Only in Chile…
Katherine, Me, Julia, and Captain Pete
…would 3 American women end up aboard a US Navy ship.
Our officer-friends, Pete and Michael, gave us a tour of a their ship, the USS Underwood. This was not your boring 5th grade field trip tour. We were privileged to a ~3 hour behind the scenes view of the ship. Touring the ship was certainly a highlight of our trip to Chile. SO cool!
The USS Underwood was commissioned in 1983 (an excellent year, if I may say so). This thing was HUGE. I would get lost on there. The guided missile ship is 453 feet long and houses a helicopter! It also has machine guns and torpedoes. I felt like I was in a 10 year old’s fantasy land. 🙂
Here are a few highlights:
Clockwise, Left to Right: Captain’s coffee mug, the surf board the Captain keeps in his office/room, radar room (in additions to enemies, they have to watch for whales!), the Chilean ship parked next door, view of Valparaiso from the deck, look out, weights so they can work on their fitness, us posing with a machine gun, staring down the barrel, the on-board helicopter, us IN the helicopter, the flag in the back of the boat
Fun fact of the day: Navy men are fans of Beachbody. During our tour we ran across a group of guys doing one of the Insanity DVDs! I wanted to join them, but didn’t have the right attire. *sigh*
The Captain knew about my food obsession and offered to let us take a peek into the ship’s kitchen. It would be so hard to live on their diet – they can’t keep a lot of fresh fruits and veggies on board because it goes bad after a few days at sea. The chef, Livingston, was nice enough to let us intrude as he was preparing for dinner.
We finished up the tour at the front of the ship.
One fun fact: the bell you see in the middle-left pic below doubles as a baptismal pool. If you are assigned to a ship when your child is ready to be baptized, the bell is turned upside down and filled with water for the baby to be dunked in. Afterwards the baby’s name is engraved inside – it remains there for the life of the ship!
To our friends aboard the USS Underwood: Thank you so much for your hospitality, and for your service. We wish you the best on the rest of your journey!
Please ignore the fact that I look sickly in a baseball cap.
The ship’s motto:
“Whensoever hostile aggressions . . . require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.” -Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Andrew Jackson, December 3, 1806
On an entirely different note, please click here to hop over the Lindsay’s blog, The Lean Green Bean, today and check out my guest post. While she’s vacationing in the sunshine, I’m home baking these no-sugar-added, gluten-free Banana-Maple Zucchini Muffins:
There is a vegan option, of course. 🙂
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Recaps = over! Back to your regularly scheduled food blog.
What is you favorite type of muffin?
Can you imagine trying to find something to eat aboard a ship for months at a time? Poor guys!
Ugh – I don’t think I could eat food without fruits and veggies, that sounds boring. I think we would both be low in energy too, don’t you think? I need my veggie fix!
Agreed! There’s no green smoothies onboard. 🙁
i am dying to try and make zucchini muffins, I love zucchini but have never had them in that form. looks delicious to be honest. that is so cool you got to go back in the kitchen!
Oh, you must try it! They make muffins fantastically moist.
Glad you got to tour a frigate! You wouldn’t believe the amount of food we used to bring onboard with us before we got underway. Ship’s food gets old in a hurry.
Lovin’ the recap, as usual!
I can imagine!
These Navy posts have been some of my favorite to read on the blog! Of course, I’m probably partial to them because my beau is a Navy officer himself 🙂 Looks like you had an amazing time in Chile!
Thank you so much! That’s so cool your man is in the Navy. Much respect for them!
Can’t wait to check out the muffins! You really did have a random, varied trip! 🙂
That makes me so sad they don’t get fresh fruits & veggies! 🙁 So neat that y’all got to tour the ship!! I love the story about the bell.
That’s a good-looking ship, and what fun to get the full behind-the-scenes tour. I can’t imagine living on one of those.
I’m so jealous! If I was single I would have been in heaven on that boat, just saying.
It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. 😉
I had to clean drool off my keyboard….
So cool Laura! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. As a former historian (and semi military one at that) touring ships always excites me. However, not having fresh fruit/veggies sounds like a complete downer. 🙁
I had no idea! You would have really loved the tour then. They are actually retiring the ship this year.
In addition to no fruits/veggies, you also couldn’t have booze. Tragic, right?
I feel like donning my sailor cap on after reading this awesome post 😀
Also gorgeous looking savoury muffins 🙂
Cheers
CCU
Ahoy, mate! 😉
As always, I’m loving hearing about your trip – and the extra sightseeing! Can’t wait to check out of the muffins!
I think I would be absolutely ill with no fresh food. I know going on vacation if I don’t seek out enough stuff that is fresh and delicious I don’t feel so good, so I can only imagine being stuck months at a time without it.
That is an awesome tour of the ship. I don’t think we can appreciate the sheer size of it until you are on board.
When I lived in Virginia a highlight was seeing the Naval shipyard in Norfolk.
Well I am glad we are back to food, but it was nice to have a few vacation posts.
What a great experience! I can’t imagine not ever having fresh food, but it makes sense I guess!
These muffins look wonderful!!
I know! 95% of what I eat is fresh veggies.
Thank you! I am actually eating one now as a midnight snack. 🙂