Adventures in Wilmington

While it's true that Zach and I did a semi-embarrassing amount of teenage soap opera creeping on Saturday, we also stepped it up in the "educational outings" department. As we finished up our One Tree Hill extravaganza and began leaving the River Court (which conveniently shares a parking lot with the USS North Carolina...), Zach looked (false, "looked" is not a strong enough word. Let's try "gazed"...) at the ship and said that he'd love to come back and tour it one day. I nonchalantly mentioned that it's open every day of the year, even Christmas, and that we could both go for a total of $22. Zach gave me a "how-in-the-world-do-you-know-this?" look, to which I returned a "I-clearly-looked-it-up-in-advance-because-I-know-my-history-slash-military-loving-boyfriend-just-a-little-bit" look :)

During WWII, the USS North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific theater & became the most decorated U.S. battleship of the war (with 15 battle stars). Let's be honest: I know that only because I just Wikipedia'ed it. Zach could tell you much more, as he took the time to read all of the informational signs posted around the ship. I avoided all text and simply tried to focus on not passing out -- needless to say, I won't be going on a cruise any time soon.

All seasickness aside, I loved getting to tour the decks. Pictures simply cannot convey the immensity of the ship; I would get so incredibly lost if I ever had to live here.

Boyfriend was in heaven as he patiently waited in lines with 5 year olds for his turn to to press buttons & knobs, turn dials, and play make believe ship captain :)

Interestingly enough, this wasn't the first time I had toured the USS North Carolina. I visited the battleship eight years ago while on my 8th grade class trip. Ladies & gentlemen, I present to you insanely cool 14-year-old Beth:

with my equally insanely cool lifelong classmate, Victoria :)

Some things clearly never change.

:)

I may or may not have geeked out a little (read: a lot) when we stumbled upon the mail room on the ship...

...and I also geeked out when we found the tiny section of the ship devoted to the Marines who served amongst the sailors:

Needless to say, we crammed a lot into our day trip to Wilmington! We've been rather bogged down by the not-so-fun aspects of Duke/Marine Corps/long distance life recently, so it was really nice to escape it all for a little bit and go somewhere different. Plus, we got a mini-roadtrip together (Jacksonville to Wilmington and back) out of the deal, which equaled almost two hours for me to practice my karaoke... and that, my friends, makes for an exceptionally good day. Trust me :)