Merry Month of May

5/27/13

Good Morning Blog Readers!!
May has been a whirlwind. We started May in the Chesapeake.  What a beautiful area with many rivers to explore.  We really could have spent 6 months of our year right here. Many quaint little towns, lots of history, and fun places to ride our bikes.  Our enjoyment of the area though was muted by our excitement of the fact that we were going to see Claire for her boot camp graduation.

Winnie and Jack took over the boat for  us in Kent Narrows, MD, we gave them our latest advice, since we are still learning about docking and boating, then took their rental car and headed south!!

Five hundred miles to Parris Island to see our Marine.  Parris Island graduates Marines 42 weeks of the year with classes of around 600-900 people.  Is that incredible? Wednesday is family day where you learn about the Island and some of what your son or daughter went through during boot camp. Thursday the new marines get "leave" from 1000-1500 (military  time) to see their families.  Friday at 0900 they graduate and are dismissed from their drill instructors!!! It is an overwhelming experience to see all of these young, beautiful people in formation and realize that they have all taken the oath of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and are willing and committed to work, fight and even give their lives for our country.  Claire was just beaming and so proud to be able to now call herself a Marine.  I was most worried that Claire would lose her joy of life and sense of humor after the work-over the drill instructors give but she is still a stitch and joy to be around, she just has a lot more material to work with!!

We then headed to see my Mom in Anderson, NC for Mother's Day.  The visit was short but very sweet and Claire also got to see my Mom's sister Yvonne whose husband, Paden had encouraged Claire to join the Marines before he died two years ago. Yvonne was beside herself when she saw Claire in her uniform.  Claire did a lot of eating and sleeping and healing from her "kennel cough" I called it, that I am sure she acquired from living with 63 other girls. I will just brag here...Claire graduated as a squad leader (one of four), as expert rifleman(the highest you can achieve), as Molly Marine (your platoon votes who represents the most ideal marine) and promoted meritoriously as a Private First Class scoring 295 and 296 out of 300 on her physical and knowledge testing. She is very happy.  She headed back to the boat with us and we showed her what our lives are like now. 

We turned the car back over to Winnie and Jack after a 24 hour visit with them and then continued our journey North. Annapolis, the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, Delaware Bay and on to New Jersey!!!!! Can't believe how quickly this section has gone.  We have had wonderful visits with my siblings along the way and tomorrow we meet up with Geoff's brother!! A big thanks to my sister Nancy and b-in-law Julius for getting Claire to the train in Wilmington, Delaware with her tons of gear and a lunch bag, for her trip to Camp Geiger in NC for a month of combat training.  More later about the military and our fun experiences in New Jersey.