So ... our tour with 3d MAW is coming to an abrupt end, and Jim will be leaving the middle of March to drive to DC and start a new assignment. This is several months early than we expected and Ben still needs to finish high school, so Jim will be headed out to DC solo and Ben and I will remain here at Miramar until he graduates at the end of May. The reason for the urgency is that Jim has been nominated to fill a recently-vacated job in the Pentagon. Quite a curveball.
Of course the first thing that happens is Jim leaves town for 3 days 😳. A trip to Yuma was already on the calendar and even though it came at one of the worst moments, he didn't have much of a choice. So off he went. Jim is always up for adding more things to his plate, so he couldn't resist accepting the offer to do a "quick" pre-dawn hike up Telegraph Pass with our good friend Mark. Jim's aide and driver went along, cause why not? What could possibly go wrong?
Ha - well slamming his foot into a massive rock probably wasn't on Jim's Bingo card for this particular outing, but that is exactly what happened. Jim's hike-to-injury ratio is increasing in the injury side's favor. Who could forget the Easter hike of Mount Kasudake in April of 2020 in Okinawa. When Jim fell backwards and landed on a sharp rock that came centimeters from hitting a major artery. I will spare you a photo of his toe, but trust me when I say - it wasn't pretty. We have a ski trip planned for Ben's birthday - not sure how that is going to work out for him.
In addition to having our move slide to the left, the rose dedication at the garden next to our house also had to be accelerated. This rose garden was originally planted at El Toro in honor of Carol Shuter, the spouse of the Commanding General of El Toro in the late eighties. When El Toro closed, the garden was moved to MCAS Miramar. The tradition is for a rose bush to be planted in honor of the outgoing CG's spouse. I was given a choice of rose bushes and I chose a dark purple one called Twilight Zone. Several of my neighbors and friends were able to come the day of the dedication, and the Liberty Housing staff really outdid themselves. I was expecting just a quick planting and what I actually received was a fully thought-out event complete with speakers, snacks and laughter! I even teared up a bit!
The packers showed up the next day to start the process of boxing up almost everything we owned. No matter how many times we have done this dance, every move is different and we learn new ways to keep the things that don't need to be packed up from accidentally getting packed. This year I printed several DO NOT PACK stickers and was feeling pretty good about the amount of pre-move work we had been able to do. Of course there are always hiccups and I walked back into the living room just as the packers were taking the TV off the wall. OOPS! The sticker had fallen off. We were for sure going to need that TV for the temporary house and more importantly the truck wasn't getting loaded until the following Monday. We needed it in order to watch the Olympics over the weekend! Thankfully, I caught them in time and they were able to put it back.
We had the weekend to move around the mountain of boxes and move the items we were keeping into the temporary house (just 3 houses down the street). Sadly we weren't getting access to the interior of the new house until Monday, but we were able to put items in the garage.
The truck showed up early Monday morning and the crew got straight to work. I walked down the street to check into the temporary house so we could move the beds into the new house while the loaders started in the garage with the boxes and larger pieces of furniture. By lunchtime the truck was loaded and they drove away. I couldn't believe it! Now I just needed to clean out the fridge and vacuum the floor and our time in 1402 Orion Court was done. It was bittersweet shutting the door for the last time. Lots of good times were had here.
Lilly and Ben cooked up a day trip to Big Bear for Valentine's Day, which aligned with Ben's day off from school for President's day weekend - how convenient right? He and two friends headed up to UCLA to spend the night so they could get an early start on the drive. Lilly did a great job of showing them around campus and the immediate Westwood area. I even got some proof-of-life pictures!
They got up early the next day and made it to Big Bear right at opening. They said the snow conditions were meh, but any day skiing/snowboarding is better than a day not doing either, so they were happy. At the end of the day, they drove back to LA, dropped off Lilly and drove back to San Diego. Crazy!
Jim and I celebrated Valentine's Day a bit differently this year. I told him in leu of flowers or chocolate, I wanted him to join me for a FS8 class. He says once the CoC happens he will join me every day, I don't believe him, but he really should.
We also took Wesley down to the dog beach in Coronado for a stroll afterwards and topped it off by hitting up REI in preparation for our upcoming ski trip.
Not to be outdone, Lucy spent the weekend in Joshua Tree with her LTC (Leadership Training Course) group where she is being trained to lead trips, ranging from hiking, surfing, mountain climbing and kayaking to name a few, through the school's outdoor recreation program. She has been on several trips this year already and this one was a three-day, 27-mile hike through the National Park.
The days are just flying by. How is it already the middle of February? One of Ben's birthday gifts from Jim was to get Ben in a simulator on base. Ben landed on an aircraft carrier in the F-18 simulator on his first attempt, and also shot down a few fake airplanes over the skies of San Diego! Apparently he may have also flown under the Coronado Bay Bridge at a high rate of speed!! Not surprisingly, he is a natural.
