Let Them Eat Street Food

Like the lyrics in the theme song to the PBS show “CARRIER” sang, we’re back to “haze gray and underway, a world away from you. and miles and miles of blue…”.

After 4 glorious days in Thailand (and probably a lifetime of less-than-desirable transmitted diseases for those who made poor decisions with local women in Thailand…) it’s back out to the ocean. Wow- what an AWESOME time! I could go on and on and on about what an awesome port visit we had. Unfortunately I only have about 3 days to do it because then we’ll be back on land and I’ll have a whole ‘nother port to blog about. However, this afternoon I burned all of my pictures to a CD so I can start to share them with you.

After only one day back to sea, my mouth is already watering for the amazing-ness that is Thai food, so that’s where we’ll begin. Now of course, very few people would argue that Thai food isn’t amazing. But what you don’t understand is how the US does Thai ALL.WRONG. Sure, we went out to one few “fancy restaurant” where we spent almost $20/person on dinner. But that is just ludicrous when you hear about some of the other culinary options in Thailand- Street Food. And no, I’m not talking about the man who sells hot dogs in NYC.

The Thai people take street food to a whole new level. Basically, the food is sold from little shacks that are somehow jerry-rigged to the side of their moped (so their food stand can be mobile, obviously). Here is a good picture of a meat street food vendor with the attached moped. And if you can put it on a stick, they will sell it to you from a food stand. My all time favorites were marinated chicken or pork or beef (I stuck with the chicken) on a stick, which were cooked over little burning fires on their stand. Here I am showing off my chicken on a stick. Total price for 2 sticks of chicken? Approximately $1.50. Then there were the fruit stands that would make you drool. Populated with watermelon, mangos, coconuts, cantaloupe, papayas, pineapples and whatever else they had that was ripe and exotic, you pointed to what you wanted (all the fruit sat on ice) and with a quick “chop chop” of a knife, they slipped the chopped fruit into a little plastic bag, with a stick. Total price for bag of pineapple? $.75 Here is a picture of both a fruit stand and me, beaming with excitement over my bag of pineapple (I had at least 6 in 3 days). I have never had pineapple like this in my life. We decided it must be laced with some sort of amazing drug- it is beyond delicious and ridiculously addicting.

Then there were the “Indian Pancakes”. What an Indian pancake, you ask? Well, other than that the guy behind the moped/stand was Indian, it really was a lot like a crepe. Here is a picture of the Indian man who makes “pancakes”. The only difference between this and a French crepe is that instead of eating it wrapped up, they cut it into 12 small squares and to eat it you got (duh, what else?) a stick. Here I am with Nicole, enjoying our banana and Nutella “Indian Pancake”. Cost of Indian pancake? $.75. So that pretty much sums up the food that you eat and walk with.

Onto the “street food restaurants”. So the next step up from street food that you walk and eat, is street food that you sit and eat. This consists of a large sidewalk, covered with plastic tables and plastic lawn chairs. The menus are all picture menus with some loosely translated English- basically the people that make the food took pictures of the food and put them in whatever photo albums they could find (we had a mickey mouse and a Winnie the pooh photo album picture menu) Here is Nicole showing you the “picture menu”. Surrounding the tables are many many moped vendors, but also with a whole food stand of fresh seafood on lots of ice. They have scales there that they weight the fish to determine “market price” and then they show it to you in a plastic bucket. After you order, they get to work in the little makeshift shanty “kitchens” behind the seafood stands. There, they make any kind of Thai dish you have EVER wanted. Red, yellow, green curries. Beef/pork/veggies/chicken/prawns/fish in every chili paste or sauce you could ever imagine. Rice and noodle dishes. And at $3-4 PER DISH, it’s like Thai tapas! Each time, we would order 4-6 dishes and big plates of steamed white rice and pass everything around family style. On this particular night, we had yellow chicken curry, prawns in chili sauce, a spicy beef and glass noodle salad, pad thai (a staple at EVERY meal) and then something else that we didn’t think we ordered but showed up anyways and was delicious. We would each also get a little plate of steamed rice- all made outdoors in these little woks and frying pans and sauce pots cooked on an open flame on a SIDEWALK. So at ~$20 total, including a generous tip because we are Americans and are accustomed to leaving large tips, you could eat like royalty (well, royalty that eats on lawn chairs on a sidewalk :) forever here! And all of the “street food cafes” were packed with loyal families- a sure sign that the food was going to be good!

