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I joined the Coast Guard shortly after HS and moved to Charleston, SC after boot camp. I waited 4 years to get into Coast Guard aviation, but the list was 5 years long and I was tired of waiting, so I got out.
I went to work as a Lab Technician in an environmental lab. I met my soon to be wife during this time. After a couple years I got a new job as a Research Analyst for a technical center also located in Charleston. Cindy and I began to get a bit restless and made the realization neither one of us was cut out to spend the rest of our lives in one place and stuck in a 9 to 5 job. I'm lucky to have found a mate that has the same "gypsy soul" I do.
We discussed our options and decided I would go back in the Coast Guard. Lucky for me they had done a little house cleaning while I was gone and kicked out a bunch of old timers so I was able to go straight into Aviation. We left Charleston for the far-away land of Savannah, GA (about 100 miles south). We spent 4 years there and enjoyed every minute of it. It wasn't a big move, but it was a good start.
For our next station we lucked out and got Fort Lauderdale, FL. Finally! We lived in a beautiful condo in downtown Ft. Lauderdale and spent nearly every weekend on our boat or at the beach, and I spent 4 years flying around the Caribbean. Not too shabby.
As they say, all good things must come to an end. Our 4 years in sunny south Florida went by quickly. Next up? Port Angeles, WA. We moved out here last summer and although sad to leave our friends and lifestyle behind, we've been having a great time. It's a small city, and a bit slower paced here, which has worked out well. Cindy has gone back to school to get her nursing degree and I think we both needed a break from the pace of south Florida. We're less than 2 hours from Seattle, a 30 minute boat ride from Victoria, B.C. and 4 hours from Vancouver. Did I mention I can see Canada from my living room? Seriously!
That's about it up to now. Unfortunately we won't be attending the reunion. We'll miss it by a couple weeks. We're coming home to visit family the first week of August and then to Chicago for Lollapalooza. We had to choose one or the other, and Lolla won out. Hope everyone has a good time and maybe I'll run into a few old friends while we're in town.
**Update for the 25 year reunion**
My wife and I spent two amazing years in Washington. We absolutely loved living in the Pacific Northwest, and exploring as much of the area as possible. We spent a lot of time in Seattle, Vancouver, and Whistler. We even got to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver! But, as always, we became restless.
We left the beautiful PNW and moved to Corpus Christi, TX where I continued to fly on the MH-65 dolphin helicopter, and Cindy was able to transfer to Texas A&M where she completed her bachelor's in healthcare administration. We have had a blast here in South Texas. Together we've explored the area, enjoyed Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. I've become quite addicted to the sport of freediving and spearfishing, and with the abundance of off-shore oil rigs here it's been great. But alas, once again, our time is up here. Cindy is just finishing her MBA from the University of Texas, and I got a long awaited promotion, so we're packing up once more and moving to New Orleans, this time with a 70lb yellow lab named Huxley. We can't wait for our next big adventure, and we have no doubt that New Orleans will surely provide us with a wealth of fun things to do and places to explore. We'll be moving there the end of June, so it seems as though we'll have to miss out on the festivities of the reunion again. Hopefully we'll make the 30 year one! If anyone reads this and finds themselves down south in New Orleans give me a shout! Hope everyone has a blast at the reunion!
