North Shore Drive

We had planned to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center today, but Jake really didn't feel up to it. Instead, we decided just to take a windshield tour of the windward side of the island. We had to do something to get out of the room.

First, we took H3 straight out to the Marine base at Kaneohe Bay to look around at the BX, quarters, etc. You know, the important stuff. It is a very nice base with lots of new and improved housing. We ate lunch at the food court. {Only the best for Jake.} Then we did a little shopping. Not too much, though...not a lot of room left in the suitcases. Just important things...like chocolate chip macadamia nut shortbread cookies.



This is just the way I remember it from 20 years ago. I think it's wild how the road runs right along the ocean. See how wet it is? That is from the waves crashing onto the road. It was fun to watch.



I wonder how many people have driven straight into the ocean?



We followed the signs to the LDS temple in Laie. Beautiful! It had just opened back up after two years of renovations.



Then we backtracked a little to check out the BYU Hawaii campus.



What a gorgeous campus. We're hoping one/some of our kids have the opportunity to go here.



Jake still didn't feel like stopping at the Cultural Center next door, so we just kept driving...up to the North Shore. We found parking right off the road and stopped to take in the sights for awhile. {With Hawaiian radio 105.1, KINE, playing in the background, of course. It's been our constant soundtrack for our adventure here. Hawaiian music is probably going to give me traumatic flashbacks of this experience now.}



The waves were awesome. I could have sat here all afternoon and watched.



Then, to add to the local flavor, a machete-wielding stranger walked up to our car with a green coconut...



And made us an offer we couldn't refuse. {Seriously, we were afraid of what he might do with that machete if we turned him down.}



Jake loves coconut and was super excited to be drinking from one. The straw looked suspiciously like those McDonald's carries...and with no wrapper in sight, I had my worries about its origin. {Here's hoping Jake's "local" experience doesn't have him "going coconuts" all night.}

Conference 09...Day Six...Cliff Speaks and Saying Goodbye

When Tuesday rolled around, it was Cliff's turn to speak. Each year, several Chaplains who have deployed during the year are invited to give a presentation on what they did/learned/overcame. Typically the topic is "Ministry in Combat" but since Cliff's deployment was much different, so was his message.

Cliff spent hours on his presentation, and just reviewing his Power Point slides several days beforehand was enough to leave me in a sobbing heap. There are so many emotions I have associated with his deployment.

Pride. I was so proud of the part he played in honoring the fallen of our US and Allied service members.

Sadness. Profoundly sad. Sad for the families whose loss is so tremendous...but also sad for everyone involved, for each death touches many who do their part to honor the sacrifice.

Worry. Not worried for his safety this time. But worried that what he was doing and seeing...day in and day out, with only a naps worth of sleep before he'd have to get up to do it again, with no down time, as the only chaplain...would profoundly change him. Worried about him being surrounded by death and also having to minister to those trying to process it themselves. Worried about the Chaplain having a Chaplain.

Weariness. It was hard for me having to be a single parent to teens after one of the most significant "shake-ups" of our family's history. Everything about us changed...leaving our country, our home, our loved ones (while they dealt with some pretty tough challenges), not just our "schools"...but our entire means of education. I could go on. It was a rough transition...and to have Cliff leave in the middle of that really shook us up. Some of my children's needs seemed impossible for me to meet alone.

I don't know that I can really explain it effectively. The information that Cliff and I were asked to share between our two presentations would have been impossible to share comprehensively. We could hit the highlights, give people a glimpse of what he did there and I did back home...but there is no way to convey it in all of its complex messiness and triumphant glory. No way. So to attempt to do it justice was almost painful in itself. To listen to Cliff try to squeeze all that he experienced in its complex layers into a 10 minute presentation was beyond difficult. He could barely scratch the surface. To me it almost felt trite, because I knew so much more...but it was what it was. Which brings me to my final emotion...

Gratitude. Grateful for the Lord's unfailing tender mercies which surrounded both of us during that time. Grateful for the two living "angels" which I know were sent to work with him in their respective capacities. One was an assistant who was so obviously tailored to Cliff it cannot possibly be a coincidence. (A kind, salty-old Marine, complete with Scottish brogue and BYU ball cap...need I say more?) I am so thankful for his strength and his sense of humor. The other was a Chaplain serving at another base nearby who had been a mentor to Cliff in years past. Whenever Cliff would write that he was going to go visit this base (which he did about once a month) I would cry tears of joy knowing his "pitcher" would be refilled in his fellowship with this Chaplain over a nice long dinner (a GOOD dinner, for a change). Gratitude for the "sacred ground" upon which he was able to tread in the experiences he had ministering to the living and the dead. There's no way to even touch that in a 10 minute presentation.

As it always does, the conference ended far too quickly. It was time to say our goodbyes until next year. We needed more time with some of our people, and so we called my dad and luckily he was OK keeping the kids without us for a bit longer. We had one last dinner with some of our closest friends. One of those Chaplains will be retiring this next June. We met him 18 years ago when he performed our wedding at the MCAS El Toro chapel, and in the years since, he and his wife have been some of our most cherished friends. The conference won't be the same without them!

Conference Trip Day 1 & 2

Thanks to some glitches in our overseas preparations, we ended up leaving about 4 hours later than we wanted on the 1^st. This didn’t give us as much time to visit with family as we had hoped, but we did have a late dinner with my mom and Grandma and Grandpa Cramer, and afterward, Uncle Neal and Aunt Janet (my mom’s brother and his wife) came over to visit with us for a little while. It was great to see them.

We had to leave Thursday morning to make it to Provo in time for our speaking assignment at BYU. It was a great experience…SO exciting to see so many new LDS Chaplain Candidates and their wives. Only 2 of the couples are going Navy :-(, but we are still happy for the Army and Airforce, honest. They asked lots of great questions, and it was fun to think back 9+ years to the time when we were so full of questions and anticipation. It has been an amazing experience so far, and we still feel so incredibly blessed to serve in this capacity.

Cliff called ahead to set up a tour for Troy and Patrick, so while he and I were speaking, they rode around on a golf cart with a tour guide. They even got the coolest brick-pack t-shirts.

They look so cool like this; I’m tempted to leave them this way. Patrick is still leaning toward the Naval Academy as opposed to BYU (for the sword…and the scary part is…that's seriously the deal-breaker for him).

That evening, we had dinner at Rick and Amy Gabbitas’ home. We met Rick when he came out to do his 2 weeks of active duty for the Naval Reserve with Cliff at El Centro. They live in Provo while Rick finishes his training at BYU to become a Chaplain. They live just 2 blocks from the campus, and it was a fun walk. Amy showed me the house (right by the terraced garden) that she lived in as a girl while her dad was in graduate school there (which was way cool…I LOVE trivia like that) and told me how happy she was that her children would be old enough to remember living at BYU, too. It is a very cool place.

The highlight of the visit for the children was the Gabbitas’ cellar/Zombie defense bunker! It’s in their family room. Here’s their little Tom on the floor…

And then here’s Patrick lifting up the floor!

They (being Mormon) of course keep their food storage down there…which would make it even more suited for zombie defense. Patrick was even helping them figure out plans for digging a well in preparation for the zombie apocalypse.

The Linebacks joined us for dinner, too. They retired last year and we miss them so much, so it was so great to see them. He was actually the Hospital Chaplain at Balboa when Jake was in PICU for 2 weeks back in 99…so he was our chaplain before he was our friend.

We checked into the hotel Thursday night. It was kind of late…and we are SURE the front desk clerk and our neighbors were thrilled by our arrival!