2/17/16 The Great Green Fleet; Jack in Tokyo

The USS Chung-Hoon joins Carrier Strike Group 3, also known as the "Great Green Fleet", and Jack is off on a 7 month deployment. The group consists of the carrier USS John C. Stennis, along with the cruiser Mobile Bay, the destroyers Chung-Hoon,

Stockdale, and William P. Lawrence, and the fast combat support ship Rainier. Much to do in the press about this fleets reliance on an alternative fuel blend using beef fat and other energy saving strategies. Hey Jack, does the ship smell like McDonalds? One reports says the Navy has led the way in weining U.S. armed forces off a dependence on fossil fuels with this new biofuel formula costing less than traditional fossil fuel.

 

We finally find a photo of Jack on the Chung-Hoon's Facebook page.  Here he is in the orange vest between the CO and XO driving the ship up to the carrier during an "underway replenishment".  He gets his

ship close, then they shoot lines across, then transfer tons of fuel, food, equipment, mail, etc. across the lines. Driving the ship is one of Jack's favorite things to do!  

Tokyo From Jack's Hotel Room

Although Jack can email while underway,  his first port call is Tokyo where we get to see/talk to him via Facetime! He is working hard, loving his time on the sea and grateful to have a few days liberty in a beautiful hotel with a sleeping space bigger than a coffin and a change of menu.  For his last night in the hotel there were no more "foreigner" rooms which meant sleeping Japanese style on a floor mat, sitting on floor cushions, and using the facility which was just a hole in the floor.

He and some shipmates enjoyed the exercise touring for miles in and around Tokyo sampling the local fare.

Jack in Tokyo

2/15/16 Tucson For The Winter, Side Trips to Florida and Minneapolis

We settle into Tucson for the winter at Davis Montham Air Base Famcamp.  Quartzsite was a good intro to the West reminiscent of old western movies and exploring the mountains surrounding Tucson continues the feeling.  Morning weather is delightful for hiking and we learned early that trails are not always marked well so we got "off trail" which is REALLY BAD when you are a newbie in the desert surrounded by cacti of all persuasions. Bushwhacking through cacti in thin pants (thankfully we had on long pants) is pretty dumb as Deb found out when she ended up with a leg full of hair size cactus spines. Next day we took a wonderful guided walk in Sabino Canyon Park with Ranger Dan, a retired oil geologist and water engineer. Deb learned to bring "Nair" (remember stinky leg hair removal lotion from our teens?) along and slather it on when you get cactus spiked because it dissolves them!  Dan shared lots of rock puns including John's favorite for which he continually reminds Debra when she picks up a rock.  It's called "leaverite", aka "leave-er right where you found it". Ha Ha.  We came upon a couple of scat samples, Dan said you can tell fox scat from other small carnivore's as it is often on top of a rock or log and it tastes salty.  He picks up a piece and tastes it!! 

Bobcat In Tucson Spiritual Center Parking Lot

Come to find out, his assistant had gone ahead and set up a few sea salt chocolate covered almonds along side some real fox scat.  Looked very real!  He called it Fox-on-the-rocks. Found out where he buys them and are sending some to Zoe to try out on her biologist friends and to use in presentations :) Also learned that the tallest saguaro cactus in these parts are about 250 year old and die when they get too tall (about 50 feet) and fall over.  A 10 year saguaro is only 1.5 inches tall.  A 50 foot cactus can weigh 2 tons after it absorbs water from a rare rainfall. Only 11 inches a year here on average.

True Lies Club at Geri's

We are only in Tucson a few weeks before Debra sets off to the Florida Keys for her annual "True Lies Club" get together at Geri's, followed by a week with sister Sherrie in Key West.  Although the weather is a bit cooler than normal by Florida standards, much fun is had revisiting the Big Pine Flea Market, lunching at No Name Pub, and brunch on Little Palm Island with the TLC. At one of the hundreds of Tucson Gem Show venues, Deb found a handmade Afghanistan belly dancer jingly belt for Geri to wear when she teaches Zumba and she loved it!  

Sunning on Key West Beach

Had a blast riding bikes all over Key West with Sherrie, checking out President Truman's Key West White House, collecting beach treasures and sunset/bar hopping  Duval Street with thousands of other tourists. When the bartender at the Hard Rock left to check on our food, she left us in charge of the bar.  Free drinks for all!  Another time while hovering around a couple waiting for their seats, the gal says, "Oh, you want these seats? What is it worth to you?"  Sherrie whips out a stack of 2-for-1 drink cards the hotels hand out like candy; the gal does the same and the two of them begin swapping.  What a party town; it was great fun but glad we took hotel shuttle back to Ibis Bay Beach Resort before all the real crazies came out. 

