Down Periscope!

This week I went on a work trip to the Seattle area. 

So-what does that have to do with the hilariously stupid Kelsey Grammer movie after which this blog is titled?

Well I got to tour a submarine while I was there!  Sometimes it really pays to know people.  I am adding this on my "bucket-list-that-I'm-making-as-I-check-off-items" along with throwing out the first pitch at an MLB game, etc. 

The cool thing about the tour of the USS Alabama (Roll tide!) was that it was a personal tour given by the CO.  That's "Commanding Officer", or CAPTAIN if you will.  So me and my pal Gage were VVVIP visitors.  Guests of the CO.  We ate lunch in the wardroom (officer's dining room) aboard the boat with linen tablecloths, real silver, china with USS Alabama insignia, etc.  We met each of the officers and learned about the boat and its' history.  It was really cool to see military traditions in practice.  Such as requesting permission to enter and leave the room, and waiting for the CO to take the first bite of lunch. 

After lunch we got a tour of the entire boat.  You can find more information about the USS Alabama at this link.

Before we left, the CO gave us a coin to commemorate our experience.  It's an actual Commanding Officer's coin.  Pretty rare to get one of those. 

Here's a blurry pic of it that I excitedly sent Joey when we got back to the hotel:

Since we were on a personal tour, we also had our picture taken on the brow (the gangplank), and at the periscope.

It was a long week with a packed schedule and alot of work. So I am really glad to be home.  But I also wanted to share my cool experience with you!

~SG





Stone Harbor

See? I told you I'd be back tonight with at least one post!

Last weekend, Joey and I ventured up to the Jersey Shore to join my family at our beach house.  Okay, it's not OUR beach house... but it might as well be.  We have been renting the same beach house every year for two weeks since I was like 8 years old.  We used to go with 2 other families, and cram 3 moms, 8 kids, who knows how many hermit crabs, and one parakeet into this tiny little 3 bedroom 2 bath house on the bay side of 83rd street.

I was all excited to show him the house I grew up in every summer and also to show him the little tid bits we've left behind over the years!  (Check behind the mirror in the back bedroom.  You will find a list of memories from each year going as far back as the 90s!)

We arrived late Thursday night and stayed until Monday morning.  My Mom, Dad, Sister, and one of her friends were there when we arrived.  My brother and future SIL (ok not quiiiite yet) arrived the next night.

We had an awesome weekend.  We went night fishing, drank beers, shotgunned beers (college!!), chilled on the beach, shopped, saw the sights of Cape May County, checked out a bar for the first time EVER (since we were never really old enough to do so before...), and enjoyed Fathers Day with my Dad by playing mini golf, eating a HUGE italian meal (thanks, Mom!) and in general just enjoyed family togetherness.  I don't get to see my family much, so it's always great to get us all in one place for a couple days!

Here are a few photos from our trip!

The Davis siblings on our first night fishing excursion

Joey caught a shark!

Group Shotgun... photo taken by my Mom...

Our transportation home from the bar that night...

Joey at the Cape May Lighthouse

Mini Golf on Fathers Day

Mama Davis' Meatballs!

We had a great weekend visiting with family, enjoying delicious food, and drinking alot of beers.  It was all over way too quickly and soon it was time to go back to Virginia and back to work.

Hope everyone gets to enjoy the beach a little bit this summer!

~Sarah

Cincinnati!

Growing up, we used to take loooong road trips every summer to visit relatives in South Dakota, Texas, etc. My parents would pack the 3 of us kids into the car, with the luggage carrier roped to the roof, and the tv/vcr wired through the cigarette lighter, and we'd be off for 3 days of nonstop driving, bickering, threatening to pull the car over, etc.

After this weekend, I seriously don't know how they did that.

My big sister, Julie, is getting married this July. Since she lives in Texas, it was going to be difficult to make it to her bridal shower.  But luckily her fiance's family is from Cincinnati-which is a little bit closer to Philadelphia... So off we went, my Mom, Dad, sister Laura and me. 10 hours of forced family togetherness. Sigh. And that was only one way!

