I have always wanted to go visit the USS Lexington aircraft carrier, now amuseum in Corpus Christi. It’s not like I haven’t had time. It became a museum in 1992. I came close on year when our family visited the Texas State Aquarium right beside the “Blue Ghost”. But with young babies and a tired wife, it just wasn’t meant to be that year.

This year for my birthday (I turned 39, again), my family treated me to a weekend trip to Corpus to see the ship. It was just the bright, sunny kind of day you would expect for the coast and we spent all afternoon touring the flight deck down to the engine room. There is a lot to see with much of the ship available for viewing. Portions of it is air conditioned, but parts are not, so this is a tour that might be enjoyed more in cooler weather. Summer in south Texas tends to get a bit warm.

Climbing the stairs in the island takes you to the bridge. It looks a bit tired now, but I’m sure it was a hopping place years ago, as planes would come and go as this huge ship roamed the seas in WWII, then later as a naval training carrier on our east coast.