To top off our street food eating (we only ate at 2 “real” restaurants the whole 3 days there), we swung by the “sticky rice and mango” stand for, you guessed it, sticky rice and mango (to go!) at a whopping price of $2. as you can tell, I cannot stop talking/thinking/dreaming about the Thai street food. It was absolutely out of this world ridiculously amazing.

Sigh. I might have just drooled on the computer (ok, just kidding). I am going to stop now, mainly because I have to fold my laundry and it’s 2:14 in the morning. Up next is a feature on our hotel and activities other than eating in Thai and then a feature on my tailoring experience. That SHOULD sum up Thailand pretty well, and just in time for our trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! So I will leave you with a picture of the sunset from the balcony of our hotel- goodnight to all!

One Night in Bangkok…

Ok so we’re not exactly in Bangkok. But the song is pretty fitting.

Oh Thailand. There are so many words to describe you. Most of which are not appropriate for print in this blog. Most should not be appropriate in any circumstance.

If I only had one sentence to sum up Phuket, Thailand it would be “Making Tijuana and Mardi Gras look PG-rated”. Luckily for you, my reader, I have more than one sentence to describe Thailand.

In the interest of time (being that I haven’t slept very well recently and I need to finish up laundry, pack up an overnight bag and rest up for my impending 2 days of liberty), I will not write about everything, but focus on a few key elements of Thailand to whet your appetite until we are haze gray and underway.

Yesterday was our first day of liberty and after 12 hours in Patong Beach I can honestly say that I don’t think I will ever come back. (Don’t worry Dan, we’ll still come to Thailand, just not back to this “charming” town). Basically, any preconceived notion or stereotype you have about Thailand- specially the beach/touristy areas, you can pretty much bet is spot on to real life. Or, it’s probably worse.

After walking through what is called “the gauntlet” onboard the NIMITZ (basically 2 HUGE rows of Chiefs and First Class Petty Officers facing each other, through which all personnel going on liberty must walk through to be “inspected” to ensure their liberty attire is within regulations. I got screamed at because my sunglasses were on my head. Not my face, not my eyes, on my head, like a headband. Apparently that is a way that you can “conceal” who you are. Seriously? Anyways, I digress), we got on a large Thai double-decker “ferry” that shuttled all of the Sailors in groups of 250 from the ship to the pier. Then, we boarded a large coach bus (there were hundreds of them) and took a 50 minute bus ride through the villages and on roads that were clearly NOT made for large coach buses.

Then we were dumped out into a place called “Patong Beach”. Patong Beach is basically like Bourbon Street, but one block away from the beach (a la Daytona) but in Thailand. Imagine throngs of young Thai women, enticing you into their beach bars with good drink specials and American music. As soon as the sun went down, it went from mildly inappropriate to wildly out of control. Basically, a young single Sailor with dreams of joining the Navy to see the world and exotic women and warm weather’s version of heaven on earth. I won’t even go into what goes on there at night, as we walked through the closed-down pedestrian streets. However, this sign that we saw during the day pretty much sums up what happens when 3 Navy ships descend upon a Thai beach town. This was for a local establishment called “Rock Hard A Go Go”. Whatever that means. All I have to say about that sign is “You stay classy, San Diego”.

