After a delicious breakfast at Richard Walker’s Pancake House I walked to the USS Midway Museum. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on in an aircraft carrier, this is the way to find out.

Superlatives have to be the norm when visiting anything of this size. Recently I’ve noticed an upswing in the use of the standard football field as a measurement stick. For example, in my research for a course on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Leen Ritmeyer, himself Duch and as far as I know not associated in any way with American culture, informed me that that the Herodian Temple Mount can be described as occupying 30 American football fields. By that standard, the Midway is a piker–it is only as large as six football fields. Or, I guess you could say that the Temple Mount can hold 5 USS Midways. Or something like that. Anyway, the Midway is huge.

I arrived at about 10am and stayed through 2:30pm and I although I think I saw most of it, I know there were exhibits I didn’t have time for. Still, I think most people will be satisfied with a four hour visit, and it will be worth every bit of the (low) cost and time it takes to see it.

What you get is a journey through the insides and outsides of this vessel. You see where the enlisted men sleep and eat. How they get their clothing laundered. A visit to the chapel. Then the officers all the way up to the admiral. You learn about the functions of the various workers. After witnessing the day to day life under the deck, you emerge onto the flight deck. There you will see more types of military planes and helicopters than you ever imagined would exist. After circumnavigating the deck you can ascend the “Island” which is the large superstructure that served as the control tower for the floating airport that was, after all, the raison d’etre of the aircraft carrier.

Photos to follow.