We had a great weekend in Cincinnati/the surrounding suburbs. Julie's new family is incredibly awesome. And extremely Irish. I mean, with a last name like Flynn you'd think we'd get the clue. But it wasn't until I walked into the house full of 30 people to bagpipes playing and children Irish dancing, and met the dogs named Guinness and Jameson, that it really began to sink in.

We also ate some incredibly DELICIOUS (and high calorie) foods. Thank goodness the hotel had a little gym. We got to try Skyline Chili and Graeters Ice Cream. O.M.G.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Skyline Chili. And for the record, this was my Dad's meal!

Mini Ice Cream cones at Graeters, Hawkette sized! ;)

Bridal Shower time!

Favors (Note the familiar initials!)

Beautiful Bride to be!

It was a lot of driving, but it was great to spend time with the family,
and to meet new family!

Cheers to Julie and Shea!

~SG

New York, New York!

Have I been a crappy blogger lately? Yes. Do I have an excuse? I think so.  2 weekends of traveling plus dance team practice and a full time job don't really leave time for creative writing.

First thing's first.  I'll give you a short trip report about our adventure to NYC by explaining each of the photos I gave in my previous post.

Summary: Me, Joey, Warner, and A Love went to NYC to visit our friend, Jupin.

1. No, we did not run out of gas.  But we would have if I hadn't brought the gas light to the attention of our driver, who was completely oblivious.  Our road trip also included a stop in rural Maryland for a bathroom break, er- because our dog, "Ralph", ran away from us.... which ended up being on Federal property so that was probably not good.  We also narrowly missed being smashed into smithereens oh, 397 times.  When we arrived at the train station in Hamilton, NJ we had to run "Home Alone" style to the train.  Miraculously, we made it to NYC both unscathed and before midnight.

2. Pretty good summation of our first night.  We went to a pirate bar called Wicked Willy's.  It was completely decked out like a pirate ship and of course I was in heaven. (Umm hello Pirates4 comes out May 20th! Who's going to the midnight showing? ME.) 

Oh and we also went to 2 other bars that night, one involved a bucked of beer and the other a 30 minute bathroom wait.

3. Well there were a few events leading up to this photo.  Like our failed tour of Chelsea that ended with us drinking at the Biergarten at 2pm.  Fast forward a few hours and you have this, a sink full of bubbles.  I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.

4. While we were in NYC to visit Jupin, we also had a surprise visit from a celebrity.  Good friend Samantha came over from Hoboken to hang out and pretend we were in college.  It was great to see her.

5. No, we were not playing "Harry Potter", although there were a few forbidden curses and "wingardium leviosa"s thrown around... we were at a rooftop bar, in the rain, which evidently meant they handed out red hooded capes for everyone to wear.  Makes sense, right? 

We had a great trip. It took me 2 days to recover. I guess I'm not in college anymore :(  But I did enjoy the brunch, walk through Little Italy, and Times Square.  Jupin has a nice little life going on up there! He might be onto something.... But Joey and I are convinced that we are NOT city people.  So here we sit, in the suburbs, waiting for our house.  Still waiting....

Our Weekend in New York City: The Preview

I'm on a boat!

I'm way behind! But I'm back now and have no travel plans until July.  Thank goodness.

So if you noticed on my Facebook, I recently went to San Diego for work to watch a missile launch. Don't worry, it was only a test, and here is the article. 

I was lucky enough to go for a ride on the support ship and witness the launch in person. It was a great trip, albeit short. Here are a few photos:

The view from my balcony

The pirate ship parked next door.

A Whale of a Fountain

I'm on a boat!

 

Silent Sentry

But enough of all that. Let's get into some real serious topics. Like how much I hate flying.

Anybody that knows me pretty much has a clue that I absolutely hate flying in an airplane. I am not as scared of a terrorist attack as I am of the plane falling out of the sky by accident. Irrational? Yes.

Usually a week or so before the flight I start to feel the effects on my body. I don't FEEL scared yet, but my body starts rejecting food and I start losing sleep. The day before the flight, I usually start worrying about all the "What-Ifs", which I won't go into detail about, and the day OF the flight, I am so anxious that I cannot focus on anything else.

With all the flying I've been doing lately for work, I have actually been doing REALLY well. On the flight to Georgia, I actually sort of ENJOYED it. Oh, did I mention that I find planes extremely interesting? And that I love to watch them take off and often drive off the road doing so? It's just that whole BEING on the plane thing...

