Major Mom

My name is Patricia, but in the blogging world I became known as "Major Mom" thanks to a friend in the Air Force Reserves. As soon as he had said it, the David Bowie song "Space Oddity" went through my mind. I am a mother and wife first - an Air Force wife, that is. My husband proudly serves in the Air Force as a weather officer. I also continue to serve my country as a Major in the Air Force Reserves. It's a wonderful double-life I lead. It was a very difficult decision for me -- I had our second son in early 2005 just before the 10-year-point in my career. It was already tough having to turn my oldest son over to a child care center every duty day -- 50 hours per week. So in spring 2005 I took advantage of a Reserves job opening for which I was qualified in Norfolk, Virginia -- my hometown! It's truly wonderful getting to see my sons grow up, and be able to help out at their school, on their sports teams (I've coached soccer before) and as a Cub Scout den leader. I'm not sure I'd have had time for that if I had remained on active duty. We currently live in Navarre, Florida, while my wonderful husband is assigned to Hurlburt Field, Florida. We've also lived in the following locations since we graduated from Penn State University in 1995: Fort Polk, Louisiana, 1995-1998 Yongsan Army Installation, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1998-2000 Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 2000-2002 Patrick AFB, Florida, 2002-2005 Raleigh, North Carolina (Dave was assigned to North Carolina State University), 2005-2008 Offutt AFB, Nebraska, 2008-2010 Hurlburt Field, Florida, 2010-present I started this blog in December 2007, thanks to suggestions from friends. We're in our third home since I started the blog. I used to send out captioned photo albums -- from AOL Pictures to Shutterfly albums to Picasaweb albums. Instead of flooding everyone with photos, now I can use this blog to send out the highlights. I'll talk about anything on here -- usually I'm talking about the kids, but I'll also delve into the local scene wherever we're living, and you'll also see some great posts about the two military moves (PCS: Permanent Changes of Station) we've had. Sometimes I talk about utter nonsense, such as finding a product called "Piggies in Pancakes" in a grocery store in South Carolina. In my spare time I write for the parenting blog GeekMom.com, I serve on the board of the Hurlburt Spouses' Club, and I'm a Cub Scout den leader. I also enjoy running and playing the violin.

UK 2024: Exeter Day 3 – Tour of the UK Meteorology Office

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I’m grateful Dave didn’t capture the true “fangirl” pose I had just a second before this….

Okay, slight change of plans today, but I could NOT pass this up! I was invited to join Dave’s group today at the UK Met Office. We got a tour of the full UK Met Office facility…which included seeing the ORIGINAL D-Day weather maps!

We also saw other foundational documents in the UK Met Office’s history, including some of Matthew Fontaine Maury’s first “pilot charts” — plots of ship reports from the 1850s (most of which are in the Library of Congress), and the first attempt at station models in 1859 by Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy, the founder of the Meteorological Office, part of the UK’s first attempts at weather forecasting based on current observations.

I won’t be surprised if this is the highlight of my entire week. My original plans for the day were to go to the beach in Exmouth, but I’m glad I didn’t. Besides, the weather wasn’t super pleasant. Tomorrow…London!

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UK 2024: Exeter Day 2 – Wandering the City

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Exeter Cathedral — built between 1110 and 1400.

Today, while Dave was in meetings with the UK Met Office, I wandered around the city of Exeter. I’m still absolutely in awe of how OLD things are here!

I watched folks sculling in a canal right after breakfast. Then, later in the morning, I took advantage of a cool program where they offer 2x daily free walking tours of the city with volunteers leading. I met a group at 11am and did a two hour tour of about 3/4 of the perimeter of the Exeter city wall, originally built between 50-60 AD by the Romans. The wall continued to protect the city for centuries afterwards including during the British Civil War in the 1600s.

After the walking tour I had a pasty and Ribena for lunch, then spent the afternoon in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum looking at incredible artifacts from the history of Exeter and Devonshire (as well as artifacts from around the world from during Britain’s colonialism).

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UK 2024: Apropos Shoes!

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When in Rome…er…London… Due to all the rain in the forecast I thought these shoes would be a good choice anyway. Definitely comfy for the 1+ mile walk from our gate to customs. We have arrived to a rainy morning. ?????? #travelswithdaveandpatricia

UK 2024: Exeter Day 1 – Ship Inn

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This REALLY OLD pub is right next to our hotel in Exeter. Sir Francis Drake, known for being the first Briton to circumnavigate the globe (among other more sinister achievements related to the slave trade), was known to frequent @theshipinnexeter and wrote kindly about it in his correspondence.

Dave and I met up with some of his colleagues for steak and ale pie for dinner, and some pints. ?

#travelswithdaveandpatricia #exeter

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UK 2024: Exeter Day 1 – Arrival

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Made it to our first UK destination — Exeter! Home of the UK Meteorology Office!

After landing at London Heathrow, Dave and I had to take a brief train east into central London, then west about 2.5 hours to get here.

We are beat but are forcing ourselves to stay awake till an early bedtime. Just a few more hours to go.

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Oktoberfest 2024: Final Thoughts

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Dave and I got home last evening, ready to sleep Tuesday night. Hopefully my jet lag is mostly cured from that. All of our souvenirs made it home unscathed, including 3 glass mugs, a bottle of “salt mine” gin, and a 6-pack of 0.5L beer for our dog sitters. We purposefully left space in our luggage to bring back some glassware.

As promised, now that my mind is clear, here are some random tips/facts from our experience. This is a long one, but hopefully it answers some of the questions we’ve been getting from folks who are heading over in the coming couple of weeks. The first 5 points are most specific to our choice of using a travel agent, the rest are more generic.

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Oktoberfest 2024: Obersalzburg Region Tour

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The Alps behind us, right after one of their first snowfalls of the season.

 

Our last full day in Germany. We took a tour — included in our Oktoberfest package — of several sites in the Obersalzburg region, about 2 hours east of Munich right on the Austrian border. In fact, we did cross the border a couple times into Austria. Technically, we visited sites south of Salzburg, Austria…but we were still in Germany.

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Oktoberfest 2024: Second Day at the Wiesn

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Our 2nd day at Oktoberfest. We started by watching the Hunters and Costume parade, which is a very long, very large parade that continued throughout the Oktoberfest grounds through midday. It went right in front of our hotel, which made it easy to relax at the hotel’s outdoor seating area. We didn’t watch for long…we made our way back to the grounds and the parade was heading that way too.

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Oktoberfest 2024: Bayern Tower

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Folks who knew me from my youth might remember that my absolute favorite ride at Busch Gardens Williamsburg growing up was the giant spinning swing in the Germany section.

Did you know about 1/2 of the Oktoberfest grounds is a carnival that would rival most state fairs? I mean, imagine our state fairs with German engineering! Imagine my excitement seeing that Oktoberfest has a 90 meter tall swingset!! (Actually there are two of them — there are multiples of many of the most popular rides). The one we rode was called the “Kettenflieger Bayern Tower.” (Kettenflieger translates to “chair-o-planes”.)

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