So I am sure that some of you are aware that Robert left for deployment almost 2 weeks ago. I plan on keeping our blog updated with pictures from the awesome places he will be visiting as well as keeping you updated on any stories that he happens to throw my way. Needless to say, the first couple of days that Robert left were very hard for me. Luckily, I have an amazing boss that let me take all of the time that I needed to get myself situated. Robert and I moved our things into storage and I am currently renting a room from one of my best friends that I have made in Virginia. Tina, her husband, and her 8 month old daughter have welcomed me with open arms. She even let me drag parker in as well. I had the opportunity to live alone but we thought that living with someone would help the time pass faster and we would be able to save a lot more money to put towards buying a house when he gets back.
Parker is having a difficult time adjusting and one of my biggest concerns is that I do not want him to bite the baby or I would feel HORRIBLE. He seems to be doing good so far but there are still a few kinks to get figured out. Robert emails me on a daily basis and I have already received 2 phone calls from him. He seems to be in good spirits.
The first couple of days he said that nearly the whole ship was sea sick. There were 30 ft swells and he said people were sea sick left and right. He was planning on starting a work out regimen as soon as they left but due to the rough seas it was put on hold. He was just recently able to and I am happy because it seems to be the one thing to keep him sane. He has been getting around 4 hours of sleep a night because of the watch rotation but hopes that it will soon ease up. There first stop is a pretty cool country. I will be able to post more about it once he actually ports there due to OP SEC (operational security).
If anyone would like to send him an email, he can be reached at henryr@cg68.navy.mil. He absolutely loves getting emails and would love to hear from everyone and anyone. Care packages also keep the morale of the sailors up and they are fun to make. I'm just about done with my first package and will be sending it to him soon. I will list the ships address below in case anyone would like to send him something. It's good to send even a card if you do not want to send a care package. Sailors need to know and be reassured continuously that they are still thought of back home and are appreciated. Trust me, the emails I get from him after he has received a care package or a card are wonderful. He LOVES them. The post office has special boxes that are specifically for military and they are discounted. You can pick one up for free at any post office and then take it home to fill it. You will only have to pay for it when you drop it off to be sent off. There are no charges for the box. Make sure you print using block letters to ensure that the sender can read it clearly as well as the post office on board to ensure that it gets to him and not someone else. Please make sure that you do not put anything that can melt easily such as chocolate or gum. I had an oopsie dasisy with that on his first deployment. Thank you all for checking out our blog and for supporting Robert in every way possible. Keep looking for more updates.
Ciara Henry
Ships address:
OS2 Robert Henry
USS Anzio CG68
OI Division
FPO AE 09564-1188
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Bermuda!
Our trip was phenomenal! We left on Saturday the 9th and returned last night. It was a much needed getaway especially with Robert leaving for deployment soon. This was considered our honeymoon since we didn't have the chance to take one until now. Here is a little synopsis of what we did...
Saturday:
We flew to Newark and got a shuttle that we thought was taking us to Bayonne New Jersey (which is where our cruise ship was leaving from). The shuttle driver thought we said some port in New York City so he drove us all through the city just to realize that we were at the wrong port. It was amazing though. It was like we got a free little tour of the city. We could not believe how many people were there. I mean there were people everywhere hustling and bustling about. The way that they drive there was insane. Our shuttle driver almost sandwiched a cyclist between him and another taxi. He did take us to the correct cruise terminal finally and we boarded the ship with no problem. We found our room and opened our door to our private balcony and we had a gorgeous view of New York City and the statue of Liberty. We had dinner every night with the same people @ 8:30pm and ended up making great friends with them. We sat with two couples: one was a Brooklyn Fire Fighter and his wife and the other two were postal employees from New Jersey. They had amazing accents and Robert loved to hear them talk.
Sunday:
This was our day at sea and we lounged around. We played some miniature golf ( I killed Robert), played ping pong (Robert killed me TWICE), shot around on the basketball court, sat in the hot tub for about an hour and a half while enjoying some great drinks, and napped for about 2 hours. We were basically just relaxing. They had a love and marriage game show in their theatre and it was beyond hilarious. They had 3 couples on the stage (newlyweds, married 5-40 years, and a couple that was married for 61 years). They interviewed the grooms first and brought the wives out and compared their answers to the grooms and vice versa. It was hilarious!! We couldn't stop laughing. Robert and I hope to be married that long but we hope to keep a little more spice in our marriage that what we saw on stage ;). We went to bed pretty early because we were pulling into Bermuda the next day.
