Seabees

This past Saturday was Smithsonian Free Museum Day (did you participate and go somewhere fun?!). We always look forward to this day and plan a fun adventure for the day. This year we decided to visit the Seabees Museum on the Naval base in Port Hueneme.

The boys had a baseball tournament there year before last and, since we were there, we thought we might visit the museum that day, but it wasn't open. In fact, they were in the middle of moving the contents of the museum from it's current location to another location on the base. So when this museum was on the list, we thought we'd make a day trip of it! Our favorite BBQ joint (and I do mean joint - it's not exactly a 'restaurant') is in Ventura just a few miles from Port Hueneme. We hadn't been there for a little over a year and could hardly *wait* to bite into one of their famous tri-tip or pulled pork sandwiches. YUM! We typically take a cooler so that we can buy and bring home extra goodies. There's also a phenomenal ice cream shop in Ventura (McConnell's),so of course we had to make a pit stop there, too!

Welllll, as often happens, things don't always work out as you plan. When we got to Ventura, our noses were alllll ready to be hit with the smoky BBQ aroma we've come to know and love. Literally, our mouths were watering! We pull around the corner where the we've been coming for years now only to find ... that it's now Top Hat Burgers and Hotdogs. SAY WHAT?! We were SO disappointed. I decided to run over and ask about our BBQ and they said that he's doing mostly catering, but sometimes has a truck parked close to the pier where he sells sandwiches. Oh man. We decided to drive around down by the pier to see if we could find him, but no luck. Dang it! Now we need to find a new BBQ joint! Not all was lost, however; we were still able to enjoy the sweet, creamy taste of McConnell's coconut/macadamia nut (me), and chocolate raspberry/peppermint (Kevin).

Now on to the museum. It's awesome. Neither Kevin nor I were all that familiar with the Seabees, and we learned a lot just hanging out at the museum for a while. Dang, those men and women work really hard! Here are a few shots of the museum:

After we left the museum we gave the Lala's a call. Since we were going to be driving right past them, we decided it would be fun to go out for a bite to eat! Deb suggested Bandit's BBQ. Not quite the Ventura place, but it was delicious and we all had fun.

All in all, a fabulous day. I just love weekends like this, don't you?!