It's been a few months since I've sent out an update so here goes...We spent most of May packing up all our stuff to move to Groton, CT the first weekend of June. Paul had to go to San Antonio, TX for 10 days in mid-May for C-4 training (learning how to be a doc in combat). He really enjoyed the hands-on part of it out in the field, but was bored to tears by all the power point lectures that he had to sit through. Meanwhile, I got a taste of what it would be like if Paul ever got deployed (in other words, what it would be like to be a single mom for a while). Moving our stuff to CT went very smoothly (except for Paul taking the moving truck on an expressway where trucks are not allowed!), and temporarily living with our friends in VA for the month of June went about as well as it could have. It's challenging not to have your own space when you're used to it, but they were very gracious hosts and we enjoyed our time with them. We were able to go home to MN and IA in late June to visit friends and family, but those trips home always seem to go by too fast and we are already missing everyone again! Paul graduated from his internship on June 30th (yay!!!) and we started living in our house in CT on July 1st. The air conditioner didn't work for the first 4 days we were here (which happened to be the hottest 4 days of the summer so far), so needless to say we weren't too happy about that. Besides that we are really enjoying ourselves here in CT. I wouldn't mind staying here for Paul's 2 1/2 year billet. Paul's dive school instructor's job will be opening up so I'm trying to talk him into taking it, but he would rather be out with the divers doing fun stuff and practicing some kind of medicine (rather than just organizing dive school for each new class). We'll see what all our options are this fall and then make a decision from there.
Paul gets up at 4am every weekday and works until around 4pm. Like his C-4 training, he is being inundated with powerpoint lectures on radiation health (which he hates), but he's also being paid to PT for several hours a day (which he loves). He's getting in very good shape and enjoys showing off his "big guns" whenever possible (and I'm not talking about firearms). The best part about CT so far though is Paul's weekends off. The first weekend we spent unpacking our stuff. The second weekend we rented a rowboat and spent 3 days fishing in an area lake. The third weekend we went to Plymouth, MA and saw Plymouth Rock, and then continued on to Cape Cod where we stayed in a cabin. We spent that Saturday driving all the way to the end of Cape Cod and back, and then on Sunday we took a ferry to Martha's Vineyard. On the way home Sunday afternoon, we stopped and saw a friend of mine from high school who lives in Providence, RI. It was fun catching up with him and his family. Last weekend we decided to drive 8 hours to Niagara Falls. We took another couple from dive school and their nephew along with us. Besides just seeing the falls, we went on a wet jet boat that takes you up river at 50 MPH to a place called Devil's Hole (sounds fun, huh?). They then "attack" class 5 rapids with the goal of getting everyone on the boat as wet as possible. At times the boat was filled with so much water that it came up to our knees! Nothing like seeing a wall of water coming at you with no place to hide!!! I have attached some pictures of us on the boat (separate from the Kodak pictures). We also went on a "Journey behind the falls" where you take an elevator underground to a series of tunnels that take you behind the falls (imagine that!). You could feel the ground vibrating from the force of the water falling, and then we went out onto a platform where you could see behind Niagara Falls. It was pretty cool! Lastly, we had a very nice dinner (compliments of our friends) at the top of the Skylon Tower. We got to see the sunset, a rainbow, the falls by day light, and the falls lit up at night all during that dinner. It was spectacular!
This weekend we are hanging around here (at Paul's request), and then next weekend we plan to go to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. On August 12th, Six Flags New England is having a Military Appreciation Day, so we will probably take advantage of that (despite Paul's protests), and then on August 18th we head to Panama City, FL for 9 weeks. I got us a great deal on a 2 BR beach front condo, so if any of you would like to visit you are definitely welcome to stay with us. We would love to have some visitors! The place we're staying is on Panama City Beach and we will be there until October 24th. Shortly after we get back from FL, we should get the billet list (which shows all the job possibilities for Paul's 2 1/2 years of payback time). We will rank our choices and then the guys work it out amongst themselves who gets which billets (jobs). We should find out where we are going sometime in November. Paul is done with dive school in mid-December, and then we are hoping to take the last half of December off to visit friends and family for the holidays before moving to wherever Paul's new job will be.
Paul gets up at 4am every weekday and works until around 4pm. Like his C-4 training, he is being inundated with powerpoint lectures on radiation health (which he hates), but he's also being paid to PT for several hours a day (which he loves). He's getting in very good shape and enjoys showing off his "big guns" whenever possible (and I'm not talking about firearms). The best part about CT so far though is Paul's weekends off. The first weekend we spent unpacking our stuff. The second weekend we rented a rowboat and spent 3 days fishing in an area lake. The third weekend we went to Plymouth, MA and saw Plymouth Rock, and then continued on to Cape Cod where we stayed in a cabin. We spent that Saturday driving all the way to the end of Cape Cod and back, and then on Sunday we took a ferry to Martha's Vineyard. On the way home Sunday afternoon, we stopped and saw a friend of mine from high school who lives in Providence, RI. It was fun catching up with him and his family. Last weekend we decided to drive 8 hours to Niagara Falls. We took another couple from dive school and their nephew along with us. Besides just seeing the falls, we went on a wet jet boat that takes you up river at 50 MPH to a place called Devil's Hole (sounds fun, huh?). They then "attack" class 5 rapids with the goal of getting everyone on the boat as wet as possible. At times the boat was filled with so much water that it came up to our knees! Nothing like seeing a wall of water coming at you with no place to hide!!! I have attached some pictures of us on the boat (separate from the Kodak pictures). We also went on a "Journey behind the falls" where you take an elevator underground to a series of tunnels that take you behind the falls (imagine that!). You could feel the ground vibrating from the force of the water falling, and then we went out onto a platform where you could see behind Niagara Falls. It was pretty cool! Lastly, we had a very nice dinner (compliments of our friends) at the top of the Skylon Tower. We got to see the sunset, a rainbow, the falls by day light, and the falls lit up at night all during that dinner. It was spectacular!
This weekend we are hanging around here (at Paul's request), and then next weekend we plan to go to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. On August 12th, Six Flags New England is having a Military Appreciation Day, so we will probably take advantage of that (despite Paul's protests), and then on August 18th we head to Panama City, FL for 9 weeks. I got us a great deal on a 2 BR beach front condo, so if any of you would like to visit you are definitely welcome to stay with us. We would love to have some visitors! The place we're staying is on Panama City Beach and we will be there until October 24th. Shortly after we get back from FL, we should get the billet list (which shows all the job possibilities for Paul's 2 1/2 years of payback time). We will rank our choices and then the guys work it out amongst themselves who gets which billets (jobs). We should find out where we are going sometime in November. Paul is done with dive school in mid-December, and then we are hoping to take the last half of December off to visit friends and family for the holidays before moving to wherever Paul's new job will be.
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