A Dolphin, A Battleship, and A Boat Ride

Monday we spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon at the pool. I'd missed a few spots with my sunscreen on Sunday, so I spent Monday under the umbrella and covered up. The highlight of the morning was seeing a dolphin swimming just off the shore! It was so close and so beautiful.

We built more sandcastles, and Lewis discovered the art of driving his trucks around and leaving tracks, so he went ALL over the beach, making 'train tracks.'

Tuesday we decided to head into Wilmington to visit the USS North Carolina. Lewis really enjoyed the airplane on the deck and loved tinkering with the various wheels and levers and other move-able objects we found throughout the tour. It was hot and there were a LOT of stairs to climb down/up, but he was a trooper. He was melting down by the end, but some water and cookies brought him back to sanity. :) Kevin and I both really enjoyed the tour:

 Dad and Lewis with the plane

 Checking out the dining hall

 Tilting the very large mixer in the bake shop

I loved reading the recipes for the 2000 soldiers for cakes, pies, breads, etc. The quantities were impressive!

 Lots of doors and hallways and stairways, oh my!

 Can we help you?

 Heading down below

Lew did so well with being careful on all of the stairs. There were a lot of them!

 Mama and Lewis, turning the rutters (I think)

 I love his look of determination. :)

 Dropping some coins in the wishing well

 Our coins were somewhere way down there :)

 Trying out a bed, but just for a second.

 Pretending to hit up the head

 By the end, Kevin was carrying Lewis up the stairs. :) Tired little buddy (and strong Kevin!).

 Kevin, lifting a very large chain. :)

 Kevin thought a picture of me with a machine gun was necessary.

Lewis wanted to find where the driver sat, so we made our way up top:

 Captain Lewis Pete

Helicopters!

As we were heading back down to the main deck, two military helicopters flew over. It was good timing! (Though we saw quite a bit flying over the beach each day, too.)

After the tour, we went to find lunch in downtown Wilmington. We found a place on the river, which was lovely:

 Someone (Lewis) was pooped :)

Lew and I went to walk along the river while Kevin waited for the check. As Kevin joined us, we just happened to walk by a boat that just happened to be leaving on a tour, so we decided to join! It was a nice, serendipitous moment, especially since Lewis was bummed that the battleship didn't actually move. It was nice--lasted about 50 minutes:

 This is awesome! 

 Fun Fact: The cranes in the background were used in Iron Man 3 in a battle scene, maybe near the end of the movie (?) (we haven't seen it, but we'll look for them when we do).

So that was Monday and Tuesday...the rest of the week is to come!