Well we started out to just go on the Fort Sumter tours since I have been on the USS York Town several times before but upon going up to the ticket booth a lady stopped us and said admission was free to support the veterans and we could go on for free.  Since we had a little time to kill we took her up and then went on the aircraft carrier.  Photos of the carrier and the rest of our Charleston, SC trip can be found here.  We enjoyed see the ship as always and was a little disappointed to see that the destroyer (USS Laffey) and coast guard ship were gone, when asking about it we were told the following which is the same on their website. “On August 19, the USS Laffey was moved from Patriots Point to Deyten’s Shipyard in North Charleston for repairs to her hull. While maintenance is underway, the destroyer will not be available for touring. The repairs are expected to take three to four months after which time the USS Laffey will return to Patriots Point and open, once again, to visitors”.

Hopefully they really do return instead of ending up like the nuclear ship Savannah, if you would like to find out what happened to that ship checkout my previous blog post.  I thought it was awesome that we just happen to go here on that day because they were having a ceremony and had jeeps transporting people back and forth which honestly made it look like a military base…

While walking around the ship we noticed the donation boxes and what they are needing money for, werid that the wife and myself were asking on our last Charleston, SC visit about how much money it would cost to repaint the York town.  Well the sign said 4,000,000 for the repaint and 8,000,000 for the aircraft deck to be redone.  To find out more about donations please visit their website here.

Over all as I always say I will go back to see the York Town as I have been since about 10/12 years old it is always changing and makes the trip worth while, now if they could get some decent polo shirts in the gift shop lol.