Boston, a Wedding, and a Lajes Reunion (Part 2)

... we left off on the train from Boston to Providence...

We arrived in Providence after dark (aka 4:30 pm in Southern Canada), found the rental car facility, stopped to do a little bit of wedding gift shopping, and then made our way out of town to our bed and breakfast in Bristol, RI.  We were greeted by our very friendly inn keeper, shown our room, and left to get ourselves ready to join the wedding festivities already in progress just down the road in Barrington, RI.  The wedding was being held at an old mansion on the beach, and most of the family and out-of-town guests were gathering for dinner at the house.  We were so excited to see many of our old friends from Lajes.

We had dinner, did a quick wedding rehearsal, then spend the rest of the night catching up with our friends.

We may have also checked out the house and found some interesting surprises - like a creepy basement complete with dead flowers from weddings past.

The next morning, Chris and I enjoyed a fabulous, fabulous breakfast courtesy of our wonderful inn keeper.  If you ever find yourself anywhere near Bristol, RI, we would highly recommend the Bristol House Bed and Breakfast.  Then, we headed for Newport, RI to tour one of the Gilded-Era summer homes built by the Vanderbilt family.  The Breakers is the most famous of the many mansions and is one of only a few open during the off-season.

Unfortunately, the were no photographs allowed inside, so you'll have to check out their website for a peak at the stunning interior.  The house was rebuilt in the late 1800s in the Renaissance style commonly seen throughout Europe.  Having seen many of the chateaus and palaces this house was modeled after, we can certainly say that the The Breakers was every bit as opulent and over-the-top as its European rivals.  The only difference - modern conveniences like gas appliances and running water.

We didn't have enough time to tour another house, so we opted instead to take a driving tour around the Newport area.  We stopped at several beaches along the way and ended with a drive through the heart of Newport's historic downtown.  Then, we headed back to the B&B to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was another night of celebration with friends.  The bride was beautiful, and I have rarely seen the groom as happy.

There's something special about being part of a group willing to travel, literally, half way around the world to attend a wedding.

It was also a reminder of just how small this Air Force family really is.

The next morning, we packed up early and hit the road for a quick detour through Connecticut before heading to the airport for our flight back to Texas.

(obligatory picture in front of a Connecticut church - because that's just what we do)

3 Years Later

Three years ago today, I hit "publish" on my very first blog post.  We were a week away from starting our four day odyssey to Lajes Field.  We had no idea how much two years on a little rock in the Atlantic would change us, our priorities, our world view, our lives.  Even now, nearly a year after leaving, I miss my friends and the tight-knit community we were blessed to be a part of.  Some days life in Texas gets the best of me, and I wish we were back on the island getting ready for another dinner party or a bonfire with our friends.  But going back now wouldn't be the same.  It is the people, forever frozen in my memories against the backdrop of such a beautiful place, that hold a special place in my heart and always will.

Our Life in Lajes

The Long Road to our New Home

Moving is never easy.  It involves lots of planning and re-planning and back-up plans for the back-up plans.  If you’re lucky, you’re only on ‘Plan C’ by the time you finally arrive.  We were lucky and arrived using only ‘Plan C’.  We are now, however, well on our way to ‘Plan E or F’.  Here’s the run-down of our trip from our little rock in the pond to everything-really-is-bigger-here Texas.

Last Saturday we packed our bags for the last time, then mailed whatever wouldn’t fit.  You know, things like the shower head we forgot to take down before the movers came.  Sam and Roxie decided thy wanted to get mailed too.  Silly puppies.

That night, we enjoyed final BBQ with our CE friends.  We really couldn’t have asked for a better way to wrap up our time in Lajes.  Just looking at the pictures makes me miss you all!

Bright and early Sunday morning, the circus that is our family arrived at the terminal for check-in.

Thankfully, two of our friends volunteered to help us get two very large dog kennels, two dogs, four suitcases, and two back-packs into the terminal and onto the plane. 

Many, many more of our friends arrived at the terminal to wish us farewell.  It’s hard to say ‘see you soon’ to so many great people all at once, but it seemed a fitting end to a tour that started with a welcome attended by just as many people.

That night, we landed in Baltimore, picked up our dogs, and tried to wrangle four luggage carts to the pick-up point for the hotel shuttle.  Thanks to some help from the shuttle driver, we managed to get everything to the hotel and into our room where we all promptly collapsed.  The time change is a real pain for the first couple of days.

Monday morning, we reloaded everything into the shuttle then made our way to the cargo terminal to check in the dogs.  Once the dogs were checked in for their flights, we went to the passenger terminal and checked ourselves in for our flights.  I managed to make arrangements for the dogs to be cargo on the same flights we would be taking.  The theory being, if one of the flights was delayed along the way, we would still all arrive in San Antonio at the same time.  We flew to Atlanta, where we saw the dog kennels sitting on the tarmac waiting to be loaded in the plane, before finally landing in San Antonio at 7:45pm (that’s nearly 1am Azores time). 

