Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Sea Life Park with friends! We’ve never stayed for the 2pm dolphin and penguin show before. The kids loved getting splashed by the dolphin, and I liked the penguins’ theme music. After it was all over, the dolphin did a few slow laps around the tank again. “Aaaaaand now we’re back to looking sad,” Jess…
What do you remember from summer vacation as a kid? Staying up late, reading books all day on the beach, boogie boarding, racing friends across the neighborhood pool—that’s what I remember. And road trips with my family, which meant extra reading in the car and on the beach, camping, running out of things to read,…
You know what’s the absolute WORST part of life as a Navy family? The unending separations. Chris and us, us from friends, Chris and I from our siblings, kids from extended family, cousins from cousins. So when we do get time together, I want to make the most of it. At long last, the moment…
Blogging is so out, according to everyone. I don’t care. It’s meditative for me. I started Passport Diaries 10 YEARS AGO, in April 2008. TEN YEARS AGO. I wanted to go one of Jacksonville, Florida’s fish markets at dawn and watch the fishing boats unload the catch of the day. We had our orders to Japan and…
My precious kiddos have thrived in their school schedule this year. We all have! I know everyone always says kids need routine and regularity in their lives, and it turns out they’re not lying! Amazing! A few weeks ago I lost my voice. Chris was flying late. The kids wanted their bedtime stories of course….
I love Change of Command ceremonies. It’s full of excitement and hope like a wedding, in that a new ‘family’ is formed. It’s sad like a funeral, because there are tearful goodbyes and lots of thanking people for their support, and a review of the good times shared together. Families and friends fly in from…
Just days before the Big Island’s Pu’u O’o crater collapsed and magma began spurting and oozing out of cracks in the earth, Chris was in the area evaluating air quality. Thick smoke—much thicker than the smoke we saw there five months ago—was already pouring forth from the ground. Below ground, what they could not see…
