USS Lexington and a Ferry Ride

Posted by hankster

Last night a cold front moved through and brought high winds and rain. Winds were 30 MPH with gusts to 50 MPH for a few hours. Being on the ocean that means there is not much to buffer the winds. Made for a bit of an exciting evening until I just got used to it and went to sleep.

Since it was still a bit cold and windy I headed over to the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay. In Corpus Christi they have the aircraft carrier USS Lexington floating in the bay and have turned into a museum. It was about a 30 minute drive to get there.

The self guided tours through the Lex was great. What I really liked was that they have done very few modifications to the ship to accommodate visitors. You had to use the exact same ladders and had to walk through the same hatches that the sailors would have when the ship was in active duty. In so many cases modifications are done to displays to make it more visitor friendly but that takes away a lot of the how the real thing would look and feel in real life. It took me back to my Navy days.

It was funny all the things I noticed and remembered that I had forgotten about until I seen them again. I remembered what the symbols on the hatches and valves meant, remembered what some of the equipment did and they even had the machine shop (where I worked when in the Navy) on display. Much of what was being used back then was used on the USS Forrestal 25 years later. It was great museum and I highly recommend it for anyone in the area.

More photos of the USS Lexington.

On the way back I decided to take the ferry from Port Aransas back to Mustang Island. It is a free ferry service that takes only a few minutes but saves maybe 30 miles driving. It appears they have 5 ferries running at a time.

The wait to get on the ferry was about 15 minutes, you just drive on, they close the gates and take you across, then you drive off. Each ferrybholds about 20 vehicles at a time and I guess you can even take your motorhome or trailer on it. It's pretty cool. Hassle free, relaxing and the service is provided at no cost. Even had a Pelican waiting for us on a piling when we got to the island.

A few more ferry crossing photos.

I got back to the trailer and took Spud out for a walk. Right away he headed for the walkway to the beach but it was just too cold and windy to walk to the beach and then back. It was only about 4pm so we hopped in the truck, drove down to the access road and drove the beach for 6 miles. Stopped a couple of times to let Spud walk a bit and do his thing. No permit is needed to drive on the beach but there is a parking permit you are suppose to get for parking. There are a couple of "free" parking areas and I guess even if you park in the permit areas, as long as you don't park for hours, they don't hassle you. The water is only about 55 degrees so no swimming, it's just a nice walk even when it's a bit chilly and windy.

More beach photos from today.