Four Pairs of Sneakers

Three pairs of children’s Converse All-Star high-top sneakers: $53. One pair of women’s EasyStride sneakers: $44. One bag of socks: $6. Spending an evening with Daddy on his ship: PRICELESS.

James had to work all day Saturday but he called home in the morning to tell us that, if we wanted, we could come to the ship and see him for a couple hours. Of course, we wanted to! So the whole day was spent in anticipation of going to see Daddy on his ship, or “bo” (boat) as Jamie lovingly refers to it, at which point Josie corrects him that big boats are called ships. But anyways, naps were interrupted and kids were shuffled out the door and into the car so that we could all meet James on the pier at 4 o’clock with dinner in hand. But when we got to the guard shack, the kids and I were turned away because we weren’t wearing the appropriate footwear. Unbeknownst to us, no one is allowed aboard the USS Enterprise wearing open-toed shoes.

Our shoulders were bent and our heads hung low as we all walked dejectedly back to the car, each and every one of us fighting back tears. Suffice it to say that when your family has been through what we’ve been through this year, you NEED to be together. Which meant that we needed new shoes, or at least four out of the five of us.

Everyone got buckled into the car and it was agreed that the only acceptable next course of action was to find the nearest store and buy some appropriate shoes. Multiple wrong turns and several detours later we found the base’s NEX (that’s short for Navy Exchange, the Navy’s exclusive shopping center) and for the first time in seven months our family went shopping together. We picked out some Converse All-Stars for all the kids and justified that sneakers would get a lot of future use, especially for Josie when she starts kindergarten in the fall. She was particularly excited about the stars on the sides. I chose a pair of comfy, versatile yet fashionable shoes, definitely the nicest pair I’ve owned in years. We threw the boxes in the cart, zoomed through the aisles, paid at the check-out stand, re-buckled into the car, and drove back to the ship. We got past the guard shack. Yippee!

Thus began the best family adventure we’ve had in years….maybe ever. James took us on a tour of the ship that he has called home since last November.

We saw the hangar bay, the galley, the berthings, the lounge, his office, the flight deck, the room with the anchor chains (I know there’s a more technical name for it that I can’t remember). I have never seen Jamie so happy! There he was, following in the footsteps of his hero, traveling through a seemingly endless maze of eye-level mechanized machinery. He wanted to touch everything. Ladderwells to climb, hatches to open, valves to crank, levers to pull, buttons to push, chains to clank, wires to twist….

You get the picture. Except for the fact that its a billion dollar piece of government property capable of massive destructive power, then I’d say that the aircraft carrier is a great playground.

The first stop on our ship tour brought us to the lounge, where we sat down on a cluster of (rather dingy) couches to eat the dinner we had brought with us. Not surprisingly, Jamie kicked over his drink while he was eating and it spilled all over the floor. James scolded Jamie, snatched up his drink to move it out of the way, and in the process knocked over his own drink. Like father, like son? Ha ha ha. So then James had to grab a nearby mop to soak up the spills. Josie watched in amazement and exclaimed, “Daddy! You know how to clean!” I guess the poor girl didn’t realize that men do housework too. What a learning experience this trip turned out to be.

The next stop was at the anchor room.

 I know that James is going to kill me for not using the proper vocabulary here but it’s the place where the anchor chains and rope lines are housed. James took the kids to look out the portholes, down into the water.

They were amazed! Josie spotted some jellyfish in the bay and began concocting imaginary stories about her pretend pet guinea pig that fell into the water and needed to be saved. Jamie shouted “wa’r,” “wa’r!” (water, water!) over and over again because he wasn’t ready to leave.

But as much as he liked seeing the ocean below, he loved seeing the flight deck above even more. We took the kids all the way up to the runways. It truly is an awe-inspiring sight from there.

Josie was taken aback at how her dress was blown up by the sweeping wind. Jamie was mesmerized by the fighter plane that was parked on the deck and he told Daddy (using simple sounds and gestures, in the way he does) that he wanted to fly the airplane. Maybe someday, little man.

Johnny was given a chance to stretch his legs at this point and he was sad when I scooped him back up so that we could continue our tour.

Our last stop was at the aft mess deck. We’d been walking up and down very steep ladderwells for over an hour, me carrying a 23 lbs baby and an equally as heavy diaper bag, and we needed a break. While I caught my breath James gave Josie an official Navy assignment: she was to race Jamie across the deck, around the blue support beam, and back.

 The kids couldn’t believe that they had been given permission to run around the ship. They ran so wild that Josie actually threw up afterwards. When I asked Josie in the bathtub later that night what had been her favorite part of the day she answered, with a shining smile, “Um...the race!”

So dinner in the sailor lounge, a view of the ocean from the anchor chain room, a trip to the flight deck, and a race around the mess deck ended up costing us $103, plus the price of the dinner we brought and the gas we burned. But the memories we made were worth every penny!

And as icing on the cake, we brought home four pairs of newly broken-in sneakers as souvenirs.

P.S.  James just got home and has informed me that the “anchor chain roon” is in fact called the “foc’sle.” Now that that's settled, I've got to get off this computer. I've got a birthday cake to bake!