Guest Post: Overnight on the Cruiser with Cub Scouts

Today's post is written by a very special guest poster - Poppa!  He is writing about a fun trip that he and Cameron took with the Cub Scouts.  Without further adieu... Poppa's post:

During the 3^rd weekend in April Cameron’s Cub Scout pack was scheduled to sleep overnight on the WWII cruiser “Little Rock” in Buffalo.  Since this was a bit close to his new brother’s/sister’s real birthday Tim W. thought it might be better to stay close to home.  I therefore gladly accepted the task of sleeping overnight with Cameron on the cruiser.  Uncle Chris is one of the pack leaders and his sons Patrick and Joe are also scouts so the four of us left mid-day on Saturday for Buffalo.  We arrived around 4 PM and were led onto the ship along with 55 other scouts from Cicero, NY and hundreds of cub, boy, and girl scouts from all over the North East.

Patrick, Joe, Cameron, and friend in front of the Heavy Cruiser “Little Rock” (which we slept on), the Light Cruiser “The Sullivan’s”, and the submarine “Croaker”.

Our pack was given the largest bunk room, which was filled with enough triple bunk beds to sleep 80.  Cameron, Joe, Chris, and I quickly grabbed some bunks close together while Patrick went off to the other side of the bunk room to sleep with his friends.  

Our beds in the bunk room – Cameron and I slept head to head in the bottom bunks, Joe and Chris slept in a middle bunk across from each other. 

We had about 30 minutes to explore the ship before we all had to gather in the main ship’s conference room to get our orientation.  At the orientation each pack was introduced and then we were all given a lesson in Navy terminology.  Cameron seemed very interested in this and showed off his knowledge the next day when we got home by regaling everyone with all sorts of Navy words (hatchway, bunkroom, head, mess hall, etc.).  After a quick fire drill we were free to explore the ship for another 30 minutes before dinner.  

Standing in line for mess call.  We told the boys to take whatever was put on their plates without complaining because there were no seconds and someone would eat whatever was left over. 

Dinner turned out to be the same for everyone: chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, corn, milk, and desert.   Cameron and Joe dug into the dessert first and weren’t too interested in the rest of the dinner (mostly because we had stopped for an afternoon meal on the way here; Chris knew we wouldn’t get to eat until around 8 PM and the boys would be starving if they had to wait that long for dinner).  

After dinner it was time for more exploring before the movies started.  We saw the rest of the Cruiser and toured the submarine next door.  

A passageway in the Cruiser.  This one actually had a lot of room to pass; most of the hallways could barely fit two people side by side. 

In the Croaker submarine control room – is that an early model ship control system like Mama works on at Lockheed Martin?  

Heading through the engine room on the way to the torpedo room.  

Deep down in the bowels of the Cruiser Little Rock.  They put a girl scout troop 3 or 4 decks below where we were sleeping. It must have taken them 15 minutes to get to the mess hall or to one of the 3 “heads” on the ship (which were all on the main deck).  

After more exploring we watched a Disney movie and then went to bed.  At 1030 taps was played and it was lights out.  Cameron of course wanted a few stories (all of which featured him scoring the winning goals in the 7^th game of the hockey playoffs) but then fairly quickly fell asleep.  I found it surprisingly easy to sleep in spite of much snoring and various items being dropped by the people sleeping above me. 

The next day, Sunday morning, we were woken up at 6:30 AM for a quick bunkroom inspection and breakfast.  After that we explored the Light Cruiser berthed next to ours, “The Sullivans”.  

All the stairs in and around the ships were VERY steep.  Cameron at first went down very slowly but soon he was very good at quickly going up and down them.  

Cameron and Joe keeping the skies of Buffalo safe from any enemy aircraft marauders. 

We ended the day with a simulator ride (Cameron went twice) and then headed home.  It was a wonderful way to spend time together! 

A night at Nana and Poppa's House

On the same day that we went to the playground, Cameron and Leah got to stay over at Nana and Poppa's house.  Since neither Tim nor I were there, we asked Nana and Poppa to write a guest post for us, to explain it in their own words.  So without further adieu, here is their post:

We have been trying to make a point of having Cameron and Leah spend the night at our house more often.  This summer has been so busy that it hasn't happened very often.  Finally we had a free night so they came over just before dinner time.

We spent a lot of time, both before and after dinner, playing board games.  Poppa made up new rules for cribbage that made it easier for Cam and Leah to play since their favorite part was moving the pegs in the holes.

Nana asked Cameron what they wanted for dinner.  He got a big smile on his face and said "Pfannekuche".  That worked out well since Nana had planned to make that anyway.  It's basically like crepes with jam spread on them and it's one of the kids favorites.

After dinner, we picked vegetables in the garden.  Leah hasn't quite grasped the idea to ONLY pick the red tomatoes so the green ones are now ripening on our windowsill.  We wanted to take pictures of the kids, but Cameron wanted to take some too.  He held the camera and told us how he wanted us to pose for each one.  My favorite one is the "kissing sandwich".

Leah, Cam and Poppa

Leah, Cam and Nana

Now it is Cameron's turn behind the camera

The Kissing Sandwich!  Gotta love Leah's face in the picture!

We decided to go for a walk before bedtime.  We pulled out the "antique" tricycle that was originally purchased for Nana when she was 2 years old (53 years ago!!)  Cameron thinks it's pretty cool.  Leah wanted a turn too, of course.  Nana showed them how two people could ride together which they thought was pretty cool.

Off they go down the road, Cam on the trike and Leah on the train

How two people can ride on the tricycle.  The helmet is a little big for Leah, but what a cute picture!

What sweet babies!

Time to switch, now Cam is on the train and Leah on the trike.  The best part of this picture is the make-shift pushing stick that Poppa is using so that the kiddos don't have to actually use their own legs!!

We read lots and lots of books before bed.  Cameron kept begging for "just one more" and since grandparents are such pushovers, he got his way.  Cameron had a bit of trouble falling asleep.  He kept hearing "loud noises" which was just cars driving past the house.  Where they live, they don't get a lot of traffic so he isn't used to it.  Eventually all was quiet and everyone slept well.

We were all awake before 7 AM and Nana made french toast for breakfast.  Another fun and successful sleepover.  Nana and Poppa were a bit worn out, but the kids had fun!