July 21, 2007: The real reason for being in Seattle was to administer the oath of office to Ed's cousin David, who had completed pre-commissioning training for the U.S. Army. The swearing-in happened on Friday night, and the actual pinning was on Saturday. As you can see from the picture, the characteristic Seattle area rain held off during the ceremony. Nice hats!

Image: David's swearing-in

July 19, 2007: After a couple days in CT, Ed flew to meet Michelle in Seattle, and visited Ed's cousin Nathan. Nathan has a new place and is working at the Theo Chocolate company. Great yummy stuff. We toured the factory and brought home some samples.

Image: Ed & Nathan in Seattle

July 15, 2007: The California family was having a combined birthday party, and it was effectively our sendoff. They had roving cartoon characters, piñatas, and as always some great food. Here's Ed with a couple of uncles and a cousin.

Image: Party

July 10, 2007: Today we had a great lunch at our favorite bread place, Con Pane, out on Point Loma. Afterwards we ran some errands and went for a short sail from the Navy's sailing center. Ed still had his authorization card from 1993, and they said it was still good! The hourly rate went from $3 to $9 though...

Image: Michelle Sailing in San Diego

July 6, 2007: We visited relatives in the LA area and the Getty Museum. The buildings were very interesting and the gardens were incredible.

Image: Getty Museum Gardens

July 4, 2007: We went for a nice cruise aboard the USCGC HADDOCK in San Diego harbor. The cutter was part of the security detail keeping boaters away from the four fireworks barges.

Image: CGC Haddock

While aboard, they gave us a look around. The crew shares one shower stall and one head for 10 people. The CO, XPO and EO share their own shower and head. The EO took us into the engine room - nice and warm on a chilly San Diego summer night on the water.

Image: Michelle in Engine Room
Here's Michelle in the engine room!

The fireworks were nice, but very loud. The cutter maintained all other boats outside of 1000 feet, which meant we were closer (sometimes quite a bit closer) than that. To thank the crew for their hospitality, Michelle had baked them four dozen pecan chocolate chip cookies. YUM!

Image: Fireworks in San Diego