Speaking of Ben's birthday, we now have only adults in the house! Big Ben rang in his 18th birthday with the customary birthday balloons in bed. It has been at least a decade since any of the children have been excited about waking up with balloons in the bed with them, but this is probably the last time it will happen soooo...
Ben's Birthday Ski Trip is finally here! We drove up to LA to pick up the girls and headed to Mammoth Mountain! We almost made it the entire way without having to stop to put on chains, but not quite. Mammoth had been dumped on earlier in the week (4-5 feet of new snow) and we were excited to ski on relatively fresh powder, our first since leaving Japan.
Unfortunately for me, I started feeling sick before getting in the car and by the time we got to the resort, all I wanted to do was sleep. Jim brought me some soup and I crawled into bed. Everyone else went out to dinner and scouted out the resort, which included several hot tubs.
The next morning, I wasn't feeling great, but was determined to at least ski a couple of runs. We sent the kids off so they could get on the first chair lift up while Jim and I checked out of the room and parked the car. Easier said than done. As I mentioned, the mountain had gotten about 5' of snow over the course of three days and the weather was forecasted to be PERFECT the day we were there. So we weren't the only ones who had planned on being on the mountain that day. The lower lift lines were LONG. There goes my plan of making a few runs and calling it a day. So we had to go higher up the mountain to spread out and find some snow that wasn't crowded. It was easier than we thought. Mammoth Mountain has a lot of terrain once you get past the base.
Took us until lunch to link up with the kids. Afterwards Jim wanted to go the summit. I was in no shape to ski down from there, but did ride the gondola up for a family photo. I told Jim I would meet him back at mid mountain and we would ski down and start the process of getting the car. The kids were set to meet us back where we had dropped them off at the start of the morning.
All in all Mammoth didn't disappoint, but there were some lessons-learned and for sure I wouldn't want to be there on a weekend ever again. Especially on a low snow year. But the goal was to ski for Ben's 18th Birthday and we got the ✅.
Speaking of the birthday, Lilly was supposed to get either a baby cake or at the very least a couple of cake slices so we could sing Happy Birthday to Ben. That didn't happen, so it was a few days later that we accomplished that particular tradition. Sorry Ben!
Ben's Boy Scout Troop held an Eagle Scout Ceremony for all the scouts who had achieved Eagle in the last year. It was super fun to hear about the other projects that scouts did and of course to close out Ben's scouting journey with the people who helped him achieve it.
The day of the Change-of-Command crept up on us. We have been just in a constant state of movement, most of which wasn't even touched-upon in this edition. Several friends from all throughout Jim's military timeline made the trek out to San Diego to join us. We linked up with some of them the night before the ceremony at a nearby brewery. Jim's sister Sallie and her husband Steve also made the trip out, for which we can never thank them enough.
Jim even took the time to met up with fellow surfer/marine Bill for a dawn patrol session the morning of the ceremony. The smiles on their faces must mean it was worth it.
I keep throwing around the term Change of Command (or CoC for short) like you guys know what I am talking about. For those of you who don't know it is a time-honored tradition in the USMC that symbolizes the transfer of authority and accountability from an outgoing commander to an incoming one. The centerpiece of the formal ceremony is the customary passing of the unit battle flag from one to the other. In other words, it is kind of a big deal.
Jim is sad to be giving up command early and will always look back at his time as being the CG of 3rd MAW as a highlight of his career.
Afterwards, there was a reception at the Officer's Club and then later a meetup at yet another brewery where we could catch up with everyone who we didn't really get a chance to talk to earlier in the day. We are just blown away by the people who came from all over the US to join us. Wow! You guys really know how to make us feel special.
Throughout the days and weeks leading up the CoC, Jim has been showered with going away gifts ranging from an end table made from a F18 engine to a giant flag to a plaque with all the platforms the Wing flies, but I think the one that brought the biggest smile to his face was the custom art surfboard from two of his aides and protocol officer! He was super touched and can't wait to hit the water with it!
The following night we joined a few friends that were in town for the CoC for a California sunset. Jim swears he saw the elusive green flash. The green flash is a massively popular meteorological phenomenon here in San Diego. It is when the atmosphere acts as a prism, refracting light into a fleeting (1-2 seconds) green or blue flash. Some people say the green flash is kind of like Bigfoot ... hard to get a good picture.
I took a video and we aren't sure if we actually saw it or just wanted to see it.
Regardless of whether or not there was a flash, the sunset was of course gorgeous. Afterwards we headed to a nearby restaurant to enjoy dinner and bask in these friendships that have lasted for decades.
Lastly, I am going to close the monthly recap with some extended family news. My nephew Will and his fiancé Mella had an engagement party in Swansboro at the Marina. From the pictures my sister shared with me, it looks like everyone had a marvelous time and we can't wait for the wedding later this summer! Love you guys!!!
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