I took the family to San Jacinto Park Saturday to visit the Battleship Texas and thought you guys might enjoy seeing a few pics.

The San Jacinto Monument is the center piece of the park.

It is 570 feet tall, slightly higher than the Washington Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Here it is, with the Texas Star on top.

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It is located on the Battlegrounds of the San Jacinto battle, where 700 Texans under General Sam Houston, defeated 1,200 Mexicans lead by General Santa Anna.

The Texans killed over 600 Mexicans, and only lost 10 men in a one hour battle that decided the fate of Texas.

Here's the kids at the base of the monument.

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There is an elevator that goes to the top, and we rode up and took a picture of the Battleship Texas in the park.

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There were activities for the kids, and they were taught how to make a Texas Star.

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We ate a picnic lunch and then went to the battleship.

It is painted a dark blue, as it was in WWI and WWII.

The Texas was one of the last Dreadnoughts, built in 1914 and served in WWI.

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She underwent major refitting in 1925 and was converted to oil boilers.

She had ten 14 inch guns in 5 turrets that could fire a 1,500 pound shell over 13 miles.

Here's me and the beautiful Mrs. Young_Painless by the guns.

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The Texas was one of the few ships to bombard on both fronts in WWII.

She fired on Normandy and later on Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific.

On Iwo Jima, she fired 923 rounds on the island. She moved to Okinawa where she fired 2,019 rounds of 14 inch ammunition before the landings.

I bet that rattled some teeth.

Here's the kids looking at some of the secondary guns, which were 5 inch guns.

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Here I am explaining how a 40mm Bofors works to my stepson.

Of course, he had to turn the crank on every gun on the ship.

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And here's the granddaughter standing next to one of the 14 inch rounds.

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Conclusion:
A fine day, full of interesting things.
Hope you enjoyed the pics.