Family Day at Boot Camp, MCRD, SD

Even after a latish night, we woke up very early in order to eat the hotel's full breakfast and catch an early (7am) shuttle to the base. It went like clockwork... ate a biscuit and sausage and an omelet and then popped on the bus that had just stopped outside.

As we arrived, the six platoons that are graduating tomorrow were practicing the ceremony in battle dress on the parade deck. It wasn't too hard to pick my brother out, as he's rather tall and very blond... at least what's left of his hair. :) And walking around, I've never seen so many ugly, dark yellow buildings in one place before! My goodness!

There was a lot of waiting around... and then we peeked inside the museum, watched a short film, checked out the gift shop, got a ceremonial yelling at by a DI, just for the experience, and then lined up in the parking lot to watch the "moto" run (motivational, if you missed that) by the 325 brand new Marines. And then there was a lot more standing around waiting with an overseeing DI who wanted us to yell cadence with him... uh, no. Not the whole time at least. There's a good reason why 95% of the Marines we ran into had hoarse throats. My brother said he even contracted bronchitis for a week... but holy cow! He kept training and is graduating on schedule!

We then witnessed the end of the run, where they lined up and were given a nice speech by some officer or person too far away to identify. And then we went in the theater and watched a longer movie about how cool the Marines are... and they are... and then a captain told us about what all the recruits went through during the three months with a slide show accompaniment, and then the Brigadier general, who is a woman and in charge of all Marine Corps training in the Western United States, came and gave us a great talk about how our boys have changed.

And then, finally! We all filed out and went to the bleachers on the parade deck. The band played, and then all six platoons marched by. There was a short speech, and then look out! I bounded onto the deck and got to Zac first! I've never hugged anyone so hard! And he's never wanted to hug before today... and it was wonderful. My goodness! He's so thin! He lost 52 pounds! It took me a moment to adjust to him, and realize that, yes, indeed, he was the same person. :) Part of the weirdness was his deeper voice (it's still a little sore) and his now totally non-sarcastic demeanor, coupled with how much he was scowling during formations to keep his eyes from wandering and his attention focused. My goodness! He looked mean! But he sure was the same little brother of mine... just older all of a sudden. (tears up... okay, yeah.)

He was then on five-hour liberty (on base), and the first thing we did was go get hamburgers. And then pizza... lol... And then we went to the base museum for a long time, saw a little bit of the base, and then we went to eat again... I had something different. Spaghetti and meatballs to be exact. :)

So we said goodbye for the evening... but it wasn't bad, knowing we get to take him home tomorrow. As for him, he said he can't wait to get out of there and that it would be hard for him to sleep tonight. :)

And as for me, although it was cloudy for all of the morning and most of the afternoon, a trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a little sunburn. But only on my left shoulder, forehead and chest. Um, no dressy shirt tomorrow; time for a good old tee.

Jp

(sister, mother, brother, me, father, friend) in the museum.

Oh, and I found the poster that appears on the bottom of this blog page in the corner of the gift store! It was only 98 cents, since it was rather beat up. But it was their last copy, and the only thing I really wanted... Yay!!!