We walked around, pushed our way through the crowds, poked our heads around souvenir stands and shops and I got some clothes made at a tailor shop. This was pretty cool because I brought a few pictures in of what I wanted made (thank you friends and family for sending so many magazines for me to pore over and look through) and I got to pick out from tons of material and then showed the guys how I wanted to change little things about the dress and they sketched away. I am getting: a cute A-line dress with a sweetheart neckline and medium-sized straps from a silk black material with different size and shaped polka dots; a pair of linen Capri pants in a khaki/creamy color; and a linen dress that is button up, a shirt pocket on the left side, rolled up sleeves and a tie around the waist in a watermelon pink. On Tuesday I will go back to have them fitted and then Wednesday I will pick them up for good. It definitely probably wasn’t the quality that I would get somewhere like Hong Kong so I didn’t get anything fancy schmacy made there, but the price was decent, they could turnaround the clothes in about 4 days and it is worth the experience of getting clothes tailored. If anything, it’ll be a good story. I promise to take pics of me modeling all clothes and post later. Like Dan says (the tailored clothing connoisseur of the two of us), it’s hit or miss with tailoring in a random country, but usually worth the experience.

Now, the men who run/work at these souvenir shops and tailors like to hang out on the street and try and get people to come into their shops. Understandable, that’s pretty much how it works at any touristy area in the world. But, their tactics are particularly interesting. At the bars, the petite women throw out a lot of “Hey baby, how about you come in here for some drinks? Hey there, how are you doing today, maybe you would like to come in here and hang out”. And I’m sure it’s a great technique that yields them many an eager tourist or Sailor or guy looking for a good time. However, the men have attempted similar tactics to try and get the women tourists to come see their souvenir shops (I guess they think we feel left out for not having anyone hit on us too?). It was quite laughable and interesting to see how the guys thought that they could use the same advertising on girls to get them to shop as the ladies use on the men to get them to come into bars.

But I digress. The point of this was to focus on 2 things: the ridiculous spa that we found and the ridiculous amount of amazing food that we ate.

My liberty buddies for the day were Nicole (our intell officer, roommate and girl I traveled to Bahrain with and lived with for 2 months on ABOT) and Jean-Ann, an ’07 Suwannee graduate who is a NIMITZ Intell Officer (more on both of them later, but the point is, they’re both really fun, sweet, adventurous, love traveling, love eating and trying amazing food and did not want to patronize or frequent any of the nightlife establishments in Thailand. Could I have asked for better liberty buddies? I think not).

In 2 meals we ordered and devoured: pad thai, crispy wontons, fresh fish cooked “Phuket style”- right on the bone with the eyes and the fins and the little bones and everything, massaman curry (a-ma-zing!), fresh spring rolls, chicken satay (the best I’ve EVER had), gianormous prawns with lemon and garlic, at least a pound or 2 of steamed rice, duck curry and a glass noodle/chicken/shrimp salad with a spicy lime-y vinaigrette. Here is a picture of the Pad Thai. More pictures of everything else to come soon, thankfully these girls appreciate my joy in taking pictures of food! The spicy/flavorful foods were perfectly accompanied by a mildly sweet and crisp Thai white wine (not pictured).

By far one of my new favorite dishes has actually turned out to be Thai dessert. Dan says “Great, now our Thai dinners out just got SO much more expensive now that we have to order dessert too” :). Last night at dinner, we had lemon grass ice cream (in the words of Nicole “it tastes like the way a spa smells!” which could not be any more spot on) and sticky rice with mango. Sticky rice is just what it sounds like- rice that is sticky. But I think what makes it sticky is the sugar in it. Then it is served with slices of half a mango on the side. This was great, as I had just learned not only how to eat mango the other day, but also the fact that I liked mango. Even better- they already scooped it out for us! I can’t wait to get back out in town and eat more of this amazing food! More pictures to come later.

