Considering the kids have a very loose grasp on the concept of time, today was confusing for them. We met Sara and George at San Jacinto Battleground to watch an historic battle reenactment and other associated activities. The decisive battle occurred on April 21, 1836 when Sam Houston's crazy ragtag Texians defeated Santa Anna's Mexican army in 18 minutes, quickly resulting in Texas' independence from Mexico. Several volunteers made their rounds in historically accurate uniforms, and shared trivia from the day and randomly "inscripted" kids into the Mexican army. Norah and Justin played shy and hid behind us through most exchanges.
In the middle of the day we boarded the Battleship USS Texas, which was launched in 1912 and served as a Atlantic convoy escort in World War I. In WW II she saw service in Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign, and Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, and fought in the Pacific at Okinawa and Iwo Jima before she was decommissioned in 1948. The Texas is now a floating museum moored a couple hundred yards from the San Jacinto Battleground. Naturally Justin was enamored with the guns and wanted to know if they were used for "booming the bad guys." Both kids thought they were pretty awesome as they took turns cranking the wheels to rotate or elevate the anti-aircraft guns. We navigated ladder after ladder until we reached dizzying heights, then descended to tour the quarters below deck. We were proud to tell Norah and Justin that both of Mommy's Grandfathers served in the Pacific theater with the Navy during WWII.
The mix of activities truly puzzled the kids as they tried to figure out how the cavalry and foot soldiers with muskets, swords, and the little "twin sisters" cannon related to the the Battleship Texas, bristling with 10 x 14" guns, 21 x 5" guns, 4 x 3-pounders, and 4 x 21" torpedo tubes. You could literally see them processing the situation. They knew something didn't fit, but we're still relatively certain they think the Battle of San Jacinto was an obvious route since the Texans used a Battleship against muskets. We also had some work to assure them we are not at war with Germany, Japan or Mexico.
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