Pre-Homecoming Celebrations

May, 2007 ~ Our six-month turned nine-month deployment was finally, REALLY about to end and Rodney's mom and dad flew out to join in the festivities.....

Early the morning before the ship returned, we were up and at 'em to take Roger to catch the bus for the Tiger Cruise! Check out his "Navy Dad" shirt....is he a proud Papa or what?!?

We ate breakfast at McDonald's on base, then put Roger on the bus to catch the ship at Camp Pendleton and ride it to San Diego. We would see him and Rodney tomorrow!!! Now, the sweet/funny thing you can't see was----when we were at the commissary the day before, Roger spotted some boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and knowing Rodney's liking for them and that he hadn't had any now for quite awhile, he asked me if he could take them along? I told him I sure didn't see why not! So, when Roger went to put his bag under the bus, he held onto those donuts and put them on the seat beside him!! Rodney said that his first sight of his dad, Roger had a grin from ear to ear, his bag and a little flag in one hand, and that bag of donuts in the other!!! I believe those were the best tasting "donuts of the gods" he'd ever had ;-)

So, then Elizabeth and I had some time to "play"!! We made a run to Lowe's, then went home and "played in the dirt"... After we washed the dirt off, we went to the mall for a bit of "girl time"!! I introduced her to the store, Anthropology, where we handled/touched everything!! Then it was off to a mani/pedi...We wanted to "get beautified" for our guys!!! Our running joke was we acted like we had all the time in the world, but we had a party to get to!!!!

We had a carnival type set up that allowed us to give visiting family members information for the ship's arrival the next day, not to mention just being able to celebrate together that our Sailors were FINALLY coming home!!! We had face painting and cake....as shown by my little buddy, Will!!

I just love this picture of Elizabeth and Tara's little girl, Alyssa!!

Now that this celebration was over, it was time to go home and TRY to get some sleep for another early morning to see RODNEY!!!

Bay Bridge Walk

One of the ways we passed the rest of the time until the ship came home was to do the Bay Bridge Walk. This is the big fundraiser for MWR. The Morale, Welfare, and Recreation provides free and discounted activities for sailors and their families. Being such a good cause and to be able to say, "I walked across that bridge!," a few of the spouses and I signed up...... Now, the bridge itself is 2.5 miles long; so add to that the distance we had to walk just to get to the bridge and the distance on the other end to get to the Celebration area, the walk was a good 4 miles long!

This is Angie and her kids. Once the walk started, we didn't see them until the end---they ran it!!

These are the ladies I walked with....Can you tell the two on the ends are sisters? The boys belong to Susan (on the right) and the little girl belongs to Tara (in the middle with me).

And we're OFF!!!.......We're going uphill, but its not the bridge. We have to go over this little hill, turn right, then make the steep curve on-ramp to actually get on the bridge which you can see in the horizon....

I turned around to take this picture. We are getting ready to climb the on-ramp to the bridge...

We have made it up the on-ramp and are pretty much "officially" on the bridge....

This is the view of downtown.

It was a cool, gray day which made it great for walking, but not so great for pictures!

And the view of the ship yards...

We are getting closer!! We've made it to Coronado, but look at all that bridge we have left to cross.....!!

HAD to get a picture of ME on the bridge! I didn't want anyone to think I had just bought the pictures!! :)

MILE 3!!! Literally on the downhill slide now!!

We've made it off the bridge, circling back under and headed to the CELEBRATION!! That bridge just doesn't seem near as daunting once you've crossed it on foot....

You are Welcome!

WE MADE IT!!!

Time to relax and enjoy the entertainment...

And believe me, there are not many more entertaining than my little buddy, Will!!

Good bye, Singapore....

As with all good things, my trip to Singapore had to come to an end......

and we had to once again say good-bye,

BUT, those next two months would be a snap after the last six!!

Mt. Fuji

Now it was back to California to start preparing for the ship's HOMECOMING!!!

Singapore ~ Day 5 con't: Merlion Park

When we saw the Merlion on Sentosa Island, I have to admit, I was a little confused. I was sure I had seen/heard about the Merlion fountain. Upon a closer peruse of the Singpore tourist map, we found Merlion Park. So, after our fun morning at Clarke Quay, we meandered our way to

Merlion Park.

During our meanderings we came across many very interesting statues and sculptures, but this one we enjoyed probably the most.....