We loaded the circus into another shuttle, this one took us to the car rental counter.  I would have loved to see a video of us making our way through the airport with everything in tow.  I’m sure we were quite a sight.  We got our upgraded rental car (thank you Enterprise!) and collapsed in yet another hotel room.

Tuesday morning, we dropped the dogs off at the kennel (no pet-friendly rooms available in lodging on base) and started our search for a new house to call home.  We saw nine houses and eliminated all but two of them from the search.  We finally got to enjoy our first meal at Chipotle!  It really is the little things.

We also got our first taste of traffic and driving in the big city.  Now, as I had hoped, there are lanes on these road.  However, the paint is so worn that you can hardly see them, and people don’t really stay in their lanes.  Rather, they weave in and out of the streams of traffic trying to get just one car ahead in the line.  It’s enough to make you crazy.  But not as crazy as random pedestrians, stopped cars, and ridiculously narrow roads. 

We continued house hunting on Wednesday and plan to finish up tomorrow.  ‘Good enough’ is much easier to find than ‘perfect’, so this search is going much faster than our search in Kansas.

Chris checked into work yesterday, and I moved the dogs to a kennel we could actually afford to keep them in for more than two days (seriously Petsmart, it’s a dog kennel not an apartment!)  Then, I went shopping for interview clothes and other items that I haven’t been able to buy for the last two years.  Things like the only brand of make-up that doesn't make me break out in hives.  I also attempted a bit of grocery shopping.  Shopping in the teeny, tiny little commissary at Lajes left me under-prepared for what I was getting into.  Let’s just say this was the score of yesterday’s shopping trip:  HEB – 1, me – 0.  Another description… “Holy choices, Batman!”

Chris is at work again today, and I’m in the hotel trying to figure out if I should just suck it up and get my own web address so I can make my blog look like I really want it to.  Choices, choices.

All Good Things…

It has been said that all good things must come to an end.  So it is for us.  Our time on the island has officially come to a close.  When you hear from me again, hopefully, it will be from San Antonio. 

In case you didn’t notice, I’ve been working on a new name and a new look for the blog because Life in Lajes just won’t quite work any more.  The new name is Forever Home.  I hope you like it!

As we travel to our new home, I leave you with a list of things we’re going miss about the island as well as some things I am looking forward to in San Antonio. 

10 Things I'm Going to Miss:

1. The ocean… it’s everywhere here.
2. Our friends.
3. Three euro bottles of wine… don’t worry, we shipped home three cases.
4. A three minute commute… if you drive really slowly.
5. Not having a job / waking up whenever I want every day.
6. Sunrise or sunset over the ocean.
7. Cheap cell phone service… even if it does tend to include a steady stream of text messages in a language I can’t read very well.
8. A small base community full of people who really do care about each other.
9. Three hour flights to Europe and the vacation time to take advantage of them.
10. Scuba diving and snorkeling with some of the most beautiful sea life I’ve ever seen… yes, even better than Hawaii. 

10 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Target… or any store that’s open past 5pm, doesn’t close for lunch or at random, and actually carries things we need.
2. Chipotle… or really just the variety, speed, and convenience we’ve been missing when it comes to food.
3. Multi-lane roads with clearly marked lanes and drivers who stay in them.  Sidewalks and pedestrians who use them.
4. Produce that I can at least pretend came from somewhere on the same continent, and well-stocked grocery stores that are open every. single. day. 
5. Mail service that takes less than 3 weeks.
6. Having an American phone number.
7. Being in the central time zone.
8. A community outside the Air Force. We love our AF friends, but sometimes, you just want to get away and spend time with people who can’t have an entire conversation in acronyms. 
9. Having our own single family, detached house with a yard bigger than half a postage stamp… it will however, come without the ocean view. :(
10. Red Box, Netflix, Pandora, and a million other media sources that have been off-limits due to international copy write issues.

One Last Party!

Another weekend, another party!

 

Instead of a 'welcome home', this one was a ‘see you soon’.  A 'see you soon' for us.  It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two years since we first landed on this tiny little speck of land… the island of Lost, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  The ladies sent me off with a great Pinterest-inspired gift… wine glasses dipped in chalk board paint.  All you need is chalk and no-one ever forgets which glass is theirs again. 

 

We all spent the night talking, eating, and just enjoying, what was for some of us, our last chance to be together. At least in this place.

 

We couldn’t have asked for better friends to share our time here with.  We will miss you all… until ‘see you soon’ becomes ‘so good to see you again’.

Welcome Home Friends

The last week has been an exciting one for our group of friends.  Last weekend, two of our temporarily single ladies were reunited with their husbands after seven long months apart.  The wives hosted a welcome home party for their husbands this weekend.  It felt so good to have everyone back in the same place again. 

We enjoyed a potluck cookout, played bean bags until it too dark to see,

then ended the night with an awesome card game for terrible people.  Try out ‘Cards Against Humanity’ if you’re ever in need of a new adult-only game… seriously, adults ONLY.