After an hour or so of walking through downtown Patong Beach which had a strikingly similar feel of Mardi Gras (complete with girls pole dancing on the balconies of bars- I kid you not), we found a charming spa. Now, I know what comes to mind when you think of a Thai spa. However, we were struck by the sign outside. Rated #1 on trip advisor? Dan will tell you, tripadvisor is our travel bible. We never go anywhere or do anything or see anything without consulting trip advisor. If anything, we get a good idea of what to expect where we stay, travel or eat. In the words of my business-consultant husband, tripadvisor helps you “manage the expectations of your trip”. It’s true. Well, when I saw that this was rated on trip advisor, I knew it had to be good. So, we wandered up to this little spa door and flipped through the brochure. $10 for an hour massage! Unbelievable. Well, it was 10:30 pm, we were tired and did NOT want to be out walking through the throngs of people and the booming of the music coming from the bars so we ducked in. After seeing many signs explicitly staying that they were a “non-shady” spa (for lack of a better word), we were sold.

I got an “indulgent foot care package”. What is an “indulgent foot care package,” you ask? Well, for about $30, I had not one, but TWO people giving me a pedicure for an hour and a half. Yes, an hour and a half. I’m fairly certain I lost 10lbs in dead skin cells and cuticles (ok, kinda gross, but true). It was the MOST amazing pedicure I have EVER received!!! Nicole got a facial, a manicure and a pedicure for about $20 and Jean-Ann got an hour massage for $10. unbelieavable! And it was at 10:30 at night! You could faintly hear the pulsing of the music outside, but it was so nice and cool and smelled so good in there. As we were leaving, men, women, couples, anyone really were still coming in for a little R&R and pampering. The ladies who worked there were friendly and nice and spoke very good English, the service was outstanding and I could not have been happier. It is RIGHT smack in the middle of ALL of the debauchery (weird, huh?) so we might go there again on our last night if we need a little more pampering. (that is, in addition to the 3-hour spa packages that we all have booked tomorrow at our hotel in the afternoon :)) When I got back to the ship, I recommended it to all of my friends who were creeped out by the idea of going to a Thai spa but legitimately wanted a good massage.

Well, this ended up being a bit longer than I’d expected so I need to go fold laundry and rest up for my next 2 days off. We are heading back to the tailor so I can get fitted then checking into our fabulous hotel, the Diamond Cliff Resort for some sun, reading, pool and spa pampering, broken up by eating ridiculously more food. I can hardly wait! Hopefully Dan gets this posted soon so you can enjoy and I promise to post more pictures and stories of our next 2 days. I’m going to take my laptop to the hotel so more good stuff to come later, I promise.

Much love and sunshine to you all!

NIMITZ is coming home

From: http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50839

From USS Eisenhower and USS Nimitz Public Affairs
GULF OF OMAN (NNS) -- The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) relieved the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group as Commander, Task Force 50 Jan. 25.

"The Eisenhower Strike Group is ready to support any requirement for troops on the ground in Afghanistan and execute the U.S. Maritime Strategy in the region," said Rear Adm. Phil Davidson, commander, Eisenhower Strike Group. "The Eisenhower, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, and all the ships in the strike group are committed and ready to continue the superb effort that Nimitz Strike Group carried out to increase security and stability throughout the region."

"The Nimitz has done an amazing job, and the Sailors aboard Ike are trained and ready to fill behind them," said Capt. Dee Mewbourne, commanding officer, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). "Taking over from Nimitz, we will continue to improve the security and stability in this part of the world through the outstanding professionalism of our Sailors."

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group has operated in the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations since Sept. 18. with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 aircraft flying more than 2,600 combat sorties and 15,296 cumulative flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).

"I am very proud of the Strike Group's support to coalition forces in Afghanistan, our aircraft launched and executed with thoughtful precision, fused to the directives of the supported commander," said Rear Adm. John W. Miller, commander, Nimitz Strike Group. "I am equally proud of our contribution to counterpiracy operations off the Horn of Africa, protecting critical Iraqi infrastructure in the North Arabian Gulf and the wide range of support provided to ensure maritime security here."

Through our operations and training in 5th Fleet, we enhanced cooperative relationships with our regional partners who are key to the Maritime Strategy," said Miller.

