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May we all pull together in prayer and condolences for all the thousands of people effected by the events on Tuesday, September 11th, in New York and Washington D.C. God keep all the souls lost, and remember them in His heart.
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Day One
What a fantastic, fabulous, wonderful trip. We had the best time. Michael has made us incredibly proud. And as a bonus, I got to bond a bit more with Calvin's family, and now I feel much more comfortable with them - and they with me, I'm sure. Their understanding of the trip's arrangements were a bit mixed up in the beginning, but it all worked out alright in the end. Calvin's grandparents, mom, sister, and nephew rode in his sister's SUV, and Calvin, Marie, Marie's friend, and I rode in the Suburban. We left at about 9:00 on Wednesday morning and kept in touch on the way to San Diego with the same two-way radios we used on our camping trip. Calvin was hysterical, making comments to his sister about the music they were listening to (choir music, preferred by the grandparents), while she called us "sinners" for listening to Lenny Kravitz. He responded by throwing grapes out of his window, which thudded against his sister's windshield. Their fooling around made the five hour drive go by quickly.
Once we arrived at our hotel (amusingly located *right next door* to a nudie bar - "Everybody keep an eye on Grandpa!"), we had about two hours to spare before we had to be at the MCRD for the Orientation and Drill Instructor's dinner. We settled into our respective rooms (three right in a row, so we could continue torturing each other). We left at 4:30 to make it to the Depot by 5:00. Of course, we got lost between the hotel and the Depot ("Only 5 minutes away!" Yeah, if you can understand the directions.), and of course the two vehicles got separated, and of course that put Calvin in an extremely bad mood. Calvin dropped the girls and I off at the Theater where the orientation was being held, and he went off in search of the others. The girls and I were settled in the (dark!) theater only about 10 minutes when the rest showed up. Grandpa practically fell up the stairs trying to get to a seat - it was *pitch* black in the theater, and he'd had his knee replaced only a handful of months ago. Grandma giggled later - "I reached out to find anything to support me, and I grabbed some man's knee!"We watched a short video about the history of the Marines, and all of the drill instructors were introduced. Then we were instructed to the Bay View Restaurant on the other side of the base. After the fiasco trying to find the base, we were concerned that getting to the restaurant would be a similar problem. But the caravan of hundreds of cars made it obvious which way to go.
The line for the buffet was stupidly long, and I think we stood around for a good 45 minutes before we finally got platefuls of mediocre food. None of us were terribly interested in eating, though, because we knew that after the dinner we'd finally be able to see Michael for the first time since he left in June. It would only be for an hour, and we wanted to savor that time as much as we could. After finishing our meal, we went outside to where Michael's platoon would be gathering, and met his Drill Instructors. There was a huge crowd, and everyone jockeyed for the best position before the platoons were marched up. We stood behind a marked barrier, craning our necks to see the first glimpse of the young men marching toward us.Finally, we heard their marching feet heading up the drive to the grass lawn. It gave me goosebumps, I must tell you, to see them all in perfect formation, so serious and proud. We strained to see if we could catch a glimpse of Michael, but all the young men looked the same and we couldn't be sure which was him. Michael's was the first platoon to march up, so we had to wait for the other five (?) to get into place before they were dismissed to visit.
As soon as the platoons were dismissed, there was total chaos in the crowd. Everyone surged forward to try to find their sons, and all of our family got separated in the crush. We looked desperately for Michael but couldn't find him. Marie, her friend, and I were together, so we chanted "One... Two... Three... MICHAEL!!!" in a Marco-Polo attempt to find him. I positioned myself to look around, and saw Calvin a few yards away from me, looking frantically through the crowd. Then I saw Michael come up behind him with a big grin on his face, and he put his hand on his dad's shoulder. Calvin spun around and took Michael in in an intense glance, then launched himself at him. They hugged hard while the rest of the family gathered around them. For as long as I live I will never forget the look on Calvin's face when he saw Michael. I cried.
We spent the next hour hugging and crying and taking a multitude of pictures. Michael told us a bit about what it was like during the Crucible, and we met a few of the friends he had made. It amused us to see Michael stiffen to attention every time a Drill Instructor passed. The changes in Michael were both obvious and subtle - like he is a refined version of the young man we put on the plane three months ago. It was remarkable to see how he has grown. It made Calvin rather sad to see such a definitive end to Michael's childhood, but it was bittersweet knowing what a remarkable adult his is and will be.It was all over much, much too soon. The troops were called back into formation and they marched back to their barracks. We spurned the "no public displays of affection" rule (yeah, right) as we embraced Michael fiercely, one after the other. Then, after watching them march away, we headed back to our cars and back to the hotel. Our moods were extremely buoyant - we'd finally seen Michael!