Anyhoo. So I boarded the flight to San Diego, not especially worried, just knowing that I'd be extremely bored for 5 hours. My first clue of what lay ahead was when the Captain welcomed us aboard, and noted that we were going to hit a line of thunderstorms about 45 minutes into the flight. My second clue was when the flight attendants let us know that they would be delaying their beverage service until after we passed the storms. My third clue was 20 minutes into the flight when the Captain came on again, let us know the storms were approaching quickly, and told the flight attendants to be seated immediately.

The next hour was the worst of my life. Things were pretty bad already, then the Captain informed us that the next 20 minutes were going to be extremely bumpy. They were not kidding. I have never been so scared.  We were truly in God's hands up there- that thing was pitching, rolling, dropping- felt like I was in a cocktail shaker.... I absolutely NEVER recommend boarding a plane if there is a huge line of storms on the radar.

I felt like a little girl who needed her Mom. I was scared, alone, and certain that we were going to fall out of the sky imminently. I tried to remind myself that if it wasn't safe, they wouldn't fly. But it didn't really help AT ALL. I was shaking like a leaf.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the girl next to me said "So did you watch the Oscars last night?" I looked up at her, bewildered, and said shakily, "Yeah, yeah I did, did you?" And from there on we talked about the different movies, who won, why we were going to San Diego, her upcoming wedding, etc. I don't know her name or anything, but it was the nicest thing in the world. I really appreciated her effort to distract me and I'll probably never forget it.

After about an hour of "shake it like a salt shaker", things calmed down, beverage service began, I read "Harry Potter", and the next four hours passed slowly, but uneventfully until we landed in SD.

THANK GOD THAT WAS OVER.

Unfortunately I had to go get on a ship- in the middle of the ocean. What a traumatic 3 days.....

Luckily we had amazing weather. I was not seasick, although I still feel like I'm rocking on a boat, and the return flight was (mostly) smooth. The last 30-45 minutes were also rather turbulent, but a few factors helped me get through it:

a) I was listening to the flight deck via the armrest radio
b) The skies were clear
c) Nothing could ever be worse than the flight out

And so, I survived. Scarred for life, probably. But I guess now I will be able to calm myself down with "it's not as bad as that one time...".

Anybody else scared of flying? Or any other irrational fears?

Georgia on my mind...

And I'm back from a small hiatus! I promise to stop this weekly Monday posting thing... I'm not doing it on purpose.  Last week I traveled to the beautiful state of Georgia for work.  And while I know you would love to hear all about my job (har har), I will instead talk about what I thought of southern Georgia.

I flew into Jacksonville, FL on Monday morning (Valentine's Day) with (one of my) bosses. (If you've ever seen "Office Space", you'll get what I mean when I say I have 8 bosses.  I really do.)  The plane landed, I grabbed an iced caramel macchiato, and  I got my rental car while waiting for a coworker to arrive.  I walked up to the counter and I'll spare you the details but it ended with me getting a free upgrade to a 2011 Mustang Convertible.  YES PLEASE!

My sweet ride!

Monday night was pretty chill- the meeting (reason I was there) began really early the next morning, so I got Chick-Fil-A for dinner and watched the Westminster Dog Show... and rooted for the Min Pin obviously. 

Tuesday night after the meeting I went out with some coworkers for dinner in downtown St. Marys, GA.  It is a small, beautiful town overlooking the St. Mary's river.  Before dinner, I was treated to my very first experience at Seagle's Saloon with Cindy Dean the Porno Queen!  She is a legend in this little town.  She's been working this bar for 20+ years, and has the foulest mouth you've ever heard on a southern belle... I loved her.  I cannot even begin to repeat the things she said to us, but it was fantastically entertaining.  Here's a picture of Seagles Saloon.  See the red 'Vette? That's Cindy's!

After a quick happy hour at Cindy's, we ate dinner at the Silver Star Steakhouse, where I got a HUGE Chicken Neptune dish that carried me over for lunch AND dinner the next day. Srsly.

Wednesday was another long meeting day, and I attended a social on base with the rest of my coworkers.  I also didn't do much this night- I was pretty exhausted from such a long week.

