Shadowscope

Picking up from where I left off earlier…

It was OK outside pretty early but it got hot and humid very quickly and the stands were packed so it was extremely uncomfortable. The ceremony last between and hour and an hour and a half all total, which wasn’t too bad. They drilled a bit and the band played for a while. The commanding officer gave a speech and they presented a few honor graduates. All in all it was pretty exciting. Once I have my thoughts around me and have a few pictures to look at I may go into more detail tomorrow night or Monday at some point.

My brother and his entire family came down from Carey yesterday for the graduation and that was really cool. We ended up going to Golden Corral for lunch, all eleven of us. The boy pigged out and made himself a bit sick I believe. Once we got back to the hotel we hung out for awhile and my brother and the rest drove back home, as they had a drive of several hours to make. We had dinner at some joint called Luther’s on the Beaufort waterfront. It was a bit loud bit the food was good. I got really pissed off at the end though. I normally tip at least 20% and although there were only seven of us they tacked on a ‘large party gratuity’ of $27 to my check. There went her fucking tip. I can see restaurants adding on if there are fifteen people or more but they can kiss my ass. My check was $150 so her tip would have been a bit more than she actually got.

It stormed pretty for a while last night, enough to wake me up. Normally I can sleep through bad weather so it must have been tundering pretty loudly to wake me.

We slept in a bit this morning and once we finally got moving this morning we cleaned up the room and van, checked out and drove down here to Bluffton. Our friend Niqui will be moving later this year so this was our last chance to see her, at least me and the kids. The wife may drive down before she moves. Hopefully anyhow.

Ate lunch at Golden Corral again and then came back to the house and promptly took a nap. For supper we decided to drive in to Hilton Head and eat at Coligny Plaze, which is right off the beach. Had a great time there. We walked down to the beach as the sun went down and hung out there for a bit before heading back.

I will most likely not put a post up again (other than tweets and the occasional flickr upload) until tomorrow evening. We are going to head out mid-morning and drive back home. It’s about a five hour drive for us. Once we get home I am sure that I will have a mess to clean up. Even though we boarded the dog I set the cats up in my bathroom with two litter boxes and several pans of food and water to take care of them. It is going to be awful to clean up I am sure.

We are in Bluffton, SC now. After I got off the computer this morning we had a bit of breakfast, packed up, checked out and drove down here. It’s only about 25 minutes from Beaufort so was a nice easy drive.

I think I left off this morning discussing Thursday afternoon. After we took the boy back to the squad bay we drove back to Beaufort and hung out at the hotel for a while. The wife and RePete stayed at the hotel while I went to have coffee with Pete and my parents at this little coffee shop down by the bay. We had a pretty good time and Pete thought she was hot shit getting to go have cheese cake and cream soda with us. It was just pretty nice hanging out with them. We got back pretty early for me on vacation and I was in bed before eleven.

I slept in yesterday and managed to get up at some point after six. Once we got some coffee in us we headed back down to Parris Island. We were in the stands shortly after eight and they were packed. I had to call my parents and make sure that they were on the way as they weren’t letting anyone save seats.

Once again they are ready to go. I will get online later this evening. We are heading in to Hilton Head Island to hang out and have some supper. More later…

We’ve been here for about 30 minutes now and everyone’s safely tucked in bed, even the wife. Just as soon as I post this I am at least going to try and hit the sack. We are planning on being up around 5:30 so I need to get at least a little bit of shut-eye. We are staying right on Bay Street and from what I could see in the dark it’s beautiful. Planning on taking a bunch of photos tomorrow and if there is time I will upload them tomorrow afternoon. Blogging will be somewhat sparse during the day except for the occasional twitter or maybe if I take a few shots on my cell phone and send them via flickr.

Family Day on the base is tomorrow and we are planning on spending most of the day there. The base opens at 7 AM and we have to leave at 7 PM so unless the girls are complete buttheads we will spend the entire time there. My parents checked in earlier this afternoon and will be with us tomorrow and my brother’s family is going to drive down tomorrow night and be at graduation. They are crazy. I am too old for that shit and what little sleep I do actually get I value too much to drive all night, stay awake for something half the day and then drive back home (to Carey North Carolina) right after it’s over.