Posing with the Mercub....

A great shot with the downtown buildings.....

Behind us is the Esplanade Theatre.....

For my last night in Singapore, we did dinner up right----we ate at a Hawker Center! We had heard about them, but never enough to know whether to trust them or not...until we talked to our cabbie :) He highly recommended them and said the one by our hotel was one of the best! They are a great place to eat to get good food for little money. This one is set up in kind of a triangle shape with all the seating in the middle. Around the seating is all the small kiosk-like food places, drink places, dessert places.... Kind of like a food court; except many of them serve the same things! As you enter, you are "encouraged" to buy from this kiosk or that kiosk and as soon as you accept the menu they hand you, that's where you buy!! It's a little overwhelming, at first, but the food really is good (and they're rated with the A, B, C grade card, too) and it really is very affordable. Next time we're in Singapore I plan to do more eating at the Hawker Centers!!

These are the places we ordered from. I don't really remember what we ate, but the blue menu place on the right had GREAT fresh pineapple juice!!

Singapore ~ Day 5: School of Hard Knocks

This day, we made our way to an area called Clarke Quay (pronounced "key") and ate lunch aboard the Lotus Grill Restaurant.

Downtown Singapore in the background....

We ate at the Lotus Grill even tho, just down the quay wall was Hooters!!

After lunch, we roamed around window shopping and stumbled across Royal Salengor Pewter Centre. We looked around the showroom of beautiful pewter pieces and then took the "tour" that shows how pewter pieces are made. Rodney and I were able to test our skills at Pewtersmithing during the demonstration.....

We were to place "dimples" on the pewter tube. The trick is to get each dimple the same size/depth and make them in perfect lines around the tube...NOT an easy task!!!

 This demonstration was followed by a Pewtersmithing workshop:

"School of Hard Knocks"

We were given a pewter disc and a mallot. Our first job was to use the stamps to personalize the disc.

The wooden block has concave impressions on each side, each one getting deeper. We placed the disc on the most shallow "bowl" and pounded it......

Once it was at that depth, we turned the block to the next deeper well and pounded some more....

Once the bowl was knocked into shape, we smoothed out the edge....

.... and gave it a good rinse.

After inspection and approval by our "master teacher," we were given apprentice cerficates!!

(And, yes, we got to keep the aprons!!)

Our little pewter bowls make great little "catch'ems"!!

We also purchased a pewter Shih-Tzu that looks just like Truman!!!

Singapore ~ Day 4: Sentosa Island

We began this VERY FULL day on Sentosa Island with a cable car ride!! This was a BIG feat for Rodney who can have an issue with heights....I was SO PROUD of him!! We had a fun ride over---we ended up sharing a car with two girls from Thailand who were SO impressed when Rodney could greet and even somewhat speak to them in Thai!! They were thrilled to be able to take our picture for us :)

Our ride started from the top floor of the building and, yes, went over the water! (Hence, Rodney's extra unease!)

We had a great view of the Singapore skyline....

And a great view of the Merlion and China Ocean...

Once back on solid ground, we began our discoveries along the mosaic Merlion Walk.....

And found more gorgeous orchids!!

The Merlion, half-lion/half-fish, is the symbol of Singapore....

Inside the base of the Merlion we were waiting to see an animated video presentation of how Singapore and the Merlion came to be.... It was complete with "legondary sea dragons and mythical mermaids"!!! Rodney made friends with one of those sea dragons...

Then we made the 10-story climb (via elevator!) to the top of the Merlion's head!

Quite the views!!!!

 

On the way down, we made a stop in the lion's mouth....

Once again, back on terra firma, Rodney looked back at where he'd been...

We caught a ride on a topless double-decker bus to our next adventure on another part of the island, Underwater World......

This was the souvenir picture they took...We stood in front of the screen and the computer did the rest. We thought it turned out so good, we couldn't resist!!

At Underwater World, they had some touch pools complete with stingrays, starfish, and baby sharks! They also had an underwater tunnel....

Our last big adventure of the day was visiting Dolphin Lagoon where we watched a dolphin show and got to pet a pink, yes, PINK dolphin! Say "HI" to Jumbo!

As our wonderful day turned to dusk and we prepared for our cable car ride off the island, the Merlion with his glowing eyes watched out to sea for sailors (or sea dragons or mermaids) in distress.....