Trip to Baton Rouge/Houston

In early February, we took a trip to Baton Rouge with my family.  My Grandpa was driving to Pensacola to spend some time with his brother and so we tagged along to Baton Rouge.  If you didn't know, my Grandpa was in WWII on a Destroyer called the USS Chauncey.  He has amazing stories to tell from his time in the war.  In Baton Rouge, they have a destroyer of the same class as his destroyer (like a sister destroyer) called the USS Kidd. 

So, we took the opportunity to have him give us a tour of the boat (just like his own) and hear about it first hand.

Waiting for everyone to arrive

Picture with the boat in the background

Group photo!

It was very tight quarters. Grandpa was showing us the radio room. He was a communications officer during the war.

The big guns are always fascinating to the kids. He told us stories of them fighting the Japanese in the Pacific ocean.

Grandpa telling more stories. This was next to the flags where he would have to raise/lower certain ones as at times, they didn't use radio communications (which could be intercepted). Instead, they used signal flags to the other ships in the fleet.

Better picture of inside the radio room.

Picture of where he slept. Since he was an officer, he got a special room to share with just 3 others. After seeing the main sleeping area, this seems like quite the luxury!

It was so amazing to get to see/hear his stories about the war. I'm so thankful we were able to do this!

After the morning at the ship, we drove back to Houston to spend the night and go to the Science Museum the next day.

Beautiful gardens right by the museum

Ready to go into the Butterfly exhibit

Butterflies everywhere!! Ryan was NOT a fan.

And dinosaurs! It was a fun museum that we hope to go back to. And overall, a great trip. It was short but glad we could fit it into our busy schedule.