NYC 2025-Day 6

NYC 2025-Day 6

Since we were making our move to mid-town Manhattan today, we packed up all the bags, left a note for Harold, and left Brooklyn behind; after a stop for a final cappuccino at the Devoción coffee house on our way to the subway.

We're staying at the Margaritaville Resort hotel in Manhattan. Not because we are huge Jimmy Buffet fans, but because it is a great location, relatively inexpensive, and we're only here 2 nights. More on the hotel in its own post.

After storing our bags at the hotel, we were off to find some breakfast. We love a good diner, and Buds found the Galaxy Diner in Hell's Kitchen for us. I was tickled to order a freshly squeezed carrot, spinach, beet juice, and when I pointed it out to Buds his response was, "You know they have other things to drink, right?" 😆 My guy is not a fan of the ruby red beet in any form.

So pretty.
Home fries!! and diner coffee. These just might be a few of my love languages.

Our destination for this first part of the day was the Intrepid Museum. Touring here would allow us to walk our way through a cold war submarine, plus wander all over the aircraft carrier Intrepid.

We've gone through boatie museums in Hamburg, San Diego, and now, Manhattan. Hamburg is the top of that list, but this one stands out for me because of how well it humanized the people who floated over, through, and under the water on these vessels.

We started by going through the USS Growler, a nuclear missile equipped submarine built as a deterrent during the Cold War.

The top of the Growler.

They have you step through a sample hatch before entering the exhibit to ensure you can get through the 5 of them you must walk through to go from one end of the submarine to the other.

You begin in the forward torpedo room and walk and step your way through to the aft torpedo room.
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They had a couple folks stationed within the sub to answer questions.

This gentleman was on the Growler, working at this steering station as a fresh-faced 17 year old. His affection for that time and this vessel was obvious.

The lack of space and privacy would have been difficult to navigate.

Even a submarine needed coffee cup holders.

From the Growler we made our way onto the Intrepid. If you'd like to see more photos of the Growler, here's the album.

I am grateful for Buddie's knowledge and interest in this area because it provides so much background lore.

Though commanding in size, the Intrepid is 1/4 the size of a modern aircraft carrier when comparing tonnage.

This tour was also really well done. Great signage giving interesting information, and honesty about the racism and difficulties in the military. Three thousand men lived on this vessel, and I loved learning about what that life was like. I was blown away reading about the food requirements alone.

There was a fantastic interactive section of the museum which Buds and I enjoyed as much as the other kids running around.

We tried "flying" the medevac helicopter.

A replica of a cake that will serve 3000. It would take over a week to bake them on board.

Serendipity swooped in again when Buds and I were sitting on benches in this area, not realizing it would be turned into a theater at various moments throughout the day. The video showed a reenactment of the attacks on the Intrepid in 1944.

The video was well done and when the first plane hit, they piped in a burning diesel smell to help immerse us in the action, and when the second plane hit, in billowed the smoke.

Of course I cried.

Because the Intrepid had a full suite of photographers and a photography equipment, the video showed footage of the men being buried at sea. That was haunting.

This clip shows a fair bit of the video we watched, although sitting where the planes hit as smoke poured in was a powerful experience.

Twenty-three years old...

Because of a kamikaze attack that penetrated the deck, killing a group of pilots waiting in the "ready room," the Navy realized having the pilots gathered in a space so close to the top was too vulnerable, so ready rooms were moved lower into the ship. This now caused the issue of time and difficulty in getting the pilots up to their aircraft quickly. In what seemed like a curious decision to us, it was decided that escalators were the best way to get pilots up to the deck from lower in the ship.

Escalators became obsolete on aircraft carriers as the layout of newer carriers prioritized efficient movement of personnel without them.

I was surprised by the brief leadership stint of each of the commanding officers. I assume in part the tremendous mental and physical toll ensured a relatively frequent change.

When we had absorbed as much Intrepid lore as we could, we headed back to check in at our new home, Margaritaville. Our afternoon and evening were filled with The Stephen Colbert show, and that gets a post all his own.

An album on photos aboard The USS Intrepid.