Childhood Memories in SoCal

Though I now consider myself a Virginian, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, up until about my senior year in college, I considered myself a Californian, having been born and raised there. It’s funny how much self-perceptions can change over the years, though I am still thankful for an upbringing on both coasts. (Or in two different countries as James would argue.) It’s been great visiting the places of my childhood, especially the places I used to live and go to church. I’ve been by both of the houses I could remember, though there were more, both of the churches I used to go to, and all three of the schools I attended. Both of the houses have been completely renovated and the first one I think they just tore down and rebuilt, because they are SUPER nice and did not look anything like that when we used to live there. These pictures are from when I was in elementary school. You may recognize the architecture from Top Gun, as this is where the movie was filmed. NTC is now closed, and has been turned into a Trader Joes, Starbucks, Panera, and some museums. (In fact, we met a guy who went to Tech at the Panera!) Top Gun wouldn’t have been nearly as awesome if there had been a Starbucks in the background! During one of the scenes, you can see the side of the church I was baptized in, and though it is brief, it is still super exciting!

Tide Pools

Growing up visiting the Virginia Living Museum at least once a year, I got used to seeing horseshoe crabs and starfish in a tank. Angela grew up visiting the real things along the coast, and she was excited to take me there. Apparently she wanted to be a Marine Biologist when she was little, and now that I’ve been to the tide pools, I can see why. Though, if she wanted to be a Marine Biologist, Virginia Tech was a bad choice. The tide pools alone are a great reason to visit the West Coast and us! The tide pools are teeming with aquatic life, and it is nothing like the museum. We used our national park pass to visit Point Loma’s tide pools, which you really have to hit just at low tide, or you won’t know how much life is under the water. The tide goes way out, revealing tiny puddles of water amongst piles of rocks. Snails, hermit crabs, starfish, and the elusive octopus survive in these waters. Little clams, sea urchins, and sea plants cling to the sides of the rock, and pray they won’t be pulled away by little children. And...there were definitely kids doing that! We went twice this past weekend, and I still can’t believe how cold the water is in September! Angela and I both absolutely love them, and they are actually really close to our place, so we’ll probably visit a lot, especially at low tide. The cliffs are beautiful too, so if we miss low tide, we can still enjoy the beauty of the Pacific.

Bub’s Dive

Nothing like another Orange Effect that actually worked! We went again to Bub’s Dive in Pacific Beach to watch the battle of the Tech’s. This time we realized that many college alumni gather in the area, as there was an Ohio State bar, California bar, and Oklahoma bar along the same strip. We watched Tyrod solidify his hold on the QB spot and our team sell out to Nike again with UGLY unis. The throwback jersey’s from last week looked great, perhaps with a modern maroon helmet? But the point is we won, though I bet we will lose at least one within the next stretch of 4 games. But things could be worse, we could be UVA, who will likely be favored to lose to DUKE this weekend. How does that happen? Al Groh seems to be “out of whack.” In any case, I can’t believe this is our third season not in the band, or able to live hokie football weekly. You can only drink your way through so many games on TV without becoming utterly depressed that you are not in Lane Stadium. But after the game we took a leisurely walk to the board walk and watched surfers against picturesque cliffs. Living here feels like we are permanently on vacation, it is that nice outside all the time.

Dining Out = Fraternity

Many US military traditions are borrowed from great European organizations, and the US navy is essentially a copy-cat of the English. I escorted Angela to the final Tarawa dining out, in which we wear dress uniforms and observe many odd traditions while building camaraderie. Angela was happy because she got to buy a new dress. The dinner was on Coronado Island in a building on the beach. I had not been to Coronado yet, and we got there early enough to explore the outside of famous Hotel Coronado, where the presidents stay and a wing is haunted by an old woman. The actual dinner was interesting, as we witnessed parading of beef, killing the cook, and drinking of grog from a toilet bowl. We also toasted everyone in the US government with port... and the marines twice. It reminded us a bit like a fraternity event, with punishments for silly violations. Perhaps the funniest violation of the night was when someone dropped their belt buckle in a urinal, and we were all required to show our belt buckles to expose the culprit. After the dinner we enjoyed one of San Diego’s more famous beaches for a late night stroll.

Panama!?

