August 26th
We go off to the transportation office, with just our IDs, because we were told we could just pick up the paperwork. Of course we get there, go to the passport office and wait for someone to help us. Turns out we need to go back out to the front desk, that no one mans. Oh goody.
We ring the bell, and miraculously, someone responds. This lady has my passport and visa and our paperwork, but because we don't have Dan's original orders and his port call message, she won't give them to us. Sigh. Oh joy Navy bureaucracy.
We go home, we get the PCS binder, and we go back towards base. We don't have a printer right now, so we need to stop at Fleet & Family to print Dan's port call message. We can also extend our lending locker items lease while we're at it, so we do. We get the port call message and head back to the transportation office.
We ring the bell. A different lady responds to the ringing, but goes and finds the first lady. She asks for Dan's orders, which she does not look at AT ALL. She does not ask for the port call message. She has me look at the passport, and has Dan sign some paperwork.
Dan is frustrated with this process. I am happy to have my passport and visa. Also, this has been one of the easier transactions I've had with the Navy as of late, so I don't mind so much.
I look at the date on the envelope in which my passport/visa was delivered. It is dated August 6th. They have had this since the first week of August and no one called me. They were supposed to call me when it arrived. *Sigh*
Had we not called and investigated do you think anyone would have called us? How close to us leaving before someone would have said something? Would they have said anything?
I don't think anyone would have called us.
We left base and went to explore The Hermitage Museum. It is an old house and gardens. The house displays a collection of the original owner's art and has space for visiting exhibits. While there Dan and I got to see several dolphins playing in the water off of the gardens.
Check it out sometime: www.thehermitagemuseum.org/visitor-info