Ships of the CSG endeavored to create a lawful maritime order by deterring piracy, protecting critical infrastructure and conducting Maritime Security Operations throughout the region."

Everyone in the Nimitz-CVW 11 team contributed during our time here on the line," said Capt. Paul O. Monger, Nimitz' commanding officer. "We generated a 99.62 percent sortie completion rate for OEF, our aircraft were there for coalition forces on the ground every day – that was due to the collective efforts of everyone on board. We saved lives and helped bring security and stability in the region."

Like Nimitz, Eisenhower will provide 30 percent of the close air support missions flown to protect coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

Eisenhower CSG is comprised of Dwight D. Eisenhower, embarked Carrier Air Wing 7, embarked Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28, and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Hue City (CG 66). Ships assigned to DESRON 28 include the destroyers USS Farragut (DDG 99), USS Carney (DDG 64)and USS McFaul (DDG 74). These ships will be assigned to tasks forces throughout the region aimed at improving regional and maritime security.

Squadrons from CVW 7 include the "Puking Dogs" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 143, the "Jolly Rogers" of VFA 103, the "Rampagers" of VFA 83, the "Wildcats" of VFA 131, the "Night Dippers" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 5, the "Patriots" of Electronic Attack Squadron 140, the "Blue Tails" of Carrier Airborne Command and Control Squadron 121 and the "Rawhides" of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40.

Helicopter detachments include the "Proud Warriors" of Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 42 and the "Swamp Foxes" of HSL 44.

The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is on a routine deployment to the region. Operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet Area of Operations are focused on reassuring regional partners of the United States' commitment to security, which promotes stability and global prosperity.

For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusnc/.

join the navy, see the world

…or sometimes it's "join the navy, run in place for what feels like days on end and get nowhere". Or sometimes it's "join the navy, try new things".

The past few days have been filled with the former, and I am hoping that the next few are filled with the latter! What am I speaking of, you ask? Well, the past few days (ok, let's be honest, the past few WEEKS and month!) have been more of the same every day. It's officially been 31 days since I've seen the sun and I'm looking forward to changing that TOMORROWWWW! I've also been attacking the treadmill like there's no tomorrow (there is in fact a tomorrow, and it's usually the same as the day before though). In what appears to be an officially overcoming of my fear of treadmills after humpty dumpty took a big fall on a treadmill back in 2004, yesterday I ran a full 4.5 miles on the treadmill (without stopping, or more importantly, falling off!) at speeds ranging from 6.7 to 7.5. An epic day, indeed. Now my whole body hates me (it was only 4.5 miles, I know I know!) but there's something about running on a treadmill that gives you very limited range of motion, which has caused every muscle in my body to hurt. Weak sauce, I know.

But regardless, it was exciting and I'm glad to have run that much. I'm hoping to keep it up and top 10 miles before we come home (no mom, I haven't started studying for the GRE yet though…)

Today, I tried something new. One of the benefits as we pass through 7th Fleet, is that we are exposed to different kinds of foods. While I normally am happy with the fresh pineapple and kiwis (I have this new found love of kiwis. One day I ate 6 in a day. Would that be considered excessive? Hmmm…). Anyways, yesterday's underway replenishment brought us some interesting choices of fruits, including starfish and 3 other things that we could neither pronounce, nor figure out how to open and eat. Luckily for us, there is a guy on staff who is philipino and grew up in this area of the world so he knows all about these kinds of fruit. I've never seen anyone eat a mango so quickly in my life! I actually had no idea even HOW to eat a mango til I met Pete. A few days ago, Pete taught me how to cut and "dice" mango and now my love of fruit has spread to encompass the mango family. It is sure to be a new favorite topping of my tart and fat-free yogurtland delight when I return home. But moving on.

