Continued from my earlier post Our First Overseas Adventure: Japan 2000 (part 9).
“4/1/01 Hello, Home, I hope all is well with you guys. Things here are great…mostly because we pull in tomorrow. A friend of mine, Aki (who grew up in Japan and speaks perfect Japanese and English) and I took my fencing gear and crept out onto the flight deck early this morning. It was cool and breezy and the sun was just coming up. Although we were right in front of the bridge, no one on the bridge could see us put our gear on because we were seven levels below behind the bukhead. After we were all set ,we walked right out onto the bow. Not a soul was out on the flight deck except for one lone jogger. It was fun. Aki (which means Autumn in Japanese) took fencing in high school so we looked like we knew what we were doing. We battled back and forth for about 30 minutes before we walked off. I can now say that I have swashbuckled on the bow of a US Navy warship in the Pacific on April Fool’s Day. I guess it’s the little things in life that make it fun. G8r”
“4/5/01 Milly, G8r got home Monday. It is so great with him home; the kids are all over him. But it will go by so quickly, and he’ll be gone again the 23rd until mid June. The kids have spring break starting today, and we are going to take a road trip up to Hiroshima next week for a couple of days. There is a Marine Air Station close by we are going to stay at. I was talking to the kids last night about a book I am reading. It’s about a single mom and her high school son who is doing very well, plays sports, has good grades, and wants to go to college on a scholarship. I was telling them that he wants to be an engineer. Jay started asking questions about what an engineer is and as I told him, I said that Granddad is an engineer. So, to come to the point, I told him when we visit you next to ask Granddad if he would take him to work one day. So if that happens, I just wanted to let you know what prompted it. I was thinking that Granddad would love it if Jay asked him to do that. SR”
Jay still wants to be an engineer, chemical is what he’s saying now. I see lots of math and science in our future.
Life Experiences of a Southern Rose 
Popping in from SITS to say hi!