LST 325
This past weekend was really fun! It started with Gideon and I getting to spend the night at Rupie’s house on Friday. Saturday morning, Grandma Nanie, brought us donut holes for breakfast, too.
Mom, Dad and Elsie picked us up from Rupie’s house around 11am and then we went home for a little while so that Mom could pack us a picnic lunch. Once she was done packing all the stuff to make sandwiches and some of my favorite chips, too.. we all loaded into to the van and drove down to a neat little park by the Mississippi River to have lunch and play for a little while. We all had a great time at lunch and got to play on the equipment for a few minutes, too. Dad even took Elsie down the twisty slide on his lap! She didn’t cry, but she had a very surprised look on her face.
After lunch we got back in the van and drove over the levee to Alton’s Riverfront Park to tour the LST 325 that was docked in Alton for the weekend. It was really cool and really big! Dad, Mom and I had toured it when I was 4 years old when it was in St. Louis docked by the Arch. I don’t really remember very much about seeing it before and since Mom was pregnant with Gideon the last time we saw the ship, he certainly didn’t remember it either.
As you can see from some of the neat pictures that my Dad took while we toured the LST 325, it is a big boat. I was really impressed by how the technology seemed pretty advanced for way back then. The sleeping compartments were really small. I am glad that I don’t have to sleep in bunks that are that close together. Gideon’s favorite part was seeing the guns. There was a veteran touring the boat right behind us and he talked to my Dad and some other folks about his experience using guns like them when he was in the service.
Mom and Dad bought me a neat “Gator Navy” t-shirt. I wore it to school on Monday and everyone thought that it was really cool.
The story about the LST 325 is really cool. You can learn more about it at http://lstmemorial.org