Vacation Update: The Rest of it All

Sorry to take so long in between Vacation Update posts.  I am trying to take advantage of the last few weeks of summer before I switch in to Teacher Mode to get as much of my grad work done as possible.  Speaking of if you haven't done so please help me out with my stats project by filling out this survey.

Now on to the rest of my vacation recap:

After whale watching vacation was unscripted... and Adam got sick.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out on my parents couch relaxing.  It was divine.

Our last weekend the weather perked up (it became partly cloudy) and we headed out to take a hike.  Cle Elum affords any outdoor enthusiast multitudes of places to explore.  There are lots of lakes with trails wandering off in every direction.  Adam had never been to Cle Elum in the summer time (we usually only go there during Christmas) and so we had to show off it's beauty to him.  Mom and I decided to take him out to Thorp falls.  It's a bit of a drive on some roads that in reality are probably dry creek beds but it is worth it.  This time the dry creek bed was blocked by downed trees (there is a moth epidemic right now pulling trees down in groves) and landslid/avalanched rocks so we had to walk in a lot more than planned but it was worth it because the huckleberries were RIPE.

Mom and Adam walking down to the river.

Huckleberry on the bush.

Picture does not do the falls justice.

I picked my way through the path when we had to detour around downed trees.

Mom teaching Adam about huckleberries.

Me above the falls.

Mom and I

To end our last weekend we borrowed my mom's truck and roadtripped to the Palouse to visit our college alma maters.  It was great to see how things had changed as well as reminisce of our days on campus.

This was a somber moment on our trip.  4 names from the "war on terror" and all friends and also knowing that more should be on there but have yet to be added.

Me on the I bench.

Admin clocktower.

That's the tower I lived there my Freshman year (as did Sarah Palin) but the biggest thing is that there used to be a big building in front of it where I was an RA and it is gone. *tear*

Engineering/Physics building... spent some time here.

Iconic

Me with the Bookman in front of WSU library.

Eventually, our trip came to an end and we had to head back to Seattle Tacoma International Airport.  This turned out to be harder to do because there was a 14 car pile up being cleared RIGHT AT OUR EXIT and it was stressful to watch the clock tick past the time we were planning on being at the airport but we made it with plenty of time.  The flight was miserable because we were surrounded by unattended babies who's parents ignored them allowing them to BAWL for 10 hours.  It sounded like a McDonald's play land.  The kid in front of me kept putting my window shade up and waking me with a burst of sun to the face.  I wanted to shake their seats.  We needed to sleep to stave off jet lag... didn't these people know this?  When we arrived at Seoul we still had a 4 hour drive to our home in the dark.  We arrived home to a house with no power.  There had been a few Tropical Storms blow by while we were gone and apparently one had flipped our breaker.  What this really meant is that our fridge had been HOT for weeks... and it was nasty.  It smelled so bad.  BUT it was 2 am so we saved the smell/mess for the morning.  It was disgusting... did you know that hamburger will liquify?  Anyway, we tried to deoderize the fridge in everyway we possibly could without any luck and last week we had to go to Housing on Post and ask for a replacement, which they gave us.  What a horrible way to end our wonderful vacation though.

Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed my recap.  I have a couple of more weeks till I turn back in to Mrs. W and I am really dragging my feet.

Vacation Update: Whale Watching in the San Juans

I grew up in Washington State and lived there until I got an Engineering job in New Mexico and moved away (with the exception of a couple summers in Alaska and college in Idaho).  Until a few years ago when my parents went with my aunt and uncle whale watching I had never thought about going out myself.  But since then I couldn't wait till I had an opportunity to go myself.  This lead to the perfect idea when planning this trip to WA - go whale watching!  My mom loved the idea and immediately went online to book us our trip.  She also talked my brother and his wife in to going who then got us a couple of nights in my sister in law's aunt's cabin on Whidbey Island.  It was planning out to be a great family trip!

