Everything but the Kitchen Sink

So we meet again!!!
We have a fairly long post ahead of us because I'm going to be addressing several major subjects in 1 blog!!!!
First off was our quick overnight trip to New Orleans. It was more of a impromptu/recon trip to NOLA. We found out Thursday night that Eric wouldn't be flying on Friday or Saturday (but he would be on Sunday) so we figured now is as good as any to get down south and check out New Orleans. I've had a lot of ideas in mind for our trip there after Eric's winging and we were able to walk the streets and I mean WALK the streets. We probably walked over 6 miles in less than 18 hours! I'm always keeping my eye out for good hotel deals that are dog-friendly and so stayed at La Quinta in downtown for only $105/night. But at the last minute we decided to see if Dylan Nicholas could walk the dogs and he agreed so we had that stress taken off of us!
So we left Meridian on Friday around 11am and only 3 hours later we were checking into our hotel downtown. They had valet parking so we let them park our car and we didn't use it for 24 hours. We "unpacked" (what little we brought) and were off to walk the streets. Our hotel was only .4 miles from the beginning of Bourbon Street and that was our first stop because of how notorious it is. I'll have to say.....wasn't impressed, actually I was probably a little scared and put-off by the whole place. I knew that there would be some "sketchy" places but the amount of "gentleman's clubs" on the street was astounding. I figured there'd be one or two but there were probably more about 15 that we passed and their "advertising" was quite graphic. We walked down to Decatur Street (about 5 blocks south, closer to the water) and found what I was looking for!

When we got to Decatur St we found the restaurants I had looked up (Coop's) which we had amazing appetizers and we ate our first beignets at the legendary Cafe du Monde.

Then there was a section called the French Market which had all these vendors set up and we found a retired Marine who was an amazing artist and we got a couple of his drawings (one of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, and Marilyn Monroe). We also got a print from a photographer who still used the old school film camera (as opposed to a digital) to get the best picture of an angel in St. Louis Cemetery #2.
We walked up and down the streets a little longer and then headed back to the hotel with our pictures. We went for dinner at a place called Montrel's and it was awful!!! I'm kind of glad we went there because since it was just the two of us it was good to find out how bad it was prior to taking family. So no worries everyone, we jumped on that "grenade" and now you won't have to go through that!!!!
We walked around a lot more and walked down the riverwalk area, down pass the Aquarium and up to Harrah's. This is the first time I've been into a casino (other than the ones on a cruise ship). I was so out of my element and it was huge! Eric taught me a little about roulette and we watched some serious poker players.
We made it an early night and we were up early the next morning!!!! We had breakfast in the hotel and then headed out to the Aquarium for our morning outing. It was a really impressive but small aquarium. They have a great tank right at the beginning that you walk through and there were otters, sharks, penguins (which we were there for their feeding), and also an endangered white crocodile!
We had lunch at this AMAZING place (which is on the list for the family) called Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. The menu was awesome and everything we got was soo good! After that we made one last stop to a place we passed while walking around called The Cigar Factory where they were hand-rolling all the cigars they sold in store.

We haven't tried any of them yet but the ambiance of the store and how friendly they were sucked us in!

With our cigars and new art in hand we headed back to the hotel, got our car from the valet, and our luggage from the "storage" closet and we were gone at 2pm. Exactly 24 hours after we pulled in. We packed a lot in those 24 hours and it was awesome. I'm glad we walked around as much as we did and learned a lot about the area and how friendly everyone was.

OH......I don't know how I forgot this but while we were at Cafe du Monde we started up a conversation with these two ladies (who were awesome) and they turned out to be from Madison, WI and were HUGE Green Bay Packers fans as well. As the conversation progressed, one of the ladies mentioned that her family has 10 season tickets and Eric's face perked up! She mentioned that we needed to trade contact information and before you knew it Eric had her email address and was writing her an email in the restaurant! Let's just say that Eric is really utilizing his new "smarty pants phone".