Thursday the weather was finally beautiful enough to ride with the top down!  I purposely drove across base to the McDonalds for lunch just so I could put the top down.  It was great until I parked and I realized that southern Georgia also means SWAMP which means BUGS.  Holy. Bugs.  I think I've changed my mind about living there, that's all I gotta say.

After the meeting was over, I headed back into St. Marys (with the top down, obvi), parked, and took a nice walk around town.  It is just a beautiful little town.  Here are some of the blackberry photos I took.  I had my camera with me, but it was in the hotel due to restrictions on recording devices in the meeting. 

After a while, I finally worked up the courage to walk into Seagle's Saloon.... BY MYSELF.  This was a huge feat, as the typical Cindy Dean greeting is nothing less than a barrage of cuss words, making a huge scene in the process.  But I was lucky enough to catch her on a slow day.  She treated me to a few beers, we chatted, watched the news,  and she even left me in charge while she ran to the ladies room! Some of the guys met me there and we all headed out to dinner at Lang's Marina Restaurant.  I got a surf and turf deal, ate too much, and headed back to the hotel to rest up from such a long week.

Friday morning I got up, packed up the 'Stang, and dropped her off at JAX.  It was a sad goodbye... Anyway, I got to see the base from the plane, which was really cool.  And I finally made it home around 12:30.  It was a long week, but very successful!  I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, and the nice weather. Because evidently it's going to snow tonight?!

Stay tuned for more travel adventures coming up shortly!

~SG

Trip Report: Day 5

Tuesday, January 18th 2010. 0830. WDW, FL.

We all kind of woke up slowly, drank some coffee, and finished packing our stuff. By 1000 or so, we were ready to say goodbye to our little villa in Saratoga. But we'll be back! We grabbed all of our suitcases and carry-ons, and souvenir suitcases (yep..) and went up to the main building to check into our flights/check our baggage (Disney is awesome). Then we took one last boat ride over to Downtown Disney. Of course on this, our last day, the weather was sunny, 78 degrees, and just plain gorgeous. Bang head against wall now. We did NOT want to go home, where an ice storm had just caused a 2 hour delay for the Government and school closings in Fairfax County... We ate lunch at Earl of Sandwich, shopped around The World of Disney, and bought WAY too many souvenirs.

Tired Shoppers

Here's a list of what Joey and I bought, as far as I can remember:

-Light Up Cinderella Castle from the Christmas Store (I was not given a
choice as to whether I wanted this or not.)
-Disney boxers for Joey (it's a tradition!)
-Disney necktie for Joey (it's a pattern so you can only see the Mickeys
if you look closely! So sneaky!)
-Mickey-roni. Yep, Mickey shaped pasta.
-Kitchen towels
-Fluffy Princess Aurora pen. Be jeal, it writes in sparkly pink ink...
-Golf Jacket, Golf Shirt (Joey)
-Present for my BFF Steph who's expecting a little girl in June!
-Various other presents for some pals back home
-Commemorative/decorative Disney Plate for our chotchkey cabinet.

Ummmm... I'm sure there is more but that's all I can remember at the moment. We met up outside the store with A Love and Warner, who each had HUGE bags full of stuff as well. We walked down towards Pleasure Island, and stopped at Paradiso 37 for one last pitcher of beer. We sat outside and basked in the sunlight until it was time to get back on the boat to go catch the Magical Express.  

I'm On a Boat!

The trip back to the airport on Magical Express is SO DEPRESSING. All the characters come on the tv screen and sing really slowly, "Now it's time, to say goodbye...... to all our company. M-I-C, See ya real soon!, K-E-Y, Why, because we like you!, M-O-U-S-E".  SO. SAD.

No! You're going the wrong way!

We got to the airport super early and headed off to our gates to await the flight home to the bitter cold. When we landed at Dulles I could feel the cold air coming into the plane, and I decided it was time to change out of my flip flops.

We had such a great trip, with amazing friends. The best part about coming home from a Disney Vacation is that you get to immediately start planning the next one!!!!! And Disney offers so many more vacations and
destinations other than Orlando...

Where will we go next????? Taking suggestions!

Til next time,

SG

Trip Report: Day 4

Monday, January 17th 2010. 0900? WDW, FL.

