Winter storm Uri affected many Texans. We were in Corpus Christi when the storm hit. We didn’t lose electricity, but the heater in our RV stopped working sometime during the first night of the storm. Also we were under the boil water mandate like most of Texas. It was a rough few days, but we got through it and had some fun too.

Our pals Rob and Claudia came from Houston to visit for the weekend. One of the “must do’s” when visiting Corpus Christi is seeing the USS Lexington.

Commissioned in 1943, she set more records than any other Essex Class carrier in the history of naval aviation.  The ship was the oldest working carrier in the United States Navy when decommissioned in 1991. 

During World War II, the carrier participated in nearly every major operation in the Pacific Theater and spent a total of 21 months in combat. Her planes destroyed 372 enemy aircraft in the air, and 475 more on the ground. She sank or destroyed 300,000 tons of enemy cargo and damaged an additional 600,000 tons. The ship’s guns shot down 15 planes and assisted in downing five more.

The Japanese reported LEXINGTON sunk no less than four times! Yet, each time she returned to fight again, leading the propagandist Tokyo Rose to nickname her “The Blue Ghost.” The name is a tribute to the ship and the crew and air groups that served aboard her.

We tested our CSI skills at a local escape room. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, but we had a lot of fun.