When my parents went the first time they were able to see all three of the residential Orca pods that summer in the San Juan Islands (Residential for Orcas doesn't mean "local" but that they eat fish as opposed to sea mammals - just a little something I learned.  I thought all Orcas ate sea mammals but it isn't so.)  Because of their luck we decided to use the same company, Island Adventures, who they had went with before and who guarantees whales.  Despite all the Debbie Downers telling me about how they went out and didn't see a single whale I was optimistic... They did have a guarantee after all.  We had to go up in to Canadian water to meet the whales but we caught up with them on the south side of Saturna Island and they were in the mood to show off for us.  We saw two pods, J & K, which is about 45 whales all of which were busy jumping and slapping for our ohs and ahs.

Besides the Whale Watching we also got to explore and enjoy Whidbey Island, which is fantastic!  I had never been to the San Juan Islands before and I totally want to go back and it would be even better to have a cabin like the one we stayed in.  Plus, there are all sorts of Lighthouses which my mom just dies to go visit.  We went to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island and barely missed being able to tour the inside of the lighthouse... mom was very sad.  We also explored the quaint little town of Coupeville which had quite the ecclectic street of shoppes... and I busted my butt on the street.  One minute I was on my feet the next I wasn't and I had tears in my eyes... it really hurt.

Here are some pics from our trip to the San Juan Islands and Whale Watching.  Between Adam and I we took about 2000 pictures and after editing had about 200 good photos.  I HIGHLY recommend, if you are in WA, to head up to Anacortes and get on an Island Adventures boat to find some whales because it is an amazing experience!

Adam and I at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park killing time before getting in the Ferry Queue.

Map of Fort Casey State Park

I <3 Washington State Ferries

The lighthouse at Fort Casey

Fort Casey fortifications

The family on the deck at the cabin.  It faces Admiralty Straight.

View from the deck (above) of Admiralty Straight. 

Bubbles had an infected paw from a piece of Cheat Grass (EVIL STUFF) that had him confined to the cone.

Our theme song all day long: "I'm on a Boat!"

There is a Bald Eagle in the tree... my camera was set to Small pictures and I didn't catch it till Upload.  Oops.

Saturna Island in the background.

Me and my souvenirs.

Okay, there are more Vacation Updates coming including Huckleberry Picking at the Thorp Falls and visiting our Alma Maters... and of course the evil return trip back.

Vacation Update: Attempting the Patriot Express

We had a lot going on during our vacation so I am going to break it all up in to small, hopefully, bite-sized pieces.  For the first update I am going to start at the beginning with trying to get out of Korea.

Catching a plane has never been more stressful.  I have never flown Space Available (SpaceA) before and Korea has a special version from Korea through Japan to Seattle called Patriot Express (You can fly this in reverse from Seattle).  This is how we were trying to get to WA.  We knew the chances were slim because it is PCS season here in Korea (I have no clue why they insist on PCS-ing EVERYONE in the summer but they do) but we tried anyway.  Unfortunately, it is a first come first served basis if you are traveling for leisure and if you are active duty you can't get your name on the list until you have signed out on leave.  Anyway, here is what happened and what we experienced in our attempt to ride the Patriot Express.

July 4th we packed our excited selves up and headed to Osan AFB.  We had a 3 hour drive and since it was the beginning of our vacation we were super excited.  I had never been to Osan before and everyone talks about how it is a shopping mecca so I figured there would be a lot to kill our time till our flight.

Once we got to Osan we checked in to our Air Force Inn, that apparently only has double beds (so small for two people - I felt like I was in college again cuddling in a small bed), and walked to the Space A terminal.  {I just have to mention that the Space A terminal at Osan is NICE.  Being that my husband is Army, I am well accustomed to all things on an AFB being WAY NICER than on an Army post but this was nicer than most commercial terminals.  I was impressed.}  At the Space A terminal, we gave the airman our paperwork and got our names on the list for the flight the next day.  He told us that we had a pretty bad chance of getting on but at least he was able to bump us to Cat 2 (we had to get a special form to do this) because they haven't been on to Cat 3 in 6 months.