We slept in the next morning. When we woke up, Warner was gone. And it was pouring rain. Suddenly, the door opened, and there was Warner, with a huge bag of breakfast platters. "I felt bad, so I bought breakfast. I don't know why I feel bad though..." We filled him in on the night's events ("What happened after China?") and ate our delicious food, while waiting for the rain to let up. I'm talking monsoon rain. And thunder and lightning.

Usually in Florida the rain lets up after downpouring for a few minutes. I guess today it decided to downpour for hours. Finally, we admitted defeat and donned our ponchos to head over to EPCOT. We only had 3 ponchos, and Warner stated that "ponchos are a sign of weakness" and that he would buy one when we got to the park. Big. Mistake.

Poncho Pals

We were all soaked through on the walk to the bus stop... But we trekked on anyway so we could do the rest of EPCOT that isn't the World Showcase.

Rides we rode in EPCOT:
Soarin' (Twice!)
Mission Space (NASA Flight Simulator. Ugghhhh)
The Seas with Nemo and Friends (In this biiiig bluuuue worlllld)
Spaceship Earth
(Test Track was closed due to the rain. Sad.)

A Love being eaten by a Shark!

After a few hours, a lunch break, and feeling my uggs squish every time I took a step, we all decided we needed to go home and change before our dinner reservations that evening. So we went back to Saratoga Springs, put on some warm clothes and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... took deliciously awesome naps.  (Really exciting, I know. But hey, we were on VACATION. We are allowed to relax!)

When we woke up from our naps, we all kind of hung out, looked over the pictures we'd taken so far, and slowly started getting ready for dinner (our last night). Disney Vacations always go TOO QUICKLY!!!  The rain had stopped THANK GOD and so we were able to venture out sans ponchos (but I shoved them into my backpack because I did NOT want to be caught in the rain without one!). We rode the bus back to EPCOT and first headed over to Soarin' to use our fastpasses. I love that ride. I highly recommend riding it more than once, and always ask to be in the front row! Then we walked over to Coral Reef for our dinner

reservations.

The rain finally stopped!

Coral Reef is an awesome restaurant that I've discussed before in this blog, where you sit next to a HUGE fish tank (?) (I don't think "tank" is the right word, since the entire EPCOT ball can fit inside it with room to spare) and eat your dinner while watching various fish, sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, etc. swim around. We enjoyed another delicious dinner, had a bottle of champagne (thanks, A Love!) and some free desserts to finish off the trip.


View from our dinner table






Champagne

We were exhausted, happy, full, and sad that our trip had to come to an end the next day. We decided to just go back to the hotel to start packing our things so we could take advantage of the time we had left in the morning.

EPCOT Ball at Night

Only one more day to go! :(

~SG

Trip Report: Day 3

Sunday, January 16th 2010. 0830. WDW, FL.

Today kind of happened in two parts. Part A was me going to support the Masonettes at Nationals. Part B was the rest of the crew going to Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney. I'll start with Part A and then go back in time :)

Part A:

I woke up early, got ready, donned my "Mason Dance Team" tee shirt, and cabbed it over to Wide World of Sports to meet up with the family, friends, and alumni (we had QUITE the cheering section!) who were there to cheer for Mason. They were competing in the Pom division and the routine looked REALLY good in practice. Their goal was top 3 and they had worked so hard! I love catching up with my Masonettes alumni. We were like a family during college- we spent more time with each other than we did at home, especially over winter break (what's that?). We watched all the teams in our division, cheered REALLY LOUD for Mason, and then we had a few hours to kill. Good thing we got to watch some amazing dances while we were there. We ate a lot of stadium type food, (I passed on the beer....for now) and took some funny pictures. I did some fouettes in the hall, ya know, the usual...

Masonette Alumni showing our serious pom skillz

Hours passed (I won't bore you with the dance details) and suddenly, it was time for awards. I don't get nervous when I compete, I get nervous for awards. It is SO NERVE WRACKING!!! They sit you on the stage and go from last to first, it's awful. There were 10 teams in the final competition. As they went from 10 down to 4, we DIDN'T HEAR OUR NAME, this was HUGE!!! Mason was awarded 3rd place (nationally) in Division 1 Pom. This is humungous for Mason- previous best was 5th (my year! Woop!) and we had never medaled. I am SO PROUD that I was part of the building blocks for this team to get 3rd place in a national competition. The alumni were jumping up and down like we were when Mason won the game vs. UCONN in '06. It was that kind of moment. But enough about me....