Today we saw these intriguing looking characters in the wardroom on the fruit line. Luckily for us, Pete was nearby and said "oh, that's a dragonfruit!" a dragon fruit, you ask? For those of you who have never seen dragonfruit, they are hot pink (which means I immediately thought it was cool just from its outside) and sort of prickly like a pineapple, but with bigger and fewer "pricklies". However, like a book or a person, one should not judge a fruit by its outer skin. You cut into the dragon fruit and inside is a white sorbet looking substance, with black little seeds (just like the seeds in my beloved kiwis!). Here is the wikipedia description of the "dragonfruit", plus a few pictures I found thanks to the help of my trusty friend "Google":

The pitaya, also known as dragonfruit or dragon pearl is the fruit of a pitaya cactus. Native to Central and South America, the vine-like cactus is also cultivated in Southeastern Asian countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The fruit comes in three types all with leathery, slightly leafy skin. [This makes sense, as we are currently passing through the southeastern asian countries and in fact are even stopping in Malaysia soon!]

• Hylocereus undatus (red pitaya) has red-skinned fruit with white flesh. This is the most commonly-seen "dragon fruit". [this is what I had]


• Hylocereus costaricensis (Costa Rica pitaya, often called H. polyrhizus) has red-skinned fruit with red flesh


• Hylocereus megalanthus (yellow pitaya, formerly in Selenicereus) has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh.

Early imports from Colombia to Australia were designated Hylocereus ocampensis (supposedly red fruit) and Cereus triangularis (supposedly yellow fruit)[8]. It is not quite certain to which species these taxa refer to, though the latter is probably the red pitaya.

The fruit can weigh from 150 to 600 grams; some may reach one kilogram[9]. To prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh.[9] The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit due to the presence of black crunchy seeds.[citation needed] The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. Few people find its taste offensive; some may consider it bland. It is generally recommended that dragon fruit be eaten chilled, for improved flavor[citation needed]; dragon fruit should not be used to accompany strong-tasting food – except to "clean the palate" between dishes.[citation needed] The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids[10], but they are indigestible unless chewed. The fruit is also converted into juice or wine, or used to flavor other beverages. The flowers can be eaten or steeped as tea. The skin is not eaten, and in farm-grown fruit it may be polluted with pesticides.

Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rica Pitaya) may result in pseudohematuria, a harmless reddish discoloration of the urine and faeces.[11]

Don't worry, I have not been plagued with the latter problems that are attributed to the red-fleshed costa rican pitaya.

So after cutting it in half and sharing half with Nicole, I was like "hmmm whats this?" and Chaplain goes- "eat it, it's oreo ice cream!" well, I never thought a Chaps would lie intentionally, but it was not in fact oreo ice cream. Or anything close to as good. In fact, wikipedia's description was spot on- it was low in flavor or taste and was quite fleshy like a kiwi. It was almost like the consistency of sorbet, if sorbet wasn't cold. It was very watery. Personally, I was not a fan. I could see how it could be a palate cleaner, but I'm not sure how I feel about "dragronfruit wine". Even for this Sailor who's been out to sea for 31 days and never met a wine she didn't really like, I'm not sure Dragon-fruit wine would really be my cup of tea. Or cup of wine. Whatever.

Overall, I was incredibly disappointed by the bland flavor and mushy consistency of this seemingly exotic and exciting fruit. What would be better is to cut open the dragon fruit, scoop out all of it's fruity dragon-ness and fill it with tropical sorbet. That would be yummy AND look cool.

Well, that's about all for now. It's quite late and I'm getting up early for our DESRON 23 Command Picture on the flight deck (my first glimpse of the sun in 31 days- yippee!) before we head into THAILAND!!! Three glorious days of sun, shopping, little paper umbrellas in our (hopefully dragonfruit-less) frozen drinks and copious amount of pad thai awake me in just about 12 hours! I am SOOO excited for this port visit.

Tomorrow, our plans include: pad thai, fresh spring rolls, and going to a tailor to get fitted for some clothes. Unfortunately, I have duty the second day so I will be back onboard, which will give me a change to blog about my first impressions of Thailand before heading back out to our beach-side hotel for 2 days of sun and relaxation.