Sistas

Deb was "noting" that the Florida temps were 10-15 degrees below their normal winter 80's.   Meanwhile John was in Minnesota visiting Aunt Joanne where he also was "noting" that among the snow and ice, the temperature there was -2 with windchill of 25 below zero.  OUCH!  He also visited with sister Barb and high school friends Melisa, Steve, Don and wife Carrie.  To ease Deb's conscious a bit she brought him back some big Key West Pink Shrimps.  Gonna take a lot more than that.....

Deb's View

John's View

1/27/2016 - Zoe's Trip To Africa and "The Mystical Backpacker"

 Serengeti Migration, Horizon to Horizon

I’m so excited to guest blog about my trip! My parents are leading lives of blog-worthy interest and adventure, with added tidbits about Jack and me. My most recent escapade took me to the place of my childhood dreams, Africa. Kenya and Tanzania to be exact. My travel partner, Tom (my Masters thesis adviser), and I had three goals: 1) present our research and host a session at the biannual Human Dimensions of Wildlife Conference, 2) make contact with federal agencies and NGOs regarding research opportunities, and 3) go on safari and experience AFRICA! I have to say, we accomplished all three and then some…

Mount Kenya Safari Club Conference Center

We began our journey at the Human Dimensions Conference in Nanyuki, Kenya, a picturesque venue conveniently located on the equator with a view of Mount Kenya, the tallest mountain in the country at 17,000 feet tall. I asked some locals if they had ever seen snow and they said “Yes, I’ve hiked Mount Kenya.” During the conference we had the good fortune to visit a nearby animal sanctuary where we interacted with ostriches, bongos, monkeys, tortoises, and the highlight for me…a cheetah! 

Following the conference we traveled 2 hours northwest to spend a few days at the Mpala Research Centre and Wildlife Foundation. This research facility was my dream come true, a place where great international minds converge in the African bush to solve ecological conundrums. We set live traps for small carnivores, tracked GPS-collared African wild dogs to their den, and (my personal favorite) patrolled the grounds after dark to spotlight for nocturnal animals. It is immensely thrilling to see a giraffe up close while hanging out the top of a Land Cruiser with a spotlight in one hand and bottle of wine in the other! 

Maasai Dwellings

The rest of the trip was a safari adventure across the iconic landscapes of Tanzania, including stays in Lake Manyara, Tarangire, and Serengeti National Parks and the Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Area. This place is truly the cradle of humanity, where ancient human cultures and wildlife continue to coexist at the confluence of forested volcanic calderas and tallgrass savannah. We arrived in the Serengeti a few weeks into an annual wet season migration—one of the last remaining mass migrations in the world—where millions of animals follow seasonal rain storms hundreds of miles in search of green pasture. Driving through herds of wildebeest, gazelles, zebras, eland, and impala that stretch from horizon to horizon is a sight to behold, and not one I will soon forget. 

Radiator Repair "Sweet Tea"

Our trip was full of adventure and mishap. The Land Cruiser we rented had seen better days as we were constantly repairing it and picking up parts that fell off as we rode down the rough dirt roads. I love tea, and thanks (depending on how you look at it) to British colonization, so do East Africans. It’s a good thing too, because 8 tea bags and 6 liters of water saved our Land Cruiser’s over-heated radiator in the middle of the Serengeti. One of the Safari drivers who stopped to help us exclaimed, “You’re all good, when you arrive in Seronera you will have sweet tea!"

It was the trip of a lifetime, and a catalyst for the next stage in my career. Promising post-doctoral research opportunities include evaluating the population status, genetic integrity, and movement patterns of lions in Manyara National Park, Tanzania, or assisting local communities in alleviating human-cheetah conflicts in Namibia. Stay tuned!       Zoë

SIDEBAR - Deb's Book Review of "The Mystical Backpacker" by Hannah Papp.  Bought this book for Zoe and decided to read it while she was in Africa.  Highly recommend it for anyone interested in a good true travel story from Dublin to Budapest, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cypress and/or for anyone looking for direction.   Its Hannah's journey of self discovery after realizing she was living a life without direction or inspiration.  She uses her extensive journals as a younger traveler but writes the book in her 40's infusing ageless wisdom.  Chapters end with exercises should you choose to partake or just skip them. Here are some ideas I particularly liked.   "When you are removed from your community, you are removed from your ego.  No longer worried about what they might think, you are free to explore what you think.  When your environment does not mirror, reflect or define you, then you have no one to Be but your true self."  "We aren't defined by our life experiences - we are defined by our responses to them."  "We are not harnessed or determined by the dictates of others, we are either enslaved or lifted up by our own thoughts."  Paraphrasing, she writes: When frightened or stressed we often immerse ourselves in fear-based thoughts, creating scenarios that make us feel even worse.  To move focus outside of this fiction of our mind, do something you love like eat ice cream, take photographs, read a book that uplifts you.  "Tell your mind to get over its Big Bad Self and just lick an ice cream...you may lick like a person unhinged, but eventually you'll calm down."