2010-2011 Masonettes with their Medals and 3rd Place Trophy!

Part B:
Obviously I wasn't there for this part so I am going to do my best. From what I know, they woke up eventually and headed to Hollywood Studios, where the crowds were horrendous.

The Crew without me at Hollywood Studios

They got a fast pass for Tower of Terror and saw the Muppets 3D movie. (One of my faves!) Their Tower of Terror experience was hilarious. Warner bought the pictures and subsequently left them on a Disney Bus... thank goodness for awesome Lost and Found!

Tower of Terror

I'm glad I didn't have to go on this ride... it is a free fall drop and while it IS a Disney ride, it's still my least favorite due to the anxiety I suffer while waiting in line and up until the very second before we fall. After that, they decided HS was too crowded, and they headed over to Downtown Disney. They were stalling because I had strictly instructed them NOT to go to EPCOT without me. See tonight we were scheduled to go Around the World... and, just in case you don't know, Around the World is a drinking adventure where the participants have a drink (or 2) in each "Country" in EPCOT's World Showcase. There are 13 countries. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Trust me.

Anyway, they went to Downtown Disney, got some lunch, and did some window shopping. By this time, my extremely impatient husband wanted to get the show on the road, so they went to EPCOT (but promised me they wouldn't drink a drop!). They rode Spaceship Earth while they waited, and Peyton and Casey went to Mexico to have a few beers. They missed the memo about not drinking. This was the beginning of the end.

AROUND THE WORLD

I finally arrived at EPCOT with my Masonette and XO pal, Krystle, in tow and we met up with the crew and Krystle's fiancé, Robert, who had met up with the boys in EPCOT. It was FINALLY time to start the festivities. We took a "before" picture of us in our jerseys, and I met a very drunk woman who latched onto my wrist and wouldn't let go. It was terrifying.

Before...

Then we went into Mexico and started the fun with a shot of tequila and a Dos Equis.

Let the games begin!

By the time we arrived in Canada (country #2) it was clear that Pasey (Peyton + Casey) had had quite a few beers. We worried they wouldn't make it! In Canada, we drank our Moosehead and found a hidden Mickey in one of the totem poles.

Joey pointing out the hidden Mickey...

Next stop? The UK! We all drank cider from the Rose and Crown, and I had a good time calling the phone booths and watching confused children answer the phones when they rang. In France we got Grand Marnier slushies- orangely delicious. By Morocco, it was clear that we needed to eat some dinner. Luckily Morocco has the most amazing food EVER. I always get the Shawarma Lamb Platter. It's effing amazing. This was also the time when Peyton and Casey left. I guess they underestimated how difficult it is to drink around the world! Japan was our next stop and here is where we lost the boys. Krystle, A Love and I decided to wait for some of our Masonette friends, so we sat down under a tree and had a long conversation about ???.

Celebrating with Masonettes Alum

Since this post is getting long and boring, I'll finish up with:

Joey and Warner made it all the way around the world, drinking in every country. We (the girls) met up with them in Mexico after sake bombs, turkey legs, bud light, etc. We ended our night in Mexico with some light-up goodies, lots of tequila shots, and some margaritas.

End of the night, back in Mexico!

Joey, Warner and A Love left ahead of me to go home while I hung out with my girls for a bit longer. So I had a nice relaxing walk out of EPCOT at the end of the night with my margarita in one hand and wearing my light up Mickey bopper ears. I must've looked SO cool when I ran into my friend Amanda and her Mom...

When I arrived home to Saratoga, I was greeted by A Love and Joey who were waiting for me outside the room. We decided to let Warner sleep it off..... so we went to the hottub and probably scarred this little kid for life. Except his Dad seemed to think it was funny that 3 drunk people were hanging out in the hottub with his 13 year old kid. Whatever.

The day was over, Mason got 3rd, Joey made it around the world, again, and Warner did not pass out in a bush. I'd say that was a pretty successful Day 3.

~SG