USS Lexington and State of Texas Aquarium

A very interesting Valentine’s Day spent touring the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum and Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Wow! From the tours and artefacts one gets an actual sensory perception of what it must have been like doing battle at sea in the Pacific during WWII. Awesome portrayal of life aboard such a huge ship! Neither of us had the stomach to try the flight simulator of a fighter plane. The tribute to Pearl Harbour was sobering. We did enjoy watching two IMAX movies. Fighter Pilot followed a young pilot as he learned the ropes of training for war. Lewis and Clark re-enacted the epic voyage of these two heroes as they explored the Missouri River to its source in order to lay claim to the surrounding lands for the United States. Interesting to note, they hired French Canadians for their crew and used a female native to help with interpretation.
We had lunch at Black Beards, a restaurant on the quay… local deep fried seafood promoting a sense of déjà vu to Platter House and Ship Wreck Point memories.
The Texas State Aquarium was equally interesting… lots of hands on visuals and glassed in views depicting different indigenous fishes including a twelve ft shark, leatherback turtles, moray eels, etc.!
The landscape close to Corpus Christi on the Gulf shore is dotted with miles of industrial oil refineries, pipes, storage tanks and all the associated supply services. The homes near the water looked like they had seen better days, no doubt a result of hurricanes. Pockets of poverty were everywhere. Nicer homes were either well hidden or near the cities.
It was quite a day and we were tired by the time we got back to the KOA RV Park.
This evening was prep time for departure early in the morning heading towards the Houston Space Centre.

Later….