1/22/16 RV and Rock Show in Quartzsite, Arizona

 John's brother-in-law, Craig, is a serious rock hound who Deb reveres as she too is a rock hound but more at heart than in deed (because John won't let her fill the RV with rocks like Lucy did in the 1953 movie "The Long, Long Trailer").  So when Craig suggested we meet at the POW WOW Rock, Gem and Mineral Show in Quartzsite, Arizona on our way from San Diego to Tucson, of course Deb said YES.  About 6 miles outside of town we noticed numerous RVs parked randomly in the desert. The closer we got to town the more we saw until literally, there were RVs filling the desert as far as the eye could see.  Little did we know we were about to participant in what is billed as "the largest gathering of RVs and RVers IN THE WORLD"! The Arizona Highway Department estimates that "750,000 to 1 million people (mostly in RV's) come to the sleepy 

Typical Quartzsite  Scene

little desert town of Quartzsite (population 1,900) every January to attend one of America's biggest RV Shows, streets lined with open air flea markets and numerous Rock, Gem and Mineral Shows. Hundreds of thousands of RVs crowd the Bureau of Land Management property surrounding Quartzsite, it's 65 RV parks and much of the open space on property owned by the local businesses and homeowners." This 2 mile by 2 mile town consists of a few small general stores, an assortment of restaurants and LOTS of small businesses targeted to RV needs including these two.
   

        

Deb and Craig spent several long blissful days among the hundreds of rock vendors; Deb perusing...Craig purchasing.  Deb did buy a bunch of "ghost town desert glass" which consisted of large hunks of old glass frosted and colored beautifully by age which was supposedly found in ghost town dumps.  She plans to hang these bobbles from a piece of cactus wood for a decoration on our future deck (which by the way now has a roof on it).  

 

Note Trucks Down In The Valley Behind Deb's Head

One day we joined a caravan (sans RV) to Brenda, AZ where we tested our trucks 4x4 Off Road package on a 5 mile trek through the desert.  In the foothills we prospected for red, white and blue jasper which was everywhere and Deb picks up a cool cholla (choy ya) cactus skeleton which she will bleach and decorate with some of the jasper, geode and chrysocolla we prospected.  The wagon master told a story about going out into the hills with a pocket full of marbles.  When you pick up a rock you put down a marble and when you've lost all your marbles you're a rock hound.  John says this describes Debra to a "t".  

1/14/16 Happy New Year 2016 Salem, Oregon and San Diego

Break In Snow Storm On Drive To Sisters, Oregon

Jack joins us as we dig a rental car out of the deep freeze in Pullman and drive to Salem, Oregon to visit John's cousin Meghan for a week over New Year's. He flies back to Pearl Harbor the next day while we get to visit their Three Sister's ranch land in beautiful Central Oregon and have a wonderful family Christmas/New Year's celebration with their Mom, kids and grand kids.

After our flight is cancelled due to plane issues, we eventually land back in San Diego in the middle of a powerful El Nino thunder storm which had caused us to divert around San Diego as the airport was shut down due to a rare tornado warning at the time we were supposed to be landing. Things are looking up as we Uber our way through torrential rains and flooding to arrive at the truck/RV storage just as they are closing.  We think we are home free as there is a break in the rain while we prepare the RV for towing....but oh no, it is not to be. The RV batteries are dead (had been having issues) and we can't retract the levelers which means it can't be moved.  Using the truck, we jump the RV generator to charge the batteries to no avail. It's now pitch black, cold, drizzling and oh yeah, we are starving.  Finally we jump direct to the batteries, get just enough juice to retract the levelers and an hour later we are off to Sweetwater Summit Campground. Once there we have enough juice to level and open the bedroom slide, but not enough for lights. And oh yeah, the furnace isn't working either! Thank goodness for canned soup which we heat on the gas stove. It is raining so hard it sounds like rocks pounding on our tin roof making it hard to talk to each other never mind try to sleep. And, it is cold. ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

Rainbow Over Sweetwater Lake San Diego

Next morning we replace the RV batteries and eventually figure out there are fuses inside the thermostat and the converter that had blown (thunderstorms??) which once replaced had everything running smoothly again.  The sun comes out along with a rainbow, it warms back up and yes, we are having fun.  Deb says she has already had enough "adventure" on this trip to last a lifetime and asks the universe to tone it down to simply "interesting".  

