Moving to Italy

September 16th  - 17th

First and foremost, today is Michael's birthday.  Happy Birthday Michael!  (It's also Mexican Independence Day).

Today is our last day in Norfolk and the USA.  There is a lot to do.  We have to pack up our camping supplies, donate what we aren't taking with us, clean, sell the car, and get to the airport.

The packing and donating of items goes quickly and fairly smoothly.

Michael has  a friend who might be interested in the car, but it turns out she can't swing the money today.  Oh well, we'll just take it to CarMax like we planned to do anyway.   Which we head off to do.

Once reaching CarMax we get a text from our rental person that she'll be there in about an hour to do our move out inspection.  That would have been nice to know at some point before now. Rational me thinks.  Oh well.

We successfully sell the car, get back home (thanks to Michael) and frantically start cleaning.  We thought there'd be more time, but there wasn't.  Our realtor showed up and started going through the house with Dan while I was off acquiring sandwiches for later.

The taxi thankfully shows up at 5:30 when it was supposed to.  I had been worried it was not going to show up at all.  We pile the dog, four checked bags, 3 carry-ons, and the cat into the taxi.   W is not happy.

Check in at the AMC terminal goes smoothly enough, but I am a little concerned when they tell us to just leave our pets over by arrivals until our flight starts to board.  We can leave the AMC terminal so long as we're back 45 min before boarding.  We have five and a half hours to kill because they told us we had to be there by 18:00 since we had pets.  Our flight boards at 23:40.  You want me to leave my scared pets alone for five and half hours?  That doesn't seem like a good idea to me.  Rational me checks in.

There's no personnel checking on them or anything.  They just sit by the baggage claim conveyor belts.  I am not okay with this.

Dan and I opt to just sit and hang out with our pets.  Other pet owners are doing the same, so that makes me feel less weird about thinking leaving the pets is odd.

So we sit, and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Ta gets taken away to be cargo and boarding begins, but it is not clear how they are boarding.  They seem to be having people board based on where they are terminating.  Though we aren't sure.  We just get in line and push our way to the front.

W gets unceremoniously shoved under the seat and Dan puts everything else in the overhead bins.

Sunrise!	Airstream over the wing. Neat!
Landing in the Azores.	The Azores!

We take off and land in the Azores about five hours later.  Dan has not slept much and is very cranky.  We are allowed to check on Ta.  They have her and the other cargo pets in a little fenced off area about a quarter of an acre big.  We are allowed to take her out of her crate and walk her around.  I have W with me, and take out her bedding because she has peed on it.  It is pretty rank smelling.  Ta gets to walk around in a circle for 30 minutes.  So we do that.

I declare the Azores our first Italian adventure country visited.  Dan disagrees.  I think because I walked on soil (and picked up dog poo) it counts.

Dan is still grumpy as we get back onto the plane.  We both doze for the 4.5 hours to Naples.

Landing in Naples.  That may be Vesuvius....

Luckily our sponsor is there to pick us up, though he has a Honda Civic.  We disassemble Ta's crate, and my super power packing skills get all of our stuff and us and the pets into his car.  I may have ended up with some bruises from having to have Ta sit on me for the ride from the airport to the base, but we got there.

Side Note:  Base is split into two locations.  Capodichino is where Dan will work and is base proper.  The Support Site is where housing, the NEX, the commissary and other support buildings are.  We are going to be staying at the Support Site until we either get assigned to housing or told to move off base.

The Navy Lodge has us scheduled for 10 days now instead of 5, so that's exciting.  Because we have pets, we are in a two room suite.  We were also given this lovely welcome bag:

  

At least there's a real bed.  

Our sponsor, Jimmy, took us out to dinner with another couple (Tom and Brittany) who just arrived as well.  He wasn't excited about the place we ended up going to, but I didn't know any better to be upset.  

We have tomorrow off, and then Area Orientation starts Friday at 07:15.

Tomorrow is going to involve sleeping.

But we made it to Italy!

Busch Gardens

September 14th

Free Busch Gardens Adventure!  (or highly discounted)

Several theme/amusement parks owned by the same company allow active duty military and their families to attend one of their parks for free once per year.

We went to Busch Gardens.  Because, why not?

We brought our friends Laura and Christian along for extra funzies.

There are not that many photos, since we were spending most of the time having an awesome time.

Laura found her "people" with the Lorikeets. A few days before this, she was working on something and made a squeaky noise. There was a bit of a pause before Dan asked her "Are you a parakeet?" Laura threatened to never make noise again, but when we found the Lorikeets, she knew she wasn't alone.

Getting ready to go on Apollo's Chariot. I opted not to experience this particular roller coaster. I quite enjoy the range of facial expressions that are occurring here.

And just because it was fantastic, here is a close up of Dan's Busch Garden's adventure facial hair.

We were successfully amused.

Amusement Park Adventure Completed!

Norfolk Zoo Reprisal

September 12th

Our friends had never been to the Norfolk Zoological Park, so we took them as one of our last adventures in Norfolk.

Of course we start the adventure by messing with the giant marble globe fountain.

This is the baby monkey from the previous zoo visit.

This bird is FABULOUS.

There was an enclosure that had gibbons and otters in it.  The otters kept chasing the gibbon until it jumped up into a tree.  Then the gibbon would chase the otters back into the water. It was very silly.