Monday:
Bermuda was beautiful! When we woke up we knew that we would be in port and we opened our balcony door to a beautiful scenic view of the island. The water was sooo clear. Clearer than anything that I have ever seen before. Bermuda is owned by Great Britain and almost everyone there had some type of accent. It was awesome. We made our way down to the bottom of the ship to be let off and we just started walking. We wanted to parasail but when we asked about it they wanted to charge us $98 per person. Needless to say we kept on going. We came upon this scooter shop and decided to inquire about the prices. It was $53 to rent a scooter for a whole day. We ended up renting one and it was the best thing we did. Bermuda is only 21 miles long so it would take us about an hour and a half to got from one side to the other. Robert had to take a little test to make sure that he was capable to drive it. He passed with flying colors and off we went. They drive on the left hand side of the road so it was a little confusing at first but it seemed natural to him. We drove and drove and saw lots of different beaches with pink sand and clear waters. The houses were amazing as well. They were multi colored, which was a little different and there were technically no street signs or lit streets when we were driving around. We drove to Hamilton and got two smoothies, at 9.25 a piece I might add, they were delicious. And I thought Starbucks was expensive. We took a ferry back to King's Wharf and called it a day and went back on the ship to enjoy the remainder of the festivities on board.
Tuesday:
Our second day in Bermuda we took another drive on the scooter as we had to return it by 11am then went to snorkel beach where we had an umbrella, two lounge chairs and unlimited access to snorkel equipment, kayaks, and paddle boats. We laid out in the sun for a while and then decided to go snorkeling. The water was sooo cold. Both my legs and Roberts legs were numb. We eventually got used to it. Robert swam over some coral and saw a bunch of cool sea life. I could not get the hang of it. I started getting panicky trying to breath through the snorkel so I just swam around for a while and then took pictures of robert snorkeling. We then went walking around to some of the shops and stopped for lunch at The Frog and Onion Pub. They came up with the name because I guess the French (Frog's) came and inhabited the land of Bermuda, and Bermudians are known for growing Onions. The Pub was amazing. We had Fish and Chips and shopped around a little in the shops there and then headed back to the ship. We enjoyed the festivities of the ship that night and went to a couple of shows and participated in a game show called The Quest which was for adults only and it was sooo fun.
Wednesday:
This was our last day at sea and the sea was a rocking. I could not get used to it at all and it did not even bother Robert because he is used to it from being on his ship. I had to take some dramamine after a nap and then I started to finally feel better. We spent another 1 1/2 hours in the hot tub and then got ready for the show that night and then we went to dinner again with our friends. We bonded pretty well with the Brooklyn Firefighter and his wife, Dan and Shayne. We ended up going to the Jazz lounge afterwards to enjoy some last drinks with them before we went our separate ways. We ended up befriending them on facebook and are planning on taking a weekend trip to NY to spend some time with them and explore the city from the locals point of view before Robert leaves for deployment. They were very cool people and we hope to stay in contact with them.
Thursday:
We pulled back into Bayonne NewJersey at around 7 am and finally made it back to Virginia Beach around 6pm. It was a long day!
I am glad that we took this trip and we hope to take a getaway trip every 2 years even if it is something small like an extended weekend trip to a bed and breakfast in a random city that we have never been to. Hopefully at some point we can go back to Bermuda and see everything else that we did not get the chance to.
We love and miss you all and hope that you enjoy our blog site. I will be updating this about every 2 weeks so our friends and family back home can feel like they are up to date with everything that is going on in our lives. We love you and miss you all!
Time to get started on all of the laundry!
Saturday:
We flew to Newark and got a shuttle that we thought was taking us to Bayonne New Jersey (which is where our cruise ship was leaving from). The shuttle driver thought we said some port in New York City so he drove us all through the city just to realize that we were at the wrong port. It was amazing though. It was like we got a free little tour of the city. We could not believe how many people were there. I mean there were people everywhere hustling and bustling about. The way that they drive there was insane. Our shuttle driver almost sandwiched a cyclist between him and another taxi. He did take us to the correct cruise terminal finally and we boarded the ship with no problem. We found our room and opened our door to our private balcony and we had a gorgeous view of New York City and the statue of Liberty. We had dinner every night with the same people @ 8:30pm and ended up making great friends with them. We sat with two couples: one was a Brooklyn Fire Fighter and his wife and the other two were postal employees from New Jersey. They had amazing accents and Robert loved to hear them talk.