So why are we driving remote back roads along the Mexican boarder to visit the stone monument placed on the beach in 1851 marking the extreme southwest corner of the United States???  The drive was a little disconcerting but once we got there the armed Boarder Guards patrolling the mile and a half walk through desolate marshes and beach was most comforting.....

Extreme Southwest Corner of U.S. at Tijuana

Hiking around Sweetwater Park, touring Old Town San Diego and New Town (Gas lamp district) and the USS Midway again took up the rest of our time.   While on the Midway we paid special attention to the areas of the ship where Deb's dad worked in 1950-51.  He held one of the worst jobs on the ship - a fireman in the boiler where temperatures averaged 130 degrees.  In the campground we see bunnies, a beautiful coyote and many birds including a roadrunner.  John doesn't win the unprecedented $1.5 Billion Power Ball (thank goodness) so he won't be funding mass education after buying an Irish Castle.

Sunset Over Our RV Sweetwater Summit Park

12/25/15 Savannah GA, Park City UT and Pullman WA

Storing the truck and RV in San Diego, we're off on a 6 week odyssey flying to Savannah, Georgia for a two week visit with Deb's family over Thanksgiving, a week skiing with Zoe and Jack in Park City, Utah, then Christmas at Zoe's place in Pullman, and New Year's with John's cousin Meghan in Salem, Oregon.  Really feeling like gypsies again.

Dee and Sherrie in Savannah

Flying to Savannah on Thanksgiving Day was a great idea, lower fares and the airports were empty.  The gathering of Deb's brother and sisters was a fun event as usual but highlighted by Dennis proposing to Linda....YAHOO another YAYA added to the sisterhood!  Spent lots of time helping Dee and Stan downsize their house, had a great boat ride pulling crab traps, and ate Stan's delicious pizza made with cauliflower crust.  Two lovely warm, sunny weeks went by fast.

We meet up with Jack at the Salt Lake City, Utah airport where he presents Mom with a most beautiful, fragrant plumeria and orchid lei from Hawaii!  Having our priorities straight, we take a shuttle to the nearest hotel lounge to watch the NAVY football team beat up ARMY.   So cool to see Jack's ship pictured on the helmets of the Navy linebackers.  Unfortunately, Zoe didn't make it due to the stresses of her apartment flooding and preparing for the Africa trip. 

John and Jack Park City

Jack's Sled Park City Olympic Track

Our Park City condo has a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains, and there is just enough snow for really good skiing. We were one of the first skiers to ride the new gondola connecting Park City Resort to Canyons Resort.  Park City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and Jack gets an early Christmas present of a bobsled ride down the Olympic track, driven by Valerie Fleming, the 2006 Winter Games Silver Medalist.  IT WAS AWESOME, he says, feeling 3 G's of pressure as the sled goes up the sides of the ice as it speeds 66 mph down the track.  Ask to see the video :)

A most beautiful site when Zoe picks us up in Spokane and Jack gives her a lei as snow falls all around them! Oh yes, life is so so very good to us.  Air BnB sets us up in a great 2 bedroom apartment in Pullman.  Have lots of fun baking cookies and playing in the snow with Zoe's boyfriend, Gabe, and his two little girls who also join us for Christmas dinner along with Zoe's roommates Joy and Camille.  

Christmas Snowperson in Pullman

It snows a little every day in Pullman, but snows lots in the Cascades where an avalanche closes Snoqualmie Pass preventing our mail and 500 Amazon Prime packages from getting delivered by Christmas day.  This reminds John of Christmas in Malta when he was 8 years old (his father, Navy Civil Engineer Corp., was stationed at NATO Headquarters) when "Santa's plane" carrying mail/presents was diverted to a search and rescue mission, arriving the day after Christmas.

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

10/22/2015 Checking Out Tucson, AZ

Agave Gulch FamCamp View

Small Portion of the Bone Yard

Having no plan at the moment, we check out Tucson as a possible place to winter. We fall in love with this desert city with it's pleasant weather and beauty surrounded by several different mountain ranges. Then we discover Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has a great RV park, Agave Gulch FamCamp.  It sits along side the bases famous aircraft "bone yard" where all branches of the military services park their retired crafts. This place is massive with over 4,200 air craft of all types either waiting to be called up again or waiting to be dismantled.  One of Jack's best friends, Gibby, recently flew his Army helicopter here to be retired.  

Larry, Missie and John in Tubac

So much fun to meet up with John's cousin Missie and husband Larry who live here along with Bob S., an old Navy/Sonalysts friend. Missie and Larry take us a little south of Tucson to the small artsy township of Tubac where we lunch at Shelby's and poke around the many shops.  

Some cool campers we have seen along the way.