crochet
02-18-2008, 10:50 PM
I tried to post in the General Topic but was unable, so here is my PIR story. :) First...when we arrived home 2-11-08, we were exhausted from the best weekend ever. It took my husband and I 3 days to recover and catch up on things at home/work. I played soccer Thurs 2-14-08 and we spent V-day night in the ER getting xrays of my wrist...I thought it was broken...bad sprain. I am so very happy that I can type today...just sore now. Now...to the day that we were so looking forward to since December...PIR. We flew out of Seattle on the Wednesday night redeye and arrived in Chicago on Thursday morning. We had reservations with the Shuttle Express and I had to call them 3 times. We arrived at the beautiful La Quinta Inn in Bannockburn at about 1030am and the very nice people at the front desk let us check in early. We took a swim in the best pool I have ever been in and then sat in the hot tub and watched TV(yes, a TV in the pool/hot tub area). We took a nap and then took the hotel shuttle to the Marriott in Lincolnshire to pick up or Hertz rental...a wonderful Toyota Matrix(perfect for driving in the snow) and drove around using the cool Never-Lost gadget in the rental. We thought that we drove to the base gate to prepare us for Friday morning...but we found out on Friday morning that it was the wrong gate(*funny story). Our son called at about 6pm and said that he received his ball cap and, Yes, he did cry during the ball cap ceremony. His voice was so gone we had to really concentrate to hear him at all. He sounded very tired. That is when he told us that he was Div 080 RPOC. We told him that we were in the hotel. He was surprized because he was hearing about canceled flights and with all the snow, he was worried that we wouldn't be able to make it to Chicago. We met some very nice PIR 2-8-08 families at Full Moon restaurant and headed back "home". We did the pool/hot tub again and got some sleep. Friday morning was beautiful. Snow was piled up everywhere and it was hard to find our way. (*) We arrived at the wrong gate and were told to turn around, take a right and go down to Illinois st...well the snow was high and the traffic light was covering just enough of the ILL State Rt sign that we thought it was Illinois st, so we turned right. At the wrong gate, remember that one, the guard, it seemed, had been pointing to our cute little blue rental and telling others to follow us because he had just given us perfectly good directions...they might as well "follow that car". We could tell that this is probably what happened because when we saw that we took a wrong turn and decided to turn around we recognized a line of about 10 cars that were following us like an adult game of follow the leader, that we remember seeing at the wrong gate. We made it to the PIR parking lot about 730am and made the cold slushy walk to the drill hall. I purchased a division T-shirt...cash only... found a seat. Our son was the RPOC of Division 080. He looked good but his voice was almost gone. The joy of "Liberty" was called and we hugged and clicked photos. Alot of smiling faces. A big "Thank You" from me to James and some other guys in Div 080 that decided that I, the RPOC's mom, would receive the division flag. I almost cried. Our son, T, wanted to go to the hotel right away. He did pool/hot tub/nap for the first of many times over that weekend. He treated us to a nice late lunch at Baker's Restaurant in Deerfield and then hotel again. Friday went fast and it was time to drop him off on base.
Saturday we were running late and we found him at the NEX. I found a Navy Mom T-shirt to wear when I play soccer and James and some of the guys asked what I was going to do with the flag and I told them that I would wear it like a cape and score a goal for them. They seemed to like that. Hotel, ate at Kona Grill in Lincolnshire...THE best place we ate all weekend...we saw "I Am Legend" in IMAX in Lincolnshire. That area had some very nice stores and restaurants...Cheescake Factory (We were going to eat there but it was always packed) From base to these places we took Skokey Hwy 43 and Half Day Rd. Saturday was our last time with him so we ate out fancy for dinner at a very expensive Fleming's Prime Steakhouse...we had appetizers and dessert. We took him back to base and we shared very big, proud parent smiles as we watched him walk toward his ship. He did good. My other son was hoping to have time to put together a slide show by now...but he is 20 and busy and I am useless with computers. To all of you who have been through this wonderful weekend and all of you who soon will...Enjoy it.
Our son is now in Maryland. He will start his A school for journalism on Wednesday.
Saturday we were running late and we found him at the NEX. I found a Navy Mom T-shirt to wear when I play soccer and James and some of the guys asked what I was going to do with the flag and I told them that I would wear it like a cape and score a goal for them. They seemed to like that. Hotel, ate at Kona Grill in Lincolnshire...THE best place we ate all weekend...we saw "I Am Legend" in IMAX in Lincolnshire. That area had some very nice stores and restaurants...Cheescake Factory (We were going to eat there but it was always packed) From base to these places we took Skokey Hwy 43 and Half Day Rd. Saturday was our last time with him so we ate out fancy for dinner at a very expensive Fleming's Prime Steakhouse...we had appetizers and dessert. We took him back to base and we shared very big, proud parent smiles as we watched him walk toward his ship. He did good. My other son was hoping to have time to put together a slide show by now...but he is 20 and busy and I am useless with computers. To all of you who have been through this wonderful weekend and all of you who soon will...Enjoy it.
Our son is now in Maryland. He will start his A school for journalism on Wednesday.