Thu May 13, 2010 6:05 pm
I've been on that Gato, and the USS Alabama is in very nice shape for visiting. (My parents live in Fairhope, just across Mobile Bay.)
Here in Philadelphia you can go on board the Becuna (a Baleo-class sub) and the USS Olympia, a "white fleet" cruiser that fought at Manila Bay in 1898. Olympia is fascinating inside: the officers' cabins look like a fine hotel, while the sailors slept in hammocks strung near the guns.
Just across the Delaware you can visit the USS New Jersey. It's a very impressive ship, although it seems restored to a half-1940s, half-1980s state.