Goodbye Palmetto State

We are officially homeless now. The packers came and put all our stuff in boxes. Now we are staying at John and Ashleys for a week while we tie up some loose ends. Its is sad to give up the first Croteau home. So many memories there. I guess we will just have to create new memories in Michigan. Next friday we will begin our journey north. It should be a real fun time.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

May 22nd I went to the only Redsox vs. Orioles game that we lost. Maybe I'm a jinx. Camden Yards is a pretty awesome ball park. We sat in the nose bleed section but at $9.75 a ticket I couldn't bet it. We were able to show our military ID and get better seats around the 3rd inning.

The mill building in the background is the Orioles front offices. Nice use of space in my opinion.

Yesterday we drove to Hamburg Penn. to go to Cabelas for the day. It was a 2hr each way trip but it was pretty fun and a good day killer. I stopped at Target on the way home and bought the book In The Woods by Tana French. I am only 100 pages in but I like it a lot so far.

Can't I Live While Im Young

This weekend started early. The boat let us go at noon on Friday to go to the air show at Andrews AFB in D.C. It was pretty fun. The Blue Angels are amazing and make me feel bad about my career choice. I guess thats why we have kids, to coerce them to do what we didn't.
Mike George and I walked 8.7 miles from the CG base to Fells Point Maryland. We met some very cool but non english speaking Japanese Navy sailors. They were very nice and Very respectful.  We went to a food joint called Koopers Tavern. It was delish, I had a fantastic Cheese and Onion Pizza well done. Very laid back place. It made me happy.
13 more days till i get to come home to my wife. I think the two of us have hit our breaking point,  I am so glad to be going to land for the next 4 years. Until next time....

I'm living in the stone age

It sure has been a while since my last post. We have moved back onto the boat and I no longer have access to wifi. I am writing today from Bethesda MD Naval Hospital while I wait for a friend to get out of surgery. I want everyone to know how much fun I had in New Hampshire a few weeks ago. It was so nice to see everyone. Last weekend I went to the Baltimore Tattoo Convention. It was pretty cool (No Nanny White I didn't get another tattoo haha). I saw the girl from NY INK the TV show (Pictured below). We also saw a self proclaimed freak show. They did some very strange stuff. The pictures below of all the Volkswagen's was at a guys garage I was walking past. All of the vehicles pictured will be restored to their original beauty. The OAK was pulled out of the water yesterday and we are now officially in "Dry Dock". We have been extended until June 15th or later. Luckily for me my last day on board will be the 31st of May, then its home to see my beautiful wife. I feel like I should have more to say but I guess I live a fairly boring life.

Dixie Land Weekend

I came back home to see my wonderful wife and dog this weekend. Upon my arrival Allison gave me my birthday present early. A 14 disk set of Grateful Dead DVD's I am wicked excited and can't wait to watch them all. I am actually listening to one now as I write and it is great. I feel like I'm there!!

I also was able to pick up my Drake Wood Duck mount from Pernell's Taxidermy. http://www.facebook.com/pernells.taxidermy
It looks great and their customer service was impeccable.

Allison and I had a good weekend together. We didn't do to much but we were able to get everything prepped for the big move in June. We are both anxious to get to Michigan and start our new adventure.

Lil Bits of the Coast Guard Yard

Hello all, I have been pretty bored the last few days here in the Yards. It has been rainy and cold so I couldn't accomplish any outside work. What I did accomplish however was pulling a prank on a buddy of mine who departs the OAK next week. I taped his hard hat to the front of his locker and drew a picture of him on it. We all had a good laugh. I also though the other pictures were pretty cool. That is a '110 foot cutter being craned off of the pier and into the water. It was pretty neat to see something that big sailing through the air.

The Little Things

                   Boring weekend, it was supposed to rain so I made plans with my old roommate Jeremy from Valdez AK to Watch the Bruins vs. Caps game at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. I love B.W.W. because its cheap and the games always on. I tried some new Thai Curry wings.....Not good. I won't make that mistake again. After the game I walked around Bass Pro Shop which is attached to the mall, as is B.W.W. I did some serious dreaming in that store as you can see in the pictures below. I entered a raffle to win a $25,000 Bass Pro shopping spree...Fingers crossed.
                    Today (Monday) after work my good friend Mike George and I decided to go for a walk. We went down to a local Civil War site, the Thomas Viaduct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Viaduct It was pretty cool. It is very over grown now but it must have been a sight back in the day. The link I posted has some cool old pictures. On our walk back I showed him an area with a bunch of Beaver trees. All of a sudden Mr. Beaver himself popped up and started poking around. I was so excited to watch him it never crossed my mind to try to snap a picture. Now all I can think about is getting home to Charleston this weekend. I can't wait to laze around and be with my wife, my bean and my dog.