One Thing to do Whilst in Columbus, Ohio

Yesterday, Izzy and I went to the Santa Maria! It is "the world's most authentic, museum-quality replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship."

It was pretty cool. The above pics are of the ship, of course. It was hard to get the whole thing in the frame due to the trees and such on the near hillside, but you can get the picture. For a trip overseas, there wasn't much room! We got to go on most of the ship, even in the cargo area.

This is a sampling of the food the crew would eat - beans and hard-tack biscuits. (Yum!)


A view of the cargo area. Crew had to go down this in the dark, since candles would have been dangerous on a wooden ship.



The crow's nest as seen through the cargo hold. Yeah, that's the job I'd want!


Here is Izzy demonstrating on the cookstove.


And here she is steering the boat. Belive it or not, the "wheel" for steering ships was not used until 200+ years after Columbus sailed! The man on the tiller was not able to see the front of the ship, so he had to rely on the compass and the navigator for directions.




And here's Izzy on the cannon. Because they used a hot piece of metal stuck through a small hole to ignite the gunpowder, the expression "FIRE IN THE HOLE" was born. Izzy loved that part! The grate behind Izzy is how the crew would access the cargo.



And here is a view of the Columbus skyline 'tween the masts of the ship.









For about 5.50 for Izzy and me to tour the ship, it was a nice afternoon venture. I did find out that you can have overnighters on the ship and even "pirate" birthday parties -- how cool!

And to end the afternoon we hung out for a bit in the nearby park... Izzy in the fountain, by a unicorn and a griffin.