Big Move

Well, it is finally time to get moved to Mystic. The packers came yesterday and in less than three hours had our entire apartment packed up and ready to go. This morning the movers came and have been loading everything. Our apartment is starting to look very empty and tonight will be us, the air mattress, a suitcase and our computer. We are so excited for tomorrow and can't wait to get all moved in to our new house. Luckily the movers are delivering our things either tomorrow or Friday. We also have big load including all of my things and all of our wedding gifts coming from Washington. It will be so nice to have everything in one place and be in our first house together.

NE Trip

We made it back safely from our week long vacation around the NE. Our trip was great! We saw family, friends, and lots of great historic places. I plan to give a brief over view of the entire trip and then I will add pictures and details from individual locations. We left home last Tuesday morning bright and early for our big adventure. For lunch we decided to stop in Philadelphia and get something quick to eat before heading over and seeing the Liberty Bell. I have to say that the liberty bell complex was very beautiful with all sorts of plants and landscaping. Fr0m Philadelphia we headed down towards Baltimore. Just before we arrived in Ellicott City (Doug's uncle Doug lives in Ellicott City, MD and we stayed with him) our check engine light came on. Luckily we were able to get the car to a shop in town and left it there over night. It was nice to see Uncle Doug, Mema & Papa after such a long day of traveling. On Wednesday we spent a lot of the day relaxing and waiting to hear more about the car. We ended up needing to get a loaner car as ours had more problems then we had expected. We did enjoy a nice walk into town with Mema & Papa. In the evening we saw some of the historic downtown and enjoyed dinner with Doug. Thursday morning was the big trip into DC. While in DC we saw three of the Smithsonian buildings (Natural History, American History, and the Air & Space Museum. We also wondered about the National Mall and saw the Capital, Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument before leaving town. We ended up finishing in DC around 3PM so decided to head down to Charlottesville, VA to see Eri for dinner. Although the drive was long it was lovely to see all of the fall colors. Friday we decided to spend the day a little closer to Ellicott City and drove into Baltimore. I loved seeing the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The area was very beautiful. The highlight of Baltimore for me was seeing the Barnes & Noble which was in an old Electric Building. Saturday we left for Niagara Falls and had a great drive through PA and NY. We crossed the border into Canada and stayed the night in a Radisson with a great view of the falls. Saturday evening we headed down to Fort Erie for a night tour through the fort. On Sunday we wondered around the falls and enjoyed the beautiful fall day before returning home. Overall we had a great trip! I will be sure to add more details and photos soon.

House in Mystic, CT

Doug and I are very excited because we signed a lease on a house in Mystic, CT. The house is very nice and was just built in 2008. The house is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom with a great open living area downstairs. The backyard is fenced in which will be great for getting a dog. We are scheduled to move in on the 31st which is just in time for Doug to start work the next Monday. Mystic is a very cute town with lots of shops and great restaurants. It is nice for Doug because he will only be about ten minutes from base and commuting won't be bad.

A little break...

I guess it has been quite awhile since I have updated the blog! Sorry for the delay :). We haven't been busy, but we have been enjoying fall and our extra time together. Doug has been phone mustering every day so we have had plenty of time to relax and enjoy life. Our new favorite spot is the Malta Nature Preserve which is just down the road from us. The area is beautiful and we enjoy walking through the preserve a few times a week. It feels so nice to get some nature time, and seeing the leaves change over the past few weeks has been great. Everything is so beautiful here right now.
Additionally, fall quarter has started and I am back to school. Class is going fine and it is good to continue my progress. It is nice to have some sense of fulfillment as well.
Today there was a car show in downtown Ballston Spa. We walked just a block up the street and saw all sorts of cars. I think Doug was probably in heaven and enjoyed seeing some classics as well as some very new sports cars. I am not a big car person but it was fun to be out and about.
We are still working on finding somewhere to live in CT. Doug emailed with a current JO (Junior Officer) on the North Carolina and found out the boat is moving homeports much sooner than we had anticipated. It sounds as though we will be making the move sometime next summer/fall. Ultimately we will spend more of this sea tour in Hawaii then we will in Connecticut. Although it is a bit of a bummer we will be moving part way through the tour, and that we won't be able to buy a house after all, it will be nice to have a two-year "vacation" in Hawaii. With that in mind we are looking for a house to rent in the New London/Groton area. Most houses we have called about are either not available in time or have some other issue. This evening we called about a house that looks like it might work out. It is a new house in Mystic which is a very cute town. Hopefully this week we will get a chance to drive down and see the house.
I will be sure to post some more updates and photos from the past few weeks.

House Hunting Trip Two

This past Saturday we drove down to Groton for our house hunting adventure number two. Our main goal was to look at the base housing and see what we qualify for. The base houses are recently renovated but are much smaller than we were hoping for. We would both really like some space to breathe, as well as a house that isn't identical to every neighbor. Additionally, the base houses that we saw didn't really have yards at all so it would be impossible to get a dog while living there. At this point we have sort of ruled out base housing and are focusing more on either buying a house or renting a house in the area.