Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Deployment 2007

So, I'm back from deployment. I've listed the majority of the places we stopped, but haven't really listed what we accomplished along the way. We left, of course, the first time, in January, with the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, but come back home after only a couple of days. JCSCSG continued to the Arabian Gulf where they conducted operations for several months. My ship, USS PAUL HAMILTON, joined the Ronald Reagan CSG for about three months conducting operations in the Western Pacific, where we made the multiple stops, including Hong Kong, Mokpo, Wakayama, et al, as well as participating the Exercise Foal Eagle 2007 with the ROK Navy. Eventually, the RRCSG finished her deployment and returned to the mainland, while we joined up with the Kitty Hawk CSG, which is based out of Yokosuka, Japan. We conducted our operations and sailed south off the coast of Australia, where we joined up with the USS ESSEX and conducted Exercise Talisman Saber 2007. We also made our stops in Australia (Townsville and Mackay) and the Vanuatu. Finally, we followed the Kitty Hawk north toward Guam and met up with the Nimitz CSG and the JCSCSG returned from operations and we conducted Exercise Valiant Shield 2007. Upon completion of Valiant Shield (picture top left), we started our way home and arrived pierside in Pearl Harbor last Monday.

Jess and I will post about Kauai shortly.

-Jeff

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Return of the Jeffrey

Just wanted to let everyone know Jeff got home safely. We're off to Kauai tomorrow and will post pics sometime after things get settled down a bit.

--jess & jeff

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Celebration!

All finished with the second half of anatomy and physiology! Summer's been as productive it possibly could have been without Jeff here; I am coming out of three months of classes with two As, applications finished up, and some really good friends who live closer to the house.

My friend from class, AJ (the one on the left in red) and I got all gussied up after the final to meet Kris and her boyfriend Randy (he took the picture) for some dancing in Waikiki. We had so much fun! And by the way AJ is my height - I was wearing 4" heels and she was wearing 3". And Kris was wearing flats.

AJ and I tried to do a beach day today but were thwarted by rain. We went to the beach near Hickam Air Force Base, which is a Hawaii beach that's interesting in a different way - for those of you who've flown out here, you know that planes land at the airport on a runway that juts out into the ocean, so when you're in the plane, it almost looks like you're going to land in the water. Well, the runway for the airport is walking distance from the beach at Hickam, so from the beach, it almost looks like the planes are going to fly right into you! There were lots of boats and ships out right beyond where all the children were swimming and building sand castles. It's not my favorite beach, but it was close and different from anywhere else I've gone. For the record, my favorite is still Makupu.


--jess

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Finals 2

I know I've disappeared off the face of the blog the past few weeks and not put up a picture of me with very short hair, but I've been really busy! So the picture to the left is the only picture that's been taken of me since I cut my hair, unless you include pictures I snapped of myself to send to Jeff, and it's already grown out quite a bit (which is perfect argument not to have short hair in Hawaii - it grows ridiculously fast, just like everything that is in the ground). I know I look tremendously nerdy. "Free" time's pretty much been getting things together for Jeff's return, fall semester, and graduate school applications - it's been nice not working because I am able to accomplish what I need to without exhausting myself. I'm signed up for microbiology and biochemistry in the fall (I will get a week off between the end of summer classes and the beginning of fall classes) and will finish just in time for Jeff, Zeke and me to pack up and move again! We do have a date of return for Jeff; it is very soon, and we're both looking forward to it!!

--jess