Side Note: Patriot Express works on a 6 Category system.  I don't know the specifics of all the categories but this is what I could glean from hanging out in the terminal:
                 Cat 1: Anyone flying on PCS orders (there are a ton of them in the summer - PCS season - and they may not even be considered a category, I don't really know).  I think anyone on Emergency Leave with a Red Cross message is in this category, too, but not sure.
                 Cat 2: Active Duty and their dependents on leave with a special form filled out by their command. {This is where we were.}
                 Cat 3: People who could have been in Cat 2 if they didn't have the form from their command.
                 Cat 4-6: Not sure who gets put in these categories but they don't make the planes.

The rest of our Fourth of July was spent hanging out in our room getting ready to fly out the next day.  It was super hot and humid outside so we didn't want to go out to the Freedom Fest and sweat ourselves to misery.  I told Adam to visualize us on the plane and the positive thinking will help us get on the plane (yeah, that didn't work as you will see).  We had to put our car in the long term parking garage which was in a remote corner of the base and then we treated ourselves to a meal at Chili's (Chile Lime Shrimp Fajitas - Num!).  The airman had told us to show up at the terminal about 7am since roll call was at 8am so we planned on getting their earlier at 6:30am instead.

We arrive at the terminal and it is PACKED already.  Apparently the information the airman had given us was not completely right because those in the know had gotten there to check in when the terminal opened at 5:30am.  All we had to do after we checked in was to wait until roll call.  When the time came the people on PCS orders started moving through security since they had boarding passes and everyone else got to wait until they called your name.  The TVs around the terminal had been displaying how many Space A seats were available for the flight.  For Patriot Express there were a certain number available to go only to Japan and a different amount (a lot lower) to go all the way to Seattle.  For our first try there were 13 seats available to Seattle and a family of 5 had checked in right before us... their named got called as the last ones to get seats to Seattle.  The next name called was ours but it was if we wanted to claim a seat to Japan since all the Seattle seats were taken.  My heart broke a little but I knew there was one more flight this week and I wanted to stay optimistic.

The next flight was in two days so we had to hang out in Osan and wait.  Our names automatically got bumped to the next flight roster to start over again when the time came.  We hung around our room and went out to the market that everyone raves about.  I just want to say I was disappointed with the shopping.  Yeah, it was a HUGE market but everything was knock off Coach and Affliction.  I can afford to buy a REAL Coach purse so I have no reason to buy a fake one and as far as Affliction goes... I think only douches wear it.  I was expecting awesomeness and got a whole lot of lame.

Fast forward to Thursday and our last attempt to get on this plane.  We arrived as early as possible and waited.  Roll Call came and there were 10 Seattle seats.  Our name was called for the 11th seat... to Japan.  My heart shattered.  I managed not to cry, though, but I was formulating a plan.  I wasn't not going to WA... I wanted to see my parents and puppies too badly... but I had had my heart set on Adam coming with me.  He deserved to be surrounded by family just as much as I did and I wanted him to be with me.  We had plans to go whale watching and do other things together that I just didn't want to cancel or do without him.  As soon as we got to a place with WiFi I hopped on my iPad and found tickets from Seoul to Seattle for TWO.  Amazingly, the round trip tickets for THAT DAY didn't cost more than usual (the planes were super empty, too, but the seats did have a lot of crying babies with parents who ignored them but that is another story).  So, I booked them and off we were to Incheon airport for a 6PM flight.  The excitement was back and the heartache a figment of our imagination.

Although, the trip cost a lot more than we had hoped (Patriot Express from Osan to Seattle is about $30 per person per way and a Commercial International Flight is magnitudes more) I am so glad it worked out.  We have learned some important lessons about Patriot Express.  The most important one is don't even try to fly for leisure to the US during PCS season on the Patriot Express (I imagine December is pretty bad too) but if you want to go to Japan that is always doable.

More to come from my Vacation Update including some amazing Orca pictures from our whale watching experience. We were busy in our home state of WASHINGTON!