It was nice to see our old friends mix so well with our new friends.  It makes us feel good to know that we are leaving our friends with the support they will need to make it through the next year or more on the island.

It also makes me think about how hard it is going to be to leave these people and this place, even if there is so much to look forward to in Texas.

Rappelling

With our time on our lovely little island quickly coming to a close, Chris and I are anxious to squeeze every last bit of adventure we can out of this place.  To that end, we joined our neighbors for an afternoon of rappelling yesterday.

With the help of our guide from Rope Adventures, we rappelled down three drops in a narrow canyon.

 Despite my initial case of nerves, it was a lot of fun and something I think both of us would like to do again.  Check out the rest of our pictures in the pictures tab.

Festas da Praia 2012

Despite the island’s best efforts both Chris and I survived Praia Fest 2012.  If you weren’t a regular reader a year ago, or you’ve just forgotten exactly what Praia Fest entails, check out last year’s post.  I was really excited to share this unique island experience with Chris since he was deployed for the party last year.  We started first weekend with a very late night out.  We ate delicious junk food for dinner, then enjoyed my favorite Praia Fest drink – Caipirinas. 

We spent the rest of the night enjoying time with our friends. 

Saturday night, we joined our friends for dinner at one of the many sit-down restaurants before attempting to enjoy the parade for the night.  I say attempting because we decided to call it a night just after midnight and the parade hadn’t quite started yet.

We took a couple nights off to recover but went out again Tuesday night for a performance by the Air Force band ‘Touch ‘n Go.’  We were having a great time until it started to rain.

 Friday night was designated as dress up night.  The girls have fun pulling their party dresses out of the backs of their closets.  We stayed out way too late, but it was worth it! 

We took it easy on Saturday; enjoying an evening bull fight on the beach and grabbing another junk food dinner before calling it an early night.

After nine days of crazy partying, I remember why this only happens once a year!  Don't forget to check out all the pictures of the week's festivities in the pictures tab.

4th of July

Another 4th of July, another makeshift family carved out of a wonderful community in a place so far away from everywhere. 

My routine this year was much the same as last year.  I arrived early to help set up and stake out a piece of grass for the evening. 

I worked at the spouses club booth selling candy and light-up toys.  I joined my friends for a picnic dinner entirely too elaborate for the setting (a consequence of bored women stuck without jobs).  

We talked the best we could over too-loud bands playing American classic rock and salsa music until it was time for fireworks.

 

So much was the same, but everything was different.  Other than me, not a single person sitting around our blanket was on the island last year.  Chris was in Afghanistan (three of our friends are there this year),

and the rest of the families have only recently come to the island.  Nearly everyone who was with me last year has since moved on to other countries and other corners of the world.  Such is the ever-changing nature of this Air Force life.

As with many events we’ve attended lately, this one had a bittersweet tone.  The last of something before we move on too.

Combat Dining Out

Combat Dining Out: An event at which military members and their spouses dress up in sometimes ridiculous camo-themed outfits and proceed to engage in a giant water fight.  There are rules of engagement and a grog bowl full of unknown liquids used to punish those who break the rules.  There is also a dinner, toasts, way too much rhyming, and did I mention the water fight?

This is one of those times when I think our life can’t possibly be real.  What other type of organization has traditions that are as much fun as this one?

Time Flies

My, how time flies when you actually have a job to keep you busy again!  That’s right folks, I actually have a job.  After nearly a year of paperwork and waiting, I finally started teaching a college algebra class for the University of Maryland University College.  And, because I’m such a slacker at posting, I’ve actually started and finished an entire term already.  Turns out teaching a class for the first time is a LOT of work – much more than I expected.  Term number two starts today and lasts for the next seven weeks.  Hopefully, this time around will be a little easier on me!
Now that I've told you my reason for not posting, let me fill you in on what we’ve been up to for the last month:

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts.  To celebrate, the base Girl Scout council held a weekend of events.  I volunteered to help cook lasagna for 60 girls and their families on a Saturday night. 

Thanks to lovely decorations and what I like to think was good food, we had a great evening. 

My friend, and professional Girl Scout, Taryn flew in from Italy with her boss for the celebration.  We took them hiking Sunday morning so they could see a little more of the island.

The next weekend, we hosted a going-away dinner for two of our good friends, Jacki and her husband B. 

Jacki and I had a slight mishap with the bread.  We put our husbands to work cutting off the burnt parts, and everything turned out okay.

It was a sad to have to go to the gym without Jacki for the first time today.  I am really going to miss having her around.

The good news is, we’ll be moving to her hometown of San Antonio later this fall.  After several months of not-so-patient waiting, we finally got our next assignment.  Lackland AFB, here we come.  All the details are yet to be worked out, but at least we know where we’re going!

We wrapped up the last month with a two-week trip to Italy and France!  More to come on that later.  For now, I’ll leave you with a picture of our favorite airport - Lisbon.