Preview of the George Washington

After Eric and his buddy met us at the motel and after we made acquaintances, we headed over to the base, so we'd know how to get there quickly in the morning. I was thinking we'd just drive through and see how to get to the pier. But the guys took us on up to the ship and in it!!!

It was very dark, and good photos outside the ship were impossible from the pier.

Once inside we got a brief tour of some of Eric's common places.

This is a long row of open hatches. Looks cool like that. I have no idea how many there are there!

We started in the hanger bay, then went up some stairs. Almost all the stairs on this ship are like this! This is Travis going up!

He showed us his berthing area (where he sleeps, and his locker). They have very small areas. Eric has top bunk there.

And he showed us the area where he works.

<--- an idea where we are on the ship

<---on the door of his shop

<--- standing around chatting in the shop

<--- here Eric is showing his buddy some new equipment they use.

Standing by an elevator-->

After looking around inside, they took us up to the flight deck. It was really dark, and hard to see where to put our feet, but the view of the pier was awesome up there! After messing up a bunch of pictures, I finally figured out how to get some pretty decent shots. (remember, you can click any photo for a larger view!)

<---what a view!

Here's me!-->

The CVN 69 Dwight D. Eisenhower (another aircraft carrier) was on one side of the GW, and the LHD-7 Iwo Jima (a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship) was on the other side. Many other ships were in port, I couldn't tell you which.

<---a shot of the Ike from the flight deck of the GW.

After the tour, we got something to eat, headed back to the motel for some much needed sleep. We needed to get up very early the next morning!