This time is so precious for so many different reasons.
For families with kids it means hanging out with mom or dad for the last time in what will be a long time and on the other end of the spectrum it's a way to get reacquainted with the soldier once they have come.
This reintegration period is so imperative. Honestly whether you have kids or not.
When it's come to pre deployment leaves, John and I usually make an effort for John to see both of our fam's before he goes. Even on mid tour leaves, we tend to go to wherever our families are, for me it's a sense, of safety net. Being around people that truly know us and know our situation and what we are going through. However once boots are officially back on the ground and the green ramp dust has settled, we go on a selfish turn, and use post deployment leave for just us.
No one else invited.
Last deployment John was gone 15 months, as opposed to only 12 months this time. Each deployment, I have learned, as brought about different challenges. Part of these differences is of course where we are in our age and maturity, but the most uncommon denominator that you can never plan for is where you are in just life's experiences. What have you learned since the last deployment? What has changed? What hasn't changed? What will change? What has changed while he has gone??
Well one thing that we vowed to keep the same, is that post deployment leave would still be "ours."
No one else invited.
Last deployment we went on our belated "real" honeymoon by cruising to Cozumel and Calica, Mexico. We had good plans to try to cruise somewhere new this time around, but because of other underlying summer plans, it made sense for us not to cruise this time.
So what do we do instead? I sat here for months wracking my brain, trying to come up with something that will hopefully not make us regret not jumping onto that cruise ship destined to somewhere worry free.
I held a grudge against these other impending summer obligations, feeling like they were raining on my parade. John and I have to deal with so much as is, being in the Army and dealing with deployments, why do I have to continue to be selfless in my selfish time?! It was a very begrudging load to carry. John's much better at this than me. He gets over drama quickly, whereas I like to sit there and beat it to death. Another thing that hasn't changed with time or life's experiences, LOL.
Well, luckily for us, not a moment too soon, John's higher ups passed down a memo about a non profit organization called Warrior Vacations, which gets vacation home owners and hotels in Amelia Island, FL in particular, that have vacancies, volunteer their property or rooms up for soldiers and their families that have come home from a deployment. John told me about this and I immediately had a wall up. Why would we need this? We have the money, we have the time, we can make our plan work and not have to take up a non profit offer to have a good vacation...plus, I tell myself, this should be for "real" families. Like, with kids! People that need not only the financial aspect of the vacation taken care of, but something that is kid friendly and family oriented.
But the more I sat there beating my head against the wall trying to figure out all our summer obligations, plus the fact that John may be home now, but he'd be gone again in three months, the more I became humbled in this organization's generosity and my pride decided to surrender to the proverbial beating it had succumbed too.
Fine, Florida it is.
By the time John actually got home, I was ready to skip green ramp all together and just jump in the car and go!
We left for Amelia Island on March 30th, our 3 year anniversary.
Awwww....I know.
Amelia Island/Fernandino Beach, FL is only 6 hours away from Fayetteville, NC so it was such a convenient drive. As luck would have it, it rained our whole drive down and the whole first afternoon we were there. I had scheduled us to have professional pictures taken the day we arrived, but since the power was out throughout half the island, we rescheduled and took a chance going out to the beach anyways one of the times the rain took a break.
That night we dressed up a bit and went to one of the most talked about restaurants in town (well, the people we talked too!) called The Beech Street Grill in downtown Amelia Island. The had some of the best wine I have indulged in, in the LONGEST time. The night was awesome. The food was awesome. And still, not a care in the world and proud of it.
The next day it was still a bit overcast, but not raining, so John braved the cold water, wind, and jellyfish, and went for a swim while I watched on just enjoying the peace. Life seems so much more uncomplicated when you are facing the vast openness of water with no noise around you. I never wanted to leave....That night we went to this hoppin place called The Crab Trap and it was the best greasy seafood ever. Talk about diet killer, but it was worth it. After dinner we went to a bar right next to our hotel called Sandy Bottoms. Yes, it's intended how it sounds.
After talking to the bartender some, we told him we were here on vacation and that John had just finished deployment #2, etc. He replied with, "We all appreciate what you do to make sure we all still speak English in this country, the rest of your drinks are on me."
That was another highlight of the trip for me, LOL.
As convoluted that comment may seem to some, I thought it was awesome.
In Fayetteville, almost everyone is military, so everyone could careless how long you served, what you do, what you've sacrificed to do it....I was proud of him that he got some respect and credit, even if it was through free beer.
The next day the sun came out!!! We were so glad to finally be able to see this amazing place. Turns out the Amelia Island State Park and Fort Clinch was right across the street from our hotel, and thanks to Warrior Vacations, we got to drive through free, so we drove through the state park, with the moss and vines hanging over our car like we were in the Amazon.We drove up to Fort Clinch and toured the fort. It was never officially finished because of wars ending, etc, so it was preserved as a historic landmark and turned into your typical tourism spot. Any type of tourism spot that has to do with war, however, is right up John's ally, so of course explored the entire thing. He was so in his element. He was fascinated by the barracks rooms, and their armory, and pretty much anything and everything he saw there. Needless to say you see more pictures with me in them than usual, because he was the one hogging the camera. It was so neat to see him so involved in something. I always get onto him about how he never takes a break from what he does. When we're home, he's always watching the Military Channel or something of the like, but hey, when it's your passion and your life, can't argue much with it.
On our way out we had an amazing moment of seeing a bald eagle perched on the wall of the fort. You can hardly tell with the picture I had to race to get, but it's there and it was a very cool moment. All the tourists that saw it just stopped talking and for a good minute or two, everyone was silent just watching this bird standing on the fort wall with the ocean behind it. It was amazing. As we were walking back to our car a armadillo came out of the bushes and chased me down the sidewalk, and John was oh-so-sweet enough to take a picture of it. Pretty much made my quota of run ins with nature in that one experience alone...Later that afternoon, John totally lost some man points, and went horseback riding on the beach with me. He was a good sport. :)
My horse's name was Blaze and he was a little firecracker. John actually led our group with the owner of the ranch so we got some cool commentary on our ride. We got to ride on the state park beaches which meant no one else was out there bothering us, it was awesome. So quiet with nothing but us peeps and our horses. I totally loved it.
Later that afternoon we went and laid out on the beach....nature tried reintroducing itself to me by giving me a seagull friend that decided I was not all bad, and laid down next to me while I read.
The next day we went and finally got our professional pictures taken. The photographer's name is Pam Bell and her husband is retired military. She works through the Warrior Vacations organization doing free photography and copyright for families here on their Warrior Vacation. We had an AMAZING time doing the photography on the beach and she made it so fun. John and I never got engagement pictures because of his first deployment, so it was really awesome to get to do this. At some points it seem like John was into more than me!
Here's a teaser:
We went to dinner that night at this AMAZING restaurant called Brett's Waterway Cafe which is right on the pier downtown. We watched the most gorgeous sunset I've seen in a LLOONNGG time.
John drug my butt out of bed early the next morning so we could also watch the sunrise. The night before it sounded like a great idea, but the actual morning of, not so much. It was cold and I fell asleep in the car waiting for the sun to peek up from the ocean. In all I am so glad he made me do it cause when it came up it was amazing and what was even cooler is we caught a video of a dolphin swimming by as the sun was coming up. 
After all was said and done, and we were headed home from our little hide away island, I silently decided this is my new favorite beach place. Myrtle Beach had always been our weekend runaway spot when we wanted a reason to get out of dodge, but now, I'm totally sold on Amelia.
Life just continues to prove me wrong that it's all about the the quality, not the quantity.
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