USS Midway Museum (Warning: Picture heavy post)

The now retired, USS Midway is not just an aircraft carrier but an interactive museum with 27 restored aircraft and helicopters on the deck and below the deck.  Volunteers are all navymen that served on the USS Midway at some point or another and many different positions too.

Get to see what life was like for enlisted officers all the way up to the top brass.  See the differences in living quarters, eating quarters, meeting rooms, chapel, etc.  Even amongst flyboys and helicoptor pilots there is a difference.

See the bowels of the ship and how it was basically a floating city with every thing you can imagine needed at sea including a welding and machinery shop, post office, trading post, laundry, kitchen and mess halls, lounges, a brig, etc.

The tour is self-guided but comes with a very detail audio headset.  It took us about 5 hours to get through the whole ship, but we took our time to read and enjoy everything.  You could get it done in 3 hours minimum if you hurry.  I wouldn't recommend anything less.

The USS Midway only allowed male officers during it's run.  It was commissioned shortly after WWII. It was also the first US Ship that was too large to go through the Panama Canal.  She served for 47 years all the way to Operation Desert Storm being decommissioned in 1992.  It had a lot of involvement in the Vietnam War.

The aircraft elevators could reach the flight deck in 10 seconds.  Pretty fast.  It's flight deck was about 3 football fields long.