Halfway through my parents' and Nick's visit already, I can't believe how the time has flown.
They flew in on Thursday night and it has been pretty much non-stop ever since. We have been able to show them around Stafford, Fredericksburg, base, and some of the places we frequent on the weekends.
Thursday night we just kind of relaxed. They didn't arrive until about 9:00pm so we just had tacos for dinner. They must have been starving because my boring old tacos were delicious. I had to send Chris on a last-minute beer run because we were all out of Budweiser, and we all know that dearest Dad cannot go without his Budweiser.
Friday, Christopher still had to go to work, so Nick, Mom, Dad, and I went and looked at Government Island and then we tried to go to Aquia Church. Unfortunately, I was stung by killer ground-dwelling bees twice, so we had to head home. After I took some Benadryl, we went on base so I could show the family around. We avoided the commissary because it was payday, but dad did get a 36 pack of Budweiser.
When Christopher was released (fortunately pretty early), we went to the Marine Corps Barracks at 8th and I for the Marine Corps Silent Drill. It was the last one of the year, and we were so lucky that it worked out that we could go. We sat near the middle, close to the Commandant's house as well as close to the middle of the entire seating, second row; it couldn't have been much better.
The two highlights of the night would have to be when the GUEST OF HONOR and newly appointed Honorary Marine was Gary Sinise-an actor on CSI for some of you, but for others, LIEUTENANT DAN. Chris and I were incredibly, incredibly excited.
The second highlight was when this young Lance Corporal of the Silent Drill accidentally knocked off his own cover. The Commandant himself walked up to the Lance Corporal, bent down, picked up his cover, and ever so gently brushed it off. He then put the Lance Corporal's cover back on his head, straightened it a bit, and then kind of touched his shoulders in a, "You've got this, kid!" kind of way. It was a really, really good time.
Chris, unfortunately, has a billet for this field experience so he had to work on an order for a lot of the weekend. We did end up doing some grilling, going around looking at some things in Fredericksburg, like the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, Rising Sun Tavern, and Mary Washington House. We learned a whole bunch of things like, where the phrase, "Bottoms up!" comes from, and what a necessary chair is. We had a lot of fun learning about the terrible medical care available back then. They even keep live leeches at the apothecary shop. Gross!
I want to get more into everything we did, but tomorrow we are getting up early to head to D.C. We are planning on seeing the National Mall, the Holocaust Museum, and Arlington. I believe we are doing the Smithsonians on Thursday! It should be fairly busy, and we are all definitely getting our exercise in this week!
Also, I did get back to the oral surgeon today, and was told I wouldn't have to come back for a follow-up visit and that everything looked great! I did have a little pain on my bottom right wisdom tooth extraction site, and low and behold I had a little piece of chicken stuck in it.
GROSS.
