Saturday Entry Posted on Sunday

Here we are in Virginia Beach. It's Saturday - we arrived at midnight on Thursday, 31 and a half hours after we woke up Sara's and left Okinawa for the last time for a long time. (We hope to get stationed back there some time in the future, we loved it so much!)

It was an exhausting trip, but no where near as bad as we had feared! Wesley was really quite an angel and if I could thank him in a way that he would understand, I would do it 1,000 times over!

Our flight leaving Seattle to Washington DC ran about 45 minutes late leaving me VERY stressed out and us only enough time to scuttle as quickly as we could across the terminal to our next gate and literally jump on the plane to Virginia Beach.

Somewhere along that little adventure our luggage, all SIX bags of it, got lost. We checked it at Seattle, through to VA (as we knew we only had a VERY small frame of window to change planes...) and it never made it to VA. They told us to wait 48 hours, and if it wasn't back (it's been 24+ now...) then United Airlines would compensate us with either money or airline tickets. As Tommy pointed out - why would we want to fly with an airline who loses our bags?

Luckily we all had one (or more, if you're Wesley) change of clothes in our carry on. And our sponsor here was VERY kind and lent us his pack'n'play (portable cot) for Wesley to sleep in. It's a make-do and hope they find everything situation right now!

What can I tell you about Virginia Beach? It's cold, but not as cold as I expected. However, the high today is only 4C and the low is -3C, so it's still awfully cold.

We picked up our car yesterday - another trot of misadventures. I swear, Tommy and I used up all our luck when we met each other! We've said to each other for years, and I truly believe it is true. Aye! So we get lost on the way there. Unbelievably Wesley takes a nap for an hour - the time it SHOULD have taken to get there - instead it takes over two, and he loss his cool, screaming in a way that suggests he is telling us: "The deal is if I take a nap, when I wake up we're suppose to be there, yo!"

We get there, finally, the dealer has everything ready for us and gives us directions to the DMV to get our number plates and registration sorted. Five minutes down the road. Huh, uh, yeah right. Over 45 minutes later, one VERY distraught baby (and in turn, Mamma) we find the DMV, and they tell us without proof of residency (a lease, or a bill with our address on it...) they can't do it. We try to explain we don't have a lease yet, as we arrived only last night from Japan. No deal. So we drive BACK to the dealer (which, not surprisingly only takes about 5-10 minutes now that we know the way... *shakes head*) and she suggests we get a "Travel Note" which gives us permission to drive our car without plates or registration for 3 days until we can get everything sorted.

So, we trek back to the DMV with a baby who screams at the very IDEA of a carseat by this point. (Oh, drive to Florida you will be the death of me, for sure....) and the lady gives us this $5 little piece of paper. (Why she couldn't give it to us the first time is why she works for a Government department, I'm sure. It must be part of the training...?) We drive BACK to the dealer and pick up our car. We put Wesley's carseat into our car, and drive the little over an hour home. Wes again naps for an hour, but screams pretty much as soon as he wakes up, in a similar fashion to the earlier "Why aren't we there yet? I napped!" screams.

We stop at Target on the way back home to give Wes (and ourselves) a little rest - it's been a LOT of hours (5+) in the car, and we went a grand total of, oh, no where. So we stop, and we browse new carseats for Wes. We find one we like, but decide to have a look at the NEX (the Navy version of the PX) and Babies R Us just to make sure, seeing as this one will last him until he is big enough to sit in the seat without a booster. (So 4+ years!) We also pick up some baby food (I did pack three days worth, but of course it's in my suitcase!) and a few other necessities we need that were packed into the suitcase. We pick up some Wendy's (Tommy's favourite fast food - for my Aussie's, it's not an ice cream store like at home, it's fast food - burgers, fries, etc) and head back to base and our lodge room where the internet doesn't work. Ha, for two internet junkies such as ourselves, this is almost like a fate worth than death! (I'm writing this blog in Word, and will cut and paste it as soon as we get some internet - maybe at Starbucks tomorrow, or something?)

So that's the last two fun-filled days.

Oh, and I arrive in Virginia Beach to find out that my Mum is flying to England on Saturday (She's already left now, Saturday Australia time) to see my Gran who had a fall, and is in bad shape. Not the best news - leaves me worrying about not only Gran, but my Mum as well! :o( I love you Mamma Bear and I hope you know that if I could do this for you, I would.