USS Anchorage or Bust .... Busted.

Well, our trip to Anchorage didn't go quite as planned.  We weren't able to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl, but we did get to hear it's heartbeat!  And, or course, see how much weight I - I mean the baby :)  -- has gained ....

We had hoped to get a tour of the USS Anchorage that is being commissioned in Anchorage this week.  They call it an 'amphibious transport dock'.  Such an unusual and historic event for up here.  Unfortunately, it was just far too limited for the amount  of Alaskans hoping to get a peak of such an awesome ship.  We went and stood in a very long line for about 5 minutes when we realized that we would be there until midnight and still would have the 3.5 hour drive home.  People waited in line 3.5 hours before they even got on the shuttle bus to take them to the ship!  And only 150 people were allowed on the ship at one time, so I'm sure there was more waiting to be done after that.  Apparently Alaska has the highest number of veterans per capita and the ship was only here half the number of days that it was originally scheduled.  Only 2 days of public tours for essentially a whole state is asking a lot.  I sure hope some of those vets were able to get on board.  Virtual tours are online at: http://ussanchoragenavy.com/

Bry and I were super disappointed, the kids of course didn't really know what was even going on.  I asked Bry if we could at least try to find a place where we could get a good view of the ship, unfortunately that wasn't possible either.  The ship was tucked back away behind Government Hill and we had to turn around at a gate where you needed ID.  Shoot.  Another time I suppose.  A cool event up here anyway....

{Photo from adn.com}