Tall Ships

On the 5th of July, the three of us woke up, got ready, and drove into downtown Tacoma. After parking at the Tacoma Dome, we took the shuttle down to the street along the waterfront. The shuttle dropped us off right by the Museum of Glass, so we went up on the pedestrian bridge to check out some of the sculptures. There was a whole wall of glass sculptures. We saw some other people there - they were clearly headed to the Tall Ships too.


Then we went and bought ourselves wristbands that would let us tour some of the ships.


There were a lot of lines to wait in, but we made it down to the docks. There was one large dock where the small to medium ships were, one dock with the "free" ships that anyone could go see, and one dock with the bigger ships. At the first dock, we toured all of the smaller ships. We got to meet their crews a bit, climb around deck, and play with the wheel or the (fake) guns.


Then we headed back up from the first dock to find some lunch. Hot dogs and strawberries on a stick make a great lunch! We looked for the shuttle, but the lines were so long that we decided to walk to the next dock. It was only half a mile or so away - definitely worth skipping the long line to ride the shuttle. At the next dock, we toured the Adventuress (on the left) and the HMCS Oriole (HMCS = Her Majesties Canadian Ship). On the Adventuress we could go below decks, where we saw just how crowded the life of a sailor could be. I personally think no one over 5' tall could fit in those tiny bunks, stacked three high. I think that the Adventuress fit 37 hands!


We were a little disappointed that the Lady Washington was not giving tours that day - the Lady Washington was the ship used in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie as the fastest ship in the navy - the one Jack Sparrow decided to steal. While it would've been really cool to go on the ship, we did get to see her sailing in and out a couple of times taking people on cruises. The ships are so much more beautiful under full sail that I decided to be happier seeing the Lady Washington sail instead of walking all over her. The first video I like because of the cool music one of the sailors was playing while we watched the two ships pass. The second video has a better view of the Lady Washington - it was on the far side of the Hawaiian Chieftan.





And here is just a good picture of the Lady Washington.


Then Jen and I waited through the really long line to go on the dock with the really big ships, and Amy went to look through some of the other festival displays. There were pirates roaming the line, handing out treasure for those with a good ARRRRRR! We toured the HMS Bounty, the Nina (I don't know how to make the n have the tilda above it), and the Kaisei. I think the stamps were supposed to go in a passport book; I didn't have one, so I improvised. The HMS Bounty was also in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - primarily as the ship where Elizabeth was held captive and later as one of the ships in the navy fleet.


The last ship we didn't tour - after six hours we were done waiting in long lines, and the line for Coast Guard ship The Eagle was probably another hour or more long. So I took a couple pictures, including the friendly ladies of the Coast Guard and people climbing the rigging.



Exhausted and a bit sunburned, we left the Tall Ships and headed home.