Sunday:
This was our day at sea and we lounged around. We played some miniature golf ( I killed Robert), played ping pong (Robert killed me TWICE), shot around on the basketball court, sat in the hot tub for about an hour and a half while enjoying some great drinks, and napped for about 2 hours. We were basically just relaxing. They had a love and marriage game show in their theatre and it was beyond hilarious. They had 3 couples on the stage (newlyweds, married 5-40 years, and a couple that was married for 61 years). They interviewed the grooms first and brought the wives out and compared their answers to the grooms and vice versa. It was hilarious!! We couldn't stop laughing. Robert and I hope to be married that long but we hope to keep a little more spice in our marriage that what we saw on stage ;). We went to bed pretty early because we were pulling into Bermuda the next day.
Monday:
Bermuda was beautiful! When we woke up we knew that we would be in port and we opened our balcony door to a beautiful scenic view of the island. The water was sooo clear. Clearer than anything that I have ever seen before. Bermuda is owned by Great Britain and almost everyone there had some type of accent. It was awesome. We made our way down to the bottom of the ship to be let off and we just started walking. We wanted to parasail but when we asked about it they wanted to charge us $98 per person. Needless to say we kept on going. We came upon this scooter shop and decided to inquire about the prices. It was $53 to rent a scooter for a whole day. We ended up renting one and it was the best thing we did. Bermuda is only 21 miles long so it would take us about an hour and a half to got from one side to the other. Robert had to take a little test to make sure that he was capable to drive it. He passed with flying colors and off we went. They drive on the left hand side of the road so it was a little confusing at first but it seemed natural to him. We drove and drove and saw lots of different beaches with pink sand and clear waters. The houses were amazing as well. They were multi colored, which was a little different and there were technically no street signs or lit streets when we were driving around. We drove to Hamilton and got two smoothies, at 9.25 a piece I might add, they were delicious. And I thought Starbucks was expensive. We took a ferry back to King's Wharf and called it a day and went back on the ship to enjoy the remainder of the festivities on board.
Tuesday:
Our second day in Bermuda we took another drive on the scooter as we had to return it by 11am then went to snorkel beach where we had an umbrella, two lounge chairs and unlimited access to snorkel equipment, kayaks, and paddle boats. We laid out in the sun for a while and then decided to go snorkeling. The water was sooo cold. Both my legs and Roberts legs were numb. We eventually got used to it. Robert swam over some coral and saw a bunch of cool sea life. I could not get the hang of it. I started getting panicky trying to breath through the snorkel so I just swam around for a while and then took pictures of robert snorkeling. We then went walking around to some of the shops and stopped for lunch at The Frog and Onion Pub. They came up with the name because I guess the French (Frog's) came and inhabited the land of Bermuda, and Bermudians are known for growing Onions. The Pub was amazing. We had Fish and Chips and shopped around a little in the shops there and then headed back to the ship. We enjoyed the festivities of the ship that night and went to a couple of shows and participated in a game show called The Quest which was for adults only and it was sooo fun.
Wednesday:
This was our last day at sea and the sea was a rocking. I could not get used to it at all and it did not even bother Robert because he is used to it from being on his ship. I had to take some dramamine after a nap and then I started to finally feel better. We spent another 1 1/2 hours in the hot tub and then got ready for the show that night and then we went to dinner again with our friends. We bonded pretty well with the Brooklyn Firefighter and his wife, Dan and Shayne. We ended up going to the Jazz lounge afterwards to enjoy some last drinks with them before we went our separate ways. We ended up befriending them on facebook and are planning on taking a weekend trip to NY to spend some time with them and explore the city from the locals point of view before Robert leaves for deployment. They were very cool people and we hope to stay in contact with them.
Thursday:
We pulled back into Bayonne NewJersey at around 7 am and finally made it back to Virginia Beach around 6pm. It was a long day!
I am glad that we took this trip and we hope to take a getaway trip every 2 years even if it is something small like an extended weekend trip to a bed and breakfast in a random city that we have never been to. Hopefully at some point we can go back to Bermuda and see everything else that we did not get the chance to.
We love and miss you all and hope that you enjoy our blog site. I will be updating this about every 2 weeks so our friends and family back home can feel like they are up to date with everything that is going on in our lives. We love you and miss you all!
Time to get started on all of the laundry!
Monday, March 14, 2011
It's only the beginning...
This is the last day of class and I am happy to say that this whole blogging experience has definitely been very therapeutic! I am excited for what our site will evolve into!
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