I'm Back

HEY EVERYONE!

I am back! I am in Hawaii again. Finally back after 186 days deployed in the Western Pacific.

It's so nice to be free again! I picked up my truck from my deployed parking storage and it was mad at me. Died a few times after starting it up, but it is alright now. Need to get the oil and all other fluids changed.

I had some friends at the pier waiting for me to return. Hilary and my little buddy Mason. Jeremy was at work across the water on his boat. We met up later and ate at Chilis where I had a couple Corona's. mmm....

Well here are some pics of the homecoming, its a big deal, they even laid a red carpet across the brow!

WestPac First Half

We left the end of November for our Western Pacific deployment. This is my first deployment and being underwater for extended amounts of time sucks a lot. The whole experience is basically mind numbing, the routine is essentially the same everyday. Wake up, eat, stand watch, eat, clean, work/study/watch movies, sleep and then the cycle begins again.

So far we have made 3 port calls, 1 of which was for some repairs. We pulled into Guam, then Okinawa, and then back to Guam. Below are some pics from Guam and then Okinawa.

Guam:

In Okinawa I met up with Alexandra's friend from college who lives there because her Marine husband is stationed there. They have a neat Japanese style house and 2 dogs and a cat. Here's some pics:

Cypress

Mmm! Cypress is an awesome restaurant on East Bay st at the corner of Vendue in the historic district downtown Charleston, SC. We ordered a Caesar salad that was prepared beside our table and the salad was delicious and the food was delicious and dessert was great too, and the right proportion. Some restaurants give you way too much dessert. The pomegranate mojito I had was yummy and Alexandra and I both asked for a glass of wine with our meal that would complement the meal and the waitress did a great job of this. The picture above was at the end of our meal, in the background is a small glimpse of their wine rack.

Bottles & Brushes

We went to Bottle's and Brushes. It is a fun painting class. The artist walked us through the painting step by step. It took about 3 hours, and they served beer and wine. It was a lot of fun, I think it would be fun to do with the family in New Orleans too. Our paintings are of the Arthur Ravnel Bridge on Cooper River. Here's the pics!

SURPRISE

Last Monday (October 26, 2009) I get to work and I am told that on the next underway I will be the underway ELT so I can get some experience and get proficient at the day to day duties of my job. About an hour later my LELT came in and said "Hey how much leave do you have." I have about a 0 leave balance maybe -2 days. He said oh well, you need to write a leave chit for the next underway because we don't have room for you. I was a little shocked.

Normally the Navy is a pain in the butt when you request leave. You ask and they say maybe and you ask again and they say maybe and eventually they let you know for sure. However, this time they are telling me to go! WEIRD! So I said ok, and wrote out my leave chit.

I had duty that night so I couldn't leave the boat.

Tuesday I asked if I can really go ahead and buy a plane ticket. He said yes. I had also decided that my plane ticket will be going to Charleston, SC to visit Alexandra, but I'm not going to tell her I am coming. She still believes I am going underway. So I made the flight and hotel reservations with <1 weeks notice. (The Navy is so considerate...)

My plane landed in Charleston on Tuesday morning (November 3, 2009) I arrived at my hotel around 1100 and waited for her to get out of her class. I had a pizza for lunch and took the leftovers to the dorm front desk because I know a lot of the people that work at the desk they would probably let me leave it there to pick up later. Also I asked what route she would take to go from the building Alex's class was in to the building she was going to next. I had about 45 min until her class was scheduled to be over and she would be making her move.

As I turned to go out the door, there she was just walking in the door. We both stopped for a second. Alexandra turned really red and was speechless so I gave her a BIG HUG and picked her up! She was still speechless. I'm pretty sure she thought she was dreaming. She never asked how or why I was there, she said she didn't care. She was just super happy to see me and I was super happy to see her!

I love you sweetheart!

MWAH

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Long Deployment...?

So apparently we came back early from our underway to get ready for a possible early deployment. I thought this would mean our 6 month deployment would start and end sooner, nope, it would be more like an extra deployment. So like 6-8 months, ahh! I hate being away from Alexandra and my family. However at the same time this is kind of what I signed up for. I know what it is and if I knew no one was going to do anything I would not be happy. I guess I just wish it would be someone else, maybe, idk. I just hate being away. I want to be with Alexandra married and happy, I love her so much!!!

I love and miss you sweetheart!

MWAH

I have a Rack

I finally have a rack! But I am sleeping with the torpedos, fun stuff. In a room where the lights stay on. Its exciting. ugh I love the navy...lol

I love and miss you Alexandra!!!

Uffdah!

CHEERS!

So I had duty on Friday, then saturday morning had a "Fast Cruise" and didn't get off the boat until 7:00 pm. And lucky me I get to go into work sunday evening, and I might as well sleep there since monday morning muster is 0430! and then of course I have monday duty so 2 nights in a row of sleeping onboard. UGH.

I look forward to Alexandra visiting! And even more than that I look forward to the wedding, and bringing her back here with me! That will be wonderful! Best day of my life!

I miss her and I love her more than I can express.

I miss all of my family, and look forward to seeing them all at the wedding.

Hope the fall festival goes well. Wish I was there to buy some pulltabs and beer. Someday...

I miss you Alexandra, I am glad we have tomorrow to talk. MWAH I love you!!!

Long Days

Lately I have been working long days, but for the most part all I mean is full days. I've gotten used to being able to leave early, especially on Fridays, but lately that's been changing. It's due to the deployment being right around the corner. But the good news is that our wedding date should be pretty stable at the moment, assuming we leave on time for deployment, then we should be back on time and all will be swell.

So today we pulled out of dry dock. It was a long not productive day. Mustered at 0500 and I studied until about 0730 when I started a checkout and was then ordered to muster on the "wingwall" for my line handling duty. They flooded the dock, long process, and I played games on my ipod and watched the dock fill. Then I watched them move the door that held back the ocean...I wanted to see how it worked, and got a sunburn because of it. I could have been in the shade but I wanted to watch. Here's my sweet watch tan-line:

So when the boat got out of the drydock I went to the pier/wharf to meet it and help line handle to moor the boat.

Then my LELT spotted me on the pier, he was stuck on the boat ALL day, and signaled me to get him a Mt Dew. I did and by the time I got back the brow was laid so I could get it to him. I am a well trained NUB. lol

I miss Alexandra so much.

While I was waiting for the boat I see a lot of wives and kids walking by to the end of the pier to meet their husbands returning to port, I look forward to the day Alexandra (and Max) meet me at the pier! A master-chief standing by me made a comment that it was pathetic because the boat had been gone a week or less...lol, he said he would "slap" his wife if she did that...then he mentioned that that would only be true if he was married. Haha. I think there's a good chance Alexandra would still come to the pier regardless of how long I was gone, although I think she would be fine with a couple days, but a week or more wouldn't surprise me at all.

I love her so much, and I miss her too!!!

MWAH Honey

MORE PICS!

I miss her and we can't wait to be here together in a house with a kitty!!!

I love and miss you sweetie!