On Saturday the 14th I met with the local housing office. (yes, on a Saturday)
Seems they built brand new senior NCO housing and it was finished on umm... Friday, so Saturday morning they opened up shop and handed out house keys. I was offered a brand new house (half of a duplex) with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and nearly 2,000 square feet with a two car garage... I don't know how I could turn down that offer! We looked around the community and so far there is nothing (nothing!) that can touch this nice of a house for the money.
Here is a picture of the new house they offered me. They don't even have grass in yet!
Our new mailing address will be:
Scott Alvar (substitute other family member here as desired)
2260 Beech St., Unit A
GrandForks AFB ND 58204
We stopped in Hawaii first for like 7 or 8 days. It was GREAT! We stayed at Bellow AFS on the east side of the island. If you're ever in Hawaii, and if you want to stay in your own private cabin on the beach for less than half the price of a hotel, then I highly recommend Bellows AFS... :-)
The beach outside our cabin!
Heather Says Goodbye Hawaii, by throwing her Lei into the ocean
From Hawaii we went to Washington where we spend some 6 or 7 days in and around Olympia. The weather was great, we picked up our new car ('99 Dodge Caravan with only 34,000 miles...:-) and went shopping!
Starting East on Highway 2, in Western WA outside of Lacey.
High Meadow Flowers, Chinook Pass, Cascade Mountains
Here we are at an entrance to Glacier National Park. The forest
around the sign was burned in the Moose Creek Fire in Aug 2003.
The "Road to the Sun" in Glacier Park is as beautiful
(and as scary) as any road you'll ever want to drive!
It's been a long drive and this is what the kids do to pass the time...
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" Actually, I think we're heading for Kansas, but no, it's really North Dakota... :-(
And another view of North Dakota. When they said flat they meant flat! There isn't a hill for miles! In fact, ND makes KS look mountainous!
It was a very good drive, the weather was fine and the car was tremendous! We had about 1,400 total pounds in the car so it was pretty loaded but it ran and drove perfectly! I'll post links to more pictures when I can. Thanks for reading!
An old picture of Tim and Barb... :-)
Melanie in her room. She doesn't look too happy. Maybe because she shares that little tiny room with her big sister?
Happy Mother's Day!
The weather is getting better. Finally. Kids are in soccer. Pics are below.
New PCS back to the states schedule:
20 Jul 04 - Depart Misawa for Tokyo. Visit Tokyo Disney.
21 Jul 04 - Depart Tokyo for Honolulu. Stay 8 days at Bellows AFS.
28 Jul 04 - Depart Hawaii for Seattle. Stay 6 days with Mom & Dad in Olympia.
06 Aug 04 - Depart WA for Grand Forks. Traveling in our new (used) car....
07 Aug 04 - Depart Spokane WA.
10 Aug 04 - Depart Glacier NP.
12 Aug 04 - Arrive ND around the 12th or 13th or so of August. Not firm yet.
Great Job Melanie!!!!
It snowed yesterday.
We all packed up early and went to the ocean because we thought it would be nice out. OOPS! We were not prepared for the weather and a couple of miles on the beach took an hour and we were wet and cold and wet. Tira drove and met me and Heather at the other end of the hike and we thought we would freeze before we got back to the car.
The kids are playing soccer before we move in July.
Scott's bowling is getting back in form. He has averaged about 190 for the last few weeks.
Scott and Tira are on break from school as well. We both got 4.0's this quarter. Scott is taking one more class before we leave in July.
Nicholas and Scott are going to a cubscout camp in May for 3 days.
Scott is the CubMaster for his cub scout pack until we leave.
Grand Forks city is in the Northwest corner of North Dakota. It's maybe an hour from Canada, and the city borders Minnesota. (Hi Donna. Hi Ron)
We will leave Japan around the 2nd of July. We go to Hawaii for 7 days (6 nights) and will arrive in Washington on 8 Jul. We'll spend 5 days with Mom and Dad before heading east.
Our plan is to have a car waiting for us in WA when we arrive so we can drive to ND. If that plan works out we'll drive to Grand Forks (GF) and arrive on the 16th of July....or so.
Now don't anyone tell dad this schedule, I'm not sharing until the last minute! No kidding, he has no idea when I'm coming thru.
I'm not one for new years resolutions, but here's one: I resolve to drink less, love my kids more, and update this damn web site more often.
What 'cha think? is it do-able?