11/25/15 Navy Life and Wild Life

Jack Standing Left Front

 Jack Sailing By Coronado

As Jack finishes up Legal School, he gets news his ship, the USS Chung-Hoon DDG93, is stopping in San Diego to load weapons and can pick him up so we get to witness his first deployment!!!!!!!  Nice to meet several of his shipmates as he boards the skiff taking him out to his ship (Destroyer in background of skiff is similar to his).  We drive to Point Loma and watch the tugs back the ship off the dock and turn it around in the channel.  With lots of sailors (including Jack) on deck, we watch it sail around the Point and into the sunset.  HOW COOL IS THAT!!!  His ship was part of an exercise off southern California where people from California to Arizona saw or heard a missile fired from a U.S. submarine that prompted this comment in the LA Times: "Speculations were wide-ranging, including rumors of an otherworldly alien UFO visit. In fact, the streak was generated from the Trident missile’s rocket motor." Jack said it was AWESOME to watch the launch.  He loves his first deployment where he already moved up to the Communications Officer (COMMO) position. As an adjunct duty, he is also Legal Officer.

Missile Rattles Los Angeles

Zoe Handling Tranquilized Wolf

Zoe Aiming

Meantime Zoe sends great photos of her always interesting life. Here she is taking tranquilizer rifle and blow gun training at Wolf Haven outside Tacoma where she also performs checkups on endangered Mexican Wolves, the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America.  

Then we get a photo of a cougar in the trunk of her car and are not even shocked, since for her Masters Degree she would pickup up deer road kill and butcher them to produce bait for tracking fishers and bobcats in Western Maryland.  And last year she sent us a photo of her hiking away from a wolf kill with the head of a female Moose on her back.  Coming on the heels of the tranquilizer training photos, we assumed she tranquilized the cougar.  Jack's comment upon seeing it was something like, 'not the smartest thing you've ever done Zoe'. But upon further investigation we find out it is stuffed and being used as a prop for a presentation she is giving.  Pheww! 

Surprise, Surprise; Zoe Has a A Cougar in Her Trunk

Here she is at Halloween as a character from Narnia. 

And if life isn't interesting enough, a water main break in front of her house flooded her basement apartment.  Quick thinking saved her stuff from significant damage.

Zoe's New Lake Front Property

11/21/15 San Diego Revisited

Being foot loose and fancy free, we head back to San Diego for a month to hang out with Jack whose stay has been extended as he is assigned to Legal School after finishing Division Officer School.  The Admiral Baker RV Park is in a canyon where we see coyotes and deer, John walks to the Golf Course and Deb makes new friends with Peggy and John from Snoqualmie, Washington.  

We capture Jack for several dinners and boogy board trips to Breakers Beach where the waves are awesome but just about more than we are willing to ride.  Deb LOVES to boogy board, screaming with glee as she rides the waves. 

Deb and Jack 

John's Shirt "Working On My Bucket List"

We meet up with young newlywed friends from Virginia, Kyle (Marine stationed in San Diego) and Erin for dinner, a fun afternoon exploring Balboa Park, and an evening volunteering at the USO to serve Thanksgiving Dinner to needy military families. Also caught up with JoeDe J. for a tour of Girl Scout Headquarters and a nice walk around Balboa Park.  

Mission Trails Park

A few minutes up the road is Mission Trails Park where we take wonderful sunset hikes on several of the peaks and where Deb takes a "tracker" hike and learned lots about wildlife signs on the trail.  We attend a Park concert of unusual instruments playing very beautiful music.  The instruments played are the Array mbira and handpan. 

La Jolla Shores

Driving the truck onto the La Jolla Shores Beach to launch the kayak was a site.  On a perfectly warm, calm day we kayak out to the sea caves.  Only days later a full moon "king tides" flooded this area with massive surf!  

Sea Cave La Jolla