 

Now on to the next item of business: Eric is about to head to Carrier Qualifications the first week of February. He heads to Key West, Florida around February 6th, where he'll be staying for about a week.  He'll be landing on the newly made USS George H.W. Bush carrier (here's the official web page of the USS George H.W. Bush). He'll only spend one night on the boat and has to get all his qualifications completed in those 2 days. He has to successfully complete 10 traps where he lands and catches the wire. He has to have a 60% boarding rate (the amount of times he "goes around" he has to land 60% of those times). All this is being graded and he has to have a GPA of 2.5.

There are 40 people from his wing (Meridian, MS) and over 80 people from all T-45 student pilots going, so it'll be quite busy.

Now if I haven't stressed this out enough...these Carrier Qualifications are a BIG part of him finishing. This is a huge part of what all the student pilots look forward to but also dread at the same time. There's a lot of pressure during the Carrier Qualifications so please be praying for him and for strength and calmness while he's there.

Right now he's doing FCLP's (Field Carrier Landing Practice) to plan for the carrier landings but landing on the land runway is nothing. It's designed to get them prepared for the boat but something tells me that it's completely different when all you see is a landing strip surrounded by water!

After he comes back from the boat there's only one block of training left for him which is called ACM's (Air Combat Maneuvering). This is where they practice the dog-fighting and head-to-head training.

So as you can tell...our journey in Meridian is starting to wind down. He's doing FCLP's, Landing on the boat, and the ACM's and the winging will be here before you know it.

And last but not least....details about THE WINGING.
I'm not trying to count the chickens before they hatch but it is important to get any information we have out. So I sent out a text to the mom's and dad's but we're getting it on the blog as well. As of now they're telling the guys that the winging date has been moved from March 23rd to March 16th now. What that means is that they typically do a "family day" either the day before or usually the morning of the winging. The actual winging ceremony is held in the Chapel on base and usually takes place in the late morning. After the ceremony we may have some free time and can let Eric change out of his Dress Blues and head to a nice lunch after. That same night (Saturday the 16th) they have a winging party where all the students come together and celebrate the new PILOTS that were just winged with their family and friends that came down. The winging party can start anywhere from 5pm to 9pm. The guys who are winging are they ones that are actually scheduling the party and Eric and they guys haven't started that yet. Pilots are fairly superstitious and therefore don't jump ahead prior to them earning it. I believe once the guys come back from the carrier qualifications we'll get more details on the winging party and what all it will entail.
Our plan from there is to get a decent night's sleep and head out to New Orleans about the time that everyone has to check-out of the hotel (around 11am). I should have everything else planned out from there.

Now...to get to the logistics of the whole event.
If you're flying in...I would recommend flying into either Key Field in Meridian, MS or if prices are better fly into Jackson, MS and we can come and pick you up. The next part is very important....if you're buying tickets online I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you buying the insurance that allows you to change the date of the flight if needed. As you can see by the recent changing in dates, anything can happen at anytime!!!! Semper Gumby (Always Changing) was created for a reason. Also, even if he does wing on March 16th but for some reason gets called to move we may not get to go to New Orleans and would hate for you to sit around Meridian for several days.
So to simplify the dates. The Winging is set for Friday, March 16th and we would be leaving for New Orleans on Saturday the 17th. We would be staying the night of the 17th, 18th (Sunday), and 19th (Monday). We would be leaving on Tuesday the 20th.

As you can see there are two items on the side of the blog that need to be pointed out. The top one is actually a countdown I created to the new March 16th date! Just a little something that got me all pumped up. Now second is a Follow by Email box. As some of you noticed you weren't receiving emails when I posted because I have the option of putting your email address down within my option (limited to only 10 emails). For some reason, it decided to delete every one's email from there and I didn't catch it until it was too late and finally added them back in. I would recommend putting your email inside that box yourself and just let me know and I can empty your email address out of my option so it doesn't delete it again. I've been trying out the new option myself and it hasn't failed me yet.
Plus check out the Shutterfly account for the pictures I've added of our trip to New Orleans.

After about an hour of typing...I think I've finally covered everything. Well I hope so anyways. If anyone has any questions about anything or everything I posted....just let me know...send me a text or call me.
We love you all and can't wait to see everyone in a couple months!!!!!!