The USS Intrepid. It's a museum now.
The Intrepid Air Sea & Space Museum was on the agenda for the day. It didn’t open until 10:00 AM, so there was no reason not to sleep in a bit. We did, had a McDonald’s breakfast and got on our subway. I don’t think I mentioned that there is a station right underneath our hotel. The nearest entrance is half a block away. So jumping on the subway is very simple. It was one of the criteria when I was searching for a hotel. It had to be close to the subway. We got on, went down to Times Square, and had our first experience with the NYC bus system. For the most part the NYC subway runs North and South, and curves enough to connect with other lines to move laterally.
Me and the Blackbird
It works very well, but it doesn’t get you very close to the piers on the Westside. You either walk to take a bus. So we grabbed a bus. The same card that we bought to ride the subway works for the bus as well. Pretty simple stuff. We found the bus stop, made sure we were going the right way, confirmed with the driver that we were getting off at the closest stop. Everything went pretty quick and simple.
We got to the Intrepid about 10:30 AM. This was an important day for me as I got to cross a LifeGoal off my list. Life Goal #38 was to visit an aircraft carrier. I would love to visit an active ship, but that would be borderline impossible. Visiting one that had been turned into a museum, of which I had a choice of about six, was my best option.
F-14 Tomcat
I had never seen an aircraft carrier, until today. I knew it would be big, but Wow! Big just doesn’t describe it. It looked like a skyscraper lying on its side.
We got our tickets, which included a simulator ride, and started out tour of the museum. My big draw was their collection of aircraft. A-12, which was an earlier version of the SR-71 Blackbird, F-14 Tomcat, F6 Hellcat, and so on. The girls weren’t as thrilled as I was, but I had a good time. They had a large video display set up that looped a History Channel program that was about the Intrepid. I watch the segment on it WWII service, which was very interesting. I didn’t know that the Intrepid was the vessel hit, in that famous kamikaze video that is played every time the subject comes up. That particular hit and one that followed seconds later almost sunk the ship.
The Tower
The Captain was calling to abandon the ship, but the PA system was out. The captain mistook the crew gestures indicating that they couldn’t hear, as disapproval of his decision to abandon ship. So he ordered the continued fighting of the fire and the ship was saved. While the ship was burning and was defenseless, the battleship USS New Jersey pulled up beside it to protect it. To me that was just so representative of what has happened with our country, around 9/11. I actually got goose bumps. The whole country came to rescue of NYC in the aftermath of the attack. The simulator was OK, but none of us could really get the hang of how to line up on the targets we were supposed to shoot down. The simulator put you in the cockpit of an F-18 Hornet. It was realistic to the point that it could turn you upside down and covered all other points of the compass. I think you had to option of letting a computer pilot take you on a ride, but I wasn’t sure how to make that happen.
Prometheus at Rockefeller Center
But, it was still kind of fun. We saw about everything and I really got a kick out of all the aircraft. We left sometime around 3:00 PM. We headed over to Rockefeller Center.
Getting to Rockefeller turned out to be a bigger chore than I thought it would. We got back on our M42 bus, and headed east. It dropped us off at 5th Ave, where I thought there was a subway station to take us north. It’s on the map, but I guess we were too tired to see it. It wasn’t that far, about 7 blocks, so we just walked. The Rockefeller Center was OK. Margo and Jessi liked the NBC Store, but I don’t watch a lot of TV, so it was only so so for me.
Margo and Jessi at Times Square. We seemed to end up there every night.
I had intended to let Jessi get a Build a Bear from the store there, but it moved. I don’t know where. It didn’t really matter, as she got one later today, when we went to the Toys R US, in Times Square. Anyway, we kicked around a couple of shops, and then went back to hotel for what is becoming our normal ritual, grabbing a nap.
The nap did wonders, recharging our batteries, and getting us ready for the evening. Not that we could really stay out too late, as tomorrow morning we needed to get up early. But, we had dinner at Pizza Villa. The food looked good, and it was cheap. It was pretty good. I haven’t been overly impressed by anything we ate so far. No knock on the city, as we really haven’t sought out anything noteworthy. Just the standard tourist fare, so far. That will probably be our pattern. We checked out a couple of more shops and it was back to the hotel for bed.
See a piece of history and visit an Aircraft Carrier, too!
I have always wanted to see an Aircraft Carrier. Since World War II they have played such an integral part in the both the defense of the US, and our ability to not only project power, but to provide humanitarian aid. (Yes, they do. Ask the people affected by the tsunamis in Asia in 2005 how handy the helicopters, medical assistance, food and electricity were)
I was able to make that happen just months before the aforementioned tidal wave hit. My first impression was “Wow, that is one big hunk of steel” It looked like a skyscraper had been laid in the Hudson River, on its side.
For me the “Wows” just kept on coming. I learned quite a bit. First, the decks were filled with a variety of historical aircraft. There was an SR-71 Blackbird, an F-14 Tomcat, and a Concorde to name three. It was very special to see these aircraft, up close and personal.
Moving on there were a lot of displays detailing the history of the Fighting I. What go my attention were the kamikaze hits that this ship took. Six in all. If you watch the History Channel and recall seeing a kamikaze attack on an aircraft carrier, in which the center of the ship is hit, at an aircraft from about a 45 degree angle, you have seen the Intrepid, and its worst attack. They had a documentary that played in a loop. So you could eventually see the whole thing.
For those not so interested in history there were a couple of simulator rides. One puts you in the cockpit of an F-18 Hornet, the US Navy’s frontline fighter. My experience tells me I don’t have the right stuff, but it was fun anyway.
Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely! But, there is a problem. The USS Intrepid has been closed, pending repairs to the dock and renovations to the ship. It closed on Oct 1, 2006 and is now scheduled to reopen on November 8, 2008. That date has been pushed back once already, so check the website before you go. The Reopening should be a heck of a party!
