Monday, August 20, 2012

Errands, Exploring, Excitement

How is it that if I was back in the states, I'd have a hard time to write just one paragraph about my day? Yet here, I feel like I could write a whole book about our few short days here.  My brain literally hurts with the amount of new info that it's processing!  I'm so eager to share with all of the readers here that I have to remind myself at times to just take it all in and not think about writing a post about it!

side note:  I'm going to use military time on this blog.  It's not because I want to sound all "military-ish" but rather that I actually need to learn it since everything here is in military time.  I find myself quickly converting in my head and that also makes my brain hurt.

This morning I drove Vic to work at 0757 and we arrived at 0759.  Oh yeah!  Gotta love the two minute drive to work.  Sure beats the 1 hr 15 min drive he had before.  Now before you go questioning the "why" for driving to work when it is only 2 minutes away, just remember that it is hot here and no one wants him to show up for work all sweaty. When we pulled up, he showed me where to park.  Turns out he has his very own nifty parking spot with his job title on it.  He confessed to me though that he doesn't park in it because he doesn't like to be above his employees.  He figures if they can walk, so can he.  This morning however, he wanted to impress me.  I was indeed impressed. ;)

At 1000, I picked him up from work and we busied ourselves with errands for a few hours.   I did all the driving so that I could familiarize myself with the various offices here on base.

In the afternoon, while Vic went back to work, I took the kids exploring.  We donned our swimsuits, brought sunscreen, towels, boogie board and sand toys.  We ended up at the ferry landing beach.   It was the only place that I knew of for sure for swimming besides the pool.  Someone had pointed it out to me on our ferry ride over the first day.  Since it is on the bay, there are no waves to speak of so it is a great location for children.  As soon as I stepped barefoot on the sand, I realized how spoiled I've been by the sugar sand beaches of the Emerald Coast of Florida.  The sand here is rocky and hot.  But, it holds wonderful treasures!  Seashells, coral, sea glass and rocks abound.  And I think we came home with no less than two bucket-fulls!  I then remembered how enjoyable our ferry ride was the first day and I suggested that we ride it, just for fun.  So, I loaded the kids up for the 20 + minute ride to the other side.  It was so nice because we were still wet from swimming and there was a wonderful breeze that kept us cool. I think the ferry workers found us rather amusing to just be taking the ride there and back for fun.  Mostly the ferry is just another form of transportation here.

After the ferry ride, we drove around  bit more and then decided that ice cream was in order.  There is an ice cream / smoothie / coffee shop just up the road from our house.  Perfect!  One of the things that I liked best about it was there were only four choices of ice cream.  Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and my favorite, mint chocolate chip.  To me, less choices = easier life!  I think I can get used to this.

As I type this, Vic and the four oldest are out fishing.  The two small kids and I are still in our swimsuits.  I better get them washed up before they fall asleep.  I think I'm getting the hang of the "gtmo life"...

2 comments:

  1. You are funny. This is how I felt about my life in Turkey as well. And my life now. Everything is so new, so different ... everything you do is about a blog. I often have people say, "How do you think of something to blog about?" How do I not?!

    Also, the lack of choices is SOOOO refreshing. You can only do 4 different activities. Riding the ferry back and forth sounds exactly like something we'd do. Question: where does the ferry actually take you?

    And those parking spots drive me crazy because they are there but the "big guys" never want to use them so they are ALWAYS empty. I think Vic should give it to one of his employees every week or a pregnant woman or SOMETHING because it's always empty!!!

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  2. Vic was thinking the same thing about giving it to an employee of the month or something. It wouldn't benefit a pregnant woman though because it is near the employee entrance and not at the front of the store.

    This base is actually situated on two sides of Guantanamo Bay. It totals 45 square miles and I think about 1/3 is on Leeward and 2/3 is on Windward. We live on Windward and nearly everything, including the detainee camps are on this side of the base. The airport and I'm not really sure what else, it on the opposite side, which is why it is necessary for the ferry. Also, the base doesn't completely surround Guantanamo Bay, so simply driving around isn't an option. I hear that there are some great beaches and places to explore on the Leeward side. There are also several small islands or kays in the bay to explore.

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