Hop onto any history-focused tour led by an informative and friendly docent, the kind of walk-around that takes in a great swath of a great building or landmark, and a number of probing questions likely pop up in your mind, as you go.
Some queries can be saved for the docent to answer after the tour is done, the sort of follow-up questions that help fill out some of the information you received.
But certainly, and definitely, and 100-percently, a visitor sometimes wishes she could ask "so, what's on the other side of that old door we saw?"
Because lookie-loos, and those with an enthusiastic curiosity for history, always want to know what's on the other side of old doors, especially those that aren't included on the tour.
The Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro has an answer to that commonly held question, and it is this: Let's take a look at what's on the other side of the door.
In fact, a whole new tour is blossoming from visitors' shared desire to go deeper into the ship, a mammoth vessel that served in World War II and played host to a host of United States presidents (hence its nickname, The Battleship of Presidents).
It's the Full STEAM Ahead tour, and it goes full steam ahead beginning on Saturday, Oct. 28.
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On the agenda? Visits to the Engine Room, Fire Room, Flag Cabin, Post Office, Sick Bay, CEC Room, and a number of other spots around the ship.
The tours will stay on the small side, with ten people each, and, at two hours, you'll see plenty of behind-the-scenes areas that guests have not normally been privy to since the Battleship Iowa opened to the public in 2011.
Your ticket is $49.95, and that includes general admission to the Battleship Iowa Museum, though do note: the Full STEAM Ahead tour is only on Saturdays and Sundays, and only twice a day, at 11 a.m. and 2 o'clock.
Ready to eye the CEC Room, or Combat Engagement Center, which "... is the brains of the ship"? The place "...where all sensors and radar are monitored to determine surrounding threat levels"?
Or the Machine Shop, which includes a bench that was "...engraved by servicemen aboard by servicemen aboard the USS Iowa on VJ Day during World War II"?
It's full steam ahead for those history buffs who want to do, see, and know more, starting in San Pedro on the last Saturday of October 2017.
