd been awarded the John L Levitow Award - which is the highest honor given to a graduate of Airman Leadership School. To be eligible for the award you must rank in the top 1% of your class... I've been alive 37 years and never knew this about my Dad!
The USS Yorktown is pretty gigantic and as such, there are four different self-guided tours that are offered... and we managed to get through the first two (the ship and the flight deck) before we realized it was almost 3:30 in the afternoon. We'd started around 11:00 and the biscuits we'd had for breakfast were starting to feel like they were a long time ago... It was fascinating being able to see so much of the ship and learn so much about it - but hunger did start to set in as well, ha-ha!
We watched a short film about the ship before heading for the flight deck to check out the airplanes and we were able to get a group picture thanks to a lovely fellow tourist - the day was beautiful, if a little breezy. I'd left my coat back at the AirBnB but thankfully the gift shop had awesome "Charleston" sweatshirts on sale for just $25 and I grabbed one of those before we started our tour - and it definitely came in handy! I enjoyed getting to learn so much about life on an aircraft carrier - and I also confirmed that the Navy would not be my idea of a good time... too much water, ha-ha!
We used Yelp to look up potential options for a late lunch/early dinner and ended up at Page's Okra Grill - where after a rocky start getting seated, everything else went excellently! The food was classic Southern goodness and seafood, our server was great and it all tasted so wonderful - especially the Peanut Butter Pie we all shared to end the meal! We ended up driving over to the Air Force Base to peruse their Black Friday deals before heading back to the AirBnB for the evening and y'all - the one static display aircraft looked like it had a nose... so I had to "boop" it.
We ended up having a rematch of Pictionary - guys against girls - and even though the guys played a bit more fiercely and provided a bit more competition this time, the girls still won! Success! We also played a couple additional dice games with some cash and I ended up winning the whole pot - so cheers to me! My MIL said that if Ryan and I ever go to Vegas, he should definitely let me play the tables!
No comments:
Post a Comment