I like giraffes.  They are one of my favorite animals.  This one doesn't want to deal with ANY sass.  See that tongue?

This is cutest sleeping fuzzball.  It's a Fennec fox.

We're riding a rhinoceros!  Well, I am.  Dan wouldn't get on it.

Roommate photo!  I think Michael and Christian had more fun on the rhino than we did.

New fun fact:  Tarantulas shed (molt?) their bodies every so often.  As much as I find spiders interesting and generally like them, I found this information a bit upsetting.

And we ended the adventure by pushing the giant marble globe fountain.  What can I say.  It's just fun to do.

Adventure Completed.

Colonial Williamsburg

September 10th

I dragged Dan up to Colonial Williamsburg because I didn't want to sit in the house and because it was an hour away, so I thought we should go.

And now for some photos!

		Fungus! Because I like taking pictures of fungus. I'm weird like that.
	Rope tie from the stable (left). Rose tunnel in the Governor's garden (right).
Dan and the impressive gate.
	The entry to the Governor's Palace is lined with swords and guns.  LINED.  They were everywhere!
		This was a really cool candle on display in several places in Colonial Williamsburg.
Oxen!  Because they had them in Ye Olde Times of Colonial Williamsburg.
		Hats and plants.   I just like this photo.
This is a really cool Cabinet Maker's tool box.  I want one.

George Washington rallying the troops/crowd (left).  Cannon firing practice (above).

This concludes the adventure to Colonial Williamsburg. 

ND Weekend

September 5th - 8th

Because of our camping and waiting situation, we have gotten the opportunity to have some mini adventures.  This weekends was to Indiana for the last Notre Dame - Michigan game.

Friday we flew into Chicago and then borrowed a car from my aunt and uncle so we could meet up with friends in South Bend. We also took my grandfather out to dinner as part of the point of this adventure was getting to spend time with him.

My grandfather spends a lot of his time trying to figure out how to make the world a better place and how we can change the world for the better. It is one of his most endearing qualities and something I love about him.

After dinner we hung out with our friends Will and Kerri at my family's house in South Bend. I have family in the area. They live about a mile from campus. They are different from the aunt and uncle who lent us a car.


Saturday is football day! Here is the lovely Dome.  Someone once referred to missing campus as "Dome Sick"  and I thought it was appropriate.  I've been back every year for one reason or another.

This has always bothered me. Hall of Engineer-ing. They couldn't have figured out a better arrangement?

This is that last time ND will play Michigan for the foreseeable future. Our rivalry seems to be more about numbers than disliking them as opponents.
		They parachuted the game ball in with the Seal Parachute Team. Which was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.
		Football!  WOOOOOO!
		Touchdown!  Go IRISH!
		Look how cute we are.  Ignore that I need a brush.
		This is how the game ended as far as I'm concerned. There were some shenanigans about a penalty or something. They made the Michigan team come back out of the tunnel so that ND could kneel the ball, which made no sense. Anyway, it was nice to send Michigan off with a shutout.

Since this was a night game (notice the darkness?) we didn't get home until almost midnight. This did not stop us from staying up to celebrate. We had a wonderful time drinking and celebrating with my family (we were staying with them).


Sunday, after everyone had lots of coffee and got over their hangovers, we went boating on Lake Michigan.

		This is where my grandparents used to have a lake house. I spent most summers on this beach.
		Tower Hill is a state park. I mostly remember the sand being blazing hot and falling/getting pushed down the dunes as a kid.
		It was a beautiful day.  Look at that sun reflecting off the water.
		My cousin showing off his fabulous skiing skills.
		We all had deadlines, so my aunt and uncle dropped us off and then headed back out to enjoy the sunset.

Dan and I went to Redamack's and then to Oink's because that is what you do when you go to Lake Michigan.  We drove back to Chicago and flew back to Norfolk.  Weekend adventure complete.  It was awesome.

Camping

Since August 15th, we have been camping out in our empty house, when we aren't going on adventures.

This is what it looks like:

I've also been keeping a PSC binder to keep track of every and any document ANY office/person could ask for.  This is what it looks like:


I ended up having to add more tabs as we got more documents, but this gives you and idea.
The one without tabs is the pets' PSC binder.  It has all their vet records and documents.

Winchester and Return of Ta

August 29th - September 2nd

Dan and I drove up to Winchester to spend the weekend with my family and to reacquire Ta.  My parents had been pet sitting her for almost 2 months.   Thanks mom and dad!

Here is Dan's reunion with our dog:

As you can see, she was very excited to see Dan after 7 months.

Saturday mom and dad took us out to Linden which is a vineyard owned by friends of theirs.  It was bit cloudy and rainy, but as you can see, it was a lovely view and we enjoyed our time there.



Sunday we celebrated mom's birthday.  She tried to get us to ignore it by throwing a Buon Viaggio brunch with several friends and family members from the Winchester area.   It was very nice of her, and it meant a lot to Dan and I that so many of them came to the brunch.

Hiatus the First

Hello Friends!

I have many adventures to share with you from the past few weeks.  I've been too busy trying to see friends and family and getting in some adventure before we leave (and of course packing) that I haven't gotten around to telling you about them all.

Since I've been a little MIA already, now is a good time for me to take a short hiatus while we do the physical transfer of ourselves overseas.  I do not know what the internet situation will be once we get to Italy, so hang tight, and I'll fill you in on all we've been up to in a week or so.

Thanks!