Texas WWII History Drought

Thanks for the feedback, Syzmo. When last I visited the Texas in about '13, I knew they were in big trouble - major waterline area repairs to do and nowhere near the attendance revenue to justify the repairs (from a strictly economic standpoint). I think Texas Parks & Wildlife technically still "owns" the ship, but has turned it over to the Battleship Commission to do the repairs. They do need a new home for her, but I don't know where she's going to go. As a member of the Hornet museum in Alameda, I know that ship suffers from the same thing. You have to drive through a maze of chain-link fences and through a ghetto to get down to it. They don't get the attendance, or the volunteers they need to maintain the ship the way they would like. On the other hand, the Midway - right on the tourist rich part of the coast in San Diego - has gobs of traffic and an excess of volunteers. It's kind of sad... the Hornet is a lot more historically significant than Midway... anyhow; both are cool.

I called down to the Galveston museum that has the Stewart and Cavalla, and they are still closed. You can walk the decks, but can't enter the ships. 

I will make it a point to go to the Lex. 

Thanks again for the input.

The one in Galveston (that has the Cavalla and the Edsall Class DE) is called Galveston Naval Museum - it's at Seawolf Park. Their website says they are closed due to "renovations." After you mentioned they were open, I called. The person answering the phone was just a kid. All she could tell me was that they were closed "indefinitely." I assume they are working on them and will reopen them at some point. But like a lot of museums with high value/high expense assets, they may be strapped for cash and not have a real idea of if/when they'll reopen.

We did go to the Lex today, definitely worth going. Although I think most of my kids may be getting close to being maxed out on Essex Class Carrier visits! My little boy Caleb is the ship and plane nut, so he was into it. The other kids were good sports about it, but we are members of the Hornet museum in Alameda, so they've been to something similar several times. I wish we could have done a battleship, just to be different. But I think Texas is probably done for good - at least a pretty long time. It's too far to see the Alabama on this trip. I wonder, are there any cruiser museums? I have never been on a cruiser. I guess the only cruiser displays are in the Northeast. If anyone wants to see them, I can post some Lex pictures.