Homecoming

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As usual, these are backwards...here are Hans and Josiah, leaving the ship.



A painting of LEYTE GULF, from the wardroom.

Hans and William in the wardroom, just after we boarded


The XO gets his own chair and his own special coffee cup (and yes Donna, we'll try to get you one!)


Annika and Josiah checking out LEYTE GULF's quarterdeck board (Hans isn't there because he's not officially the XO yet)



Bridge wing (Hans is not one of the people up there)


Bridge



Long view--I need a wide angle lens!



Raising the flag just after tying up


The excited crowd (that is the CO's wife and daughter directly in front of me)



So--we survived the homecoming. I was made a little nervous by an e-mail from Hans on Thursday evening that warned me that we would be part of the VIP crowd to be first on the pier and first to board. I really just wanted to blend into the crowd with the rest of the families and not be singled out, but so much for that wish. For all the people that I called, frantically worried about naughty children: Will took his nap before we left and didn't make a peep the entire time we waited pierside and onboard the ship. Josiah and Annika were so well behaved that I'm not entirely sure that they weren't replaced by alien clones in the middle of the night. Maybe it was my threats to put them in their room for the entire WEEKEND if they misbehaved that did it...or maybe, just maybe, my entreaties to please behave themselves in front of Daddy's shipmates worked! We'll never know. Everyone there was much too excited to notice my kids anyway.


Hans had a good little jaunt up from Jacksonville. The ship did a bunch of stuff for the "tigers" (family members riding along) and Hans got to drive the ship for awhile. I know that he was happy to be back at sea, if only for a little while. He likes his new captain and I got to meet him too and find him to be personable. He asked me to call him by his first name, which is a little weird for me having called our last CO "sir" all along, but maybe it's one of those privileges that come with being the XO's wife, I don't know. The ship looks great, Hans says it's clean and the crew looks good and that the junior officers seem like a good bunch.


Big sigh of relief.


Also, I did my job interview very quickly this afternoon. I didn't know how early I would be getting off the ship, and we were home by 2:30, so I called the guy and asked if I could stop by quick and he said sure and so I turned around and drove back out to Virginia Beach. I think it went splendidly...we'll see if HE thinks it went as splendidly, but I think we definitely had a great interview.


So--been a bit of a stressful day for me, so I'm going downstairs to have a nice glass of wine and enjoy my family. I am bursting with pride over my new XO and his beautiful new ship!

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