We had our deploying soldier this past weekend. And loved it. We mostly just sat around and visited, ate, and laughed together. But on Saturday, the guys headed in to Philly to tour the USS New Jersey…
(technically they were not IN Philly, but close enough…) And we always love it when we get somewhere and it doesn’t cost as much as we thought – the price is usually $22 for 12 and up, and $17 for 5-11 (Joel), so it would have been about $105 (Greg was free as active military), but the guy at the desk told V that they had a family membership for $62 (2 adults, 4 kids, just right for their visit!)! The staff member could have never said anything, and we would have paid the full amount, but we are exceedingly thankful that he brought up the membership and saved us so much money! (made up for some of the over $200 in tolls we have paid. ouch.)
The USS NJ is an Iowa class battleship -at 887 feet long, it is one of the biggest warships ever made for the US (that’s nearly 3 football fields long!).
The USS NJ served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf. 
It was a chilly day, but the guys enjoyed having some male bonding time (and us girls were happy to stay home in the warm and thaw steaks for them! LOL!). They toured the ship; the size of the bunks was no surprise here – doesn’t everyone have just this much headspace??? 😉
There were a lot of displays, 
and rooms that were set up as they would have been when the ship was in commission…
You could be on the lookout for incoming enemies via the ship’s radar…
or through the periscope…
There were a lot of areas of the ship that were closed, but it was still very much worth the trip! Besides, it is So HUGE that it would be unrealistic for it all to be open…
the ship’s museum is on one of the floors of the ship, and you check the whole battleship out, via a self-guided tour, with a red line on the floor to guide you, and plaques to tell you about what you are seeing. There were touch screens, and the boys really liked this exhibit that let you make the different alarms that were used onboard…
The USS New Jersey is the most decorated US battleship.
There were several docents scattered throughout the ship, and they would tell the guys about that area of the vessel. My guys loved that these men had all either served on the USS NJ itself, or on another ship.
The chapel…
Now these are my sized dryers, complete with signs to remind those men to clean the lint filter after each load. LOL! …and please don’t load with more than 50#s of clothing 😉 !!! <3
The breeze made it a little cold up on deck, but the tour weaves you up and down and in and out, so they had reprieves from the wind.
Quite a view of the bay…
It’s just a bummer that Eli isn’t in this picture also. 
The turret and bridge…
Greg loves to visit military and historical sites; we often take them for granted, but he hasn’t traveled with us for years. I wish that we would have been able to find a campground/RV park closer to Philly and NYC (am I really saying that???) so that we could have drug him to more places on his time off. It was nice to just get to enjoy him tho!
The guys had a great time together, and while they had plenty of time to tour the ship,
the day wasn’t long enough for all the visiting they would have liked to do! 
You really can’t blame those folks for thinking you were nuts to be there in an RV. But the reason for it made it all worth while. Glad you had such a good time with your soldier. I don’t mind living in 350 square feet with Jim but I don’t think I could stand too much time on a ship with all those people. 81 today but it’s cloudy. Jim’s going fishing.