Panama was a good experience for me. I really felt for the rest of the “Big T” who just got back from a 7 month deployment, but it gave me a good taste of sea life without being away from Angela too long. We are not opposed to long absences from each other, it was just difficult to leave her when we are not even settled yet, forcing her to take care of a lot of issues I usually deal with. But I got to visit Panama and make friends from other countries. We had a few days of liberty in Panama City, which I used to go out into the Rainforests of Central America. Who knows when I will get a chance to go horseback riding and zip-lining in the canopy of a rainforest again? We were in Central America to take part in a 20 country military exercise, and being the largest ship participating we had dozens of VIPs and other visitors. I got a chance to work with foreign participants and get a working knowledge of how my job fits into the bigger picture. Other than the exercise, there wasn’t much excitement in the voyage, other than the obvious fact that cool Pacific waters keep San Diego much cooler than it ought to be. Coming into San Diego bay is rather impressive, as you pass Point Loma and Coronado on your right, with Mexico visible a few miles south. The city’s skyline is growing, and passing under the blue bridge is rather neat. Angela had a great view of it when she went sailing.

Finally in our "Element"

Meet the newest addition to the West Coast Gouger family! The Saturn has finally been replaced by a car that has automatic locks and windows! YAY! And our Hokie magnets will stick to it! It’s like a swiss army knife on wheels. This thing can do everything! It’s the same length or shorter than my car (seriously)…yet it can hold a ton of stuff. The doors open up all wide and all of the backseats fold up against the sides so you can carry large items. Plus you can sweep it out…there’s not carpet! And AJ is happy since it was voted the number one dog friendly car of the year in 2007. Plus…we can have awesome tailgates in it since we actually have a tailgate now. Holla at the import! Notice that we buy maroon cars, not white cars. Mary…it’s up to you to be different too!

Hotel Coronado

Catching that wind

It’s no surprise that my brother and I both love to be out on the water, since we were both raised along the water…in San Diego and Virginia Beach. I love being at the beach and in the sun, and my brother loves to sail and do anything with boats. So when he came to visit last month, we rented a boat with two of his friends and went sailing. This was my first sailing experience out on the ocean, as I have only done little sailboats at sailing camps on lakes and rivers, and that was back in the day, so I really don’t have any sailing skills to say the least. My brother, on the other hand, is on the sailing team at the Coast Guard Academy and owns his own sailboat (which still makes me laugh). His two friends are both on the sailing team and had been sailing since they were little, so I decided to trust these three boys with my life. It was an amazing day out on the water, with the sun shining beautifully and everyone out for a Sunday sail. I steered the boat for a little while, but then freaked out when we were heeling, scared we would capsize. As the boys are yelling at me what to do with terms I don’t understand, I just gave up and had one of them do it. They all had laughs and giggles over it, reassuring me that they were right there to grab it if I did something wrong, but I still didn’t think it was that funny, and enjoyed myself much more when I was watching them sail! We got a beautiful view of San Diego from the water, including the sky line and Point Loma, watched the seals hanging out, and sailed for some time along the Stars and Strips, a racing ship for the USA. It was really exciting being out on the water, and when James and I get more settled in, we are going to take some sailing classes together, so we can enjoy San Diego from the water again and again!

Pacific Fire

A great sunset over the Pacific, off the coast of Mexico. I am back on land in San Diego after spending a month out to sea. The sunsets out to sea are breathtaking. Nothing like going on a cruise you get paid for! Angela and I are considering a cruise at some point while living here, as we are close to the beaches of Mexico and we love to travel!

Panama

Let's go Hokies....at 9:00 in the morning...

How excited are we that we have found an awesome group of San Diego Hokies to watch football games with? Ecstatic! And how excited were we when the Hokies lost another game? Indifferent. While it is nice to win, the friendly environment and the experience of the Hokie game is much more important than the actual win. Especially when you sit back and think to yourself…I’m older than every single person on that team. That’s pretty humbling and may make you think twice about making them carry the huge burden of 60,000+ fans. As Dave McKee once told us: “The pizza will still be warm…and the beer will still be cold.” That being said… Glennon has had five years to learn how to play college football. At first I felt bad for him, but then when he whined to the media, I decided that he should probably not blame everybody else on the team and take some responsibilities for his own actions. So I am excited to see what Tyrod brings us this Saturday, and I respect Beamer enough to believe in his decisions of who should start. James and I watched the game at this awesome bar in Pacific Beach with about 60 other Hokies! We got there about 8:50 in the morning (ughhhhhhhh) and the bar was already full…it was super exciting. Check out the menu If you notice on the top left hand corner....they are Hokies! I think that’s what really sells the place…everyone is wearing Tech stuff, including the Bar tenders. And they have the best tater tots ever, and when I say the best, I mean Napoleon Dynamite would be in heaven. They were good enough to make me want to put them in my pocket. We met some awesome people and I am so excited to continue to meet even more. We had class with one of the girls and she came up to us and said we had World Politics together. It’s amazing that you can take a class with 500 students and then be at a bar on the west coast watching a game and have someone recognize you from the exact class. That’s what the Hokie Nation is all about!