Miss everyone very much and while I'll be MIA for a few days, I promise to have good Thai stories and pictures soon!

Stuck in a Moment

Warning: this post is short, but not sweet.

Today is like this poster. When you’re on a really really really long drive. And you’re NOWHERE near home. And you see one of those large realtor billboards, with the smiling lady with too much lipstick and it says “If You Lived Here, You’d be Home By Now”. And you think “damn it- shut up”.

6 hours ago, the mighty NIMITZ should have been sailing under the Coronado Bay Bridge. 3 hours ago, I should have been enjoying Yogurtland in Little Italy. Thank you “Big Navy” and various other worldly events. Because if the NIMITZ Strike Group hadn’t gotten extended by 2 months, I’d be home. Right now.

Food for Thought. Yum.

it’s the final countdown

Ok, so maybe it’s not the FINAL countdown (which will come once we leave our last port visit), but I don’t ever count down any earlier than 60 days- because before that, it’s just too many days! However, today marks our 60 days out from HOMECOMING!

Are you counting? If you can count to 60, then the answer is yes, you should be! Cross off the dates on your calendar, make a paper link chain, do the funky chicken dance every night at midnight, whatever floats your boat- count it any way you like, but get excited!

We’ve had some historic past few days. Saturday marked our final OEF fly day, bringing our total air sorties in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to over 2,600 since September 17th. Sunday we were “eastbound and down” and today we officially turned over with the strike group who is replacing us. Tomorrow we begin to shift our clocks forward as we move east. In an ironic act, we will actually be FARTHER away from San Diego time for awhile, eventually getting almost a full day (vice the 12 hours we are ahead right now) until we cross the International Date Line, when we will re-wind our clocks a full 23 hours, re-living whatever day it is when we cross.

I guess technically we have 61 days left then. But, whatever, from where I’m sitting (or sailing) right now, we’re 60 days out!

Top Chef

It turns out, 4 months is a long time. Yesterday I reflected back on all that has happened in 4 months for me out here. But, no matter how much I try not to think about it, a lot has happened back at home too. As much as I want life to stand still in my absence, I know it does not. Dan found a new job, traveled to the East Coast a few times, hosted many visitors (including both of our parents and some siblings) and traveled to Mexico, LA and New Mexico. One of our good friends (Clark & Becca) celebrated the birth of their baby girl, Isabelle Grace on New Year’s Day. My best friend Rachel got engaged. And countless other things. So yeah, a lot has happened.

However, despite all of the things that I missed and won’t be able to travel back in time to experience myself, something has happened that time will only make better and is something that I will be able to enjoy and experience for many years to come. What you ask? Well, that would be my husband’s new found joy in COOKING! From baked goods such as rugalach, to the family’s delectable hummus to local fresh produce and catch from the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in Little Italy, Dan is definitely America’s Next Food Network Star (ok, maybe not quite that level, but certainly the West Coast Laufer’s Next Food Network Star).

I thought that maybe it was just every now and again he would cook. But recently Dan has definitely been expanding out and trying new ingredients and techniques. After reading his last email, I couldn’t help but smile at this phrase: "I picked up a piece of fresh mahi mahi (a really nice, tender fish) and then I picked up some roasted anaheim chiles. I'm planning to bake the mahi with just some lemon, olive oil, and lemon pepper seasoning, and then make a reduction sauce with the peppers and pour it over the top of the fish.”

I didn’t even think my husband knew what a “reduction” was! And he even included these pictures of his meal. I’m so proud! Sounds like he’s been watching a little more Food Network than he’s led me to believe this whole time J For so long, I was so excited to come home to my kitchen and all of our great cooking utensils and tools. Now, I can’t wait to come home to those things- and Dan using them to cook me delicious dinners!

Dijon pepper sauce

Left: Baked Mahi Mahi and below is the complete meal