Before leaving on our trip today, Max demanded a long walk. To ensure we don’t get away without honoring his wishes, he does this.

He knows for sure we would never step on him. So, he got his walk. He would have got the walk even if he just reclined in his little bed.

After bowing to Max’s demand, we made the planned trip to the 32nd Street NEX at the Naval Station. In conjunction with that was a stop at the Anchors Catering and Conference Center which is also at 32nd Street. The NEX stop was just to look at stuff for fun, but Anchors was a destination for information.

Before visiting either place we went to the NEX food court for lunch. Subway won the honor. I had a 6″ #99 and Diane had a 6″ #11. They were awesome.

The building in which it resides is the form CPO Club for the 32nd Street base. CPO is code for Chief Petty Officer. I was one of those in my former lifer. That was many years ago, of course. Anchors used to have a daily lunch buffet Monday thru Friday. It currently only has the buffet on Wednesday and Fridays and the menu is the same: Prime rib and a whole bunch of other delicacies. The cost is $25 per person but it’s all you can eat, just like it is on a cruise ship. That seems appropriate, don’t you think? So, we’re geared up to go tomorrow 11am-1pm. One of us is going to eat for the entire 2 hours.

At the NEX facility we were again amazed at the prices of everything. They are incredibly high on pretty much everything. Back in the day, when we were on active duty, the NEX was a place of refuge for saving money on common items and we shopped there a lot. I should say “exclusively” shopped there. It’s not like that now.

We managed to fiddle around on base until rush hour so we knew the trip back to Max had the potential of being brutal. Giving it a little more thought, we determined that all the dense traffic would be coming at us as everyone at NAS North Island appeared to be evacuating the island. That turned out to be true. Thankfully.

Actually, it’s not an island. It’s a really long, skinny isthmus. A really big wave could easily make it an island.

There was interesting Seal activity this morning when they began playing war at 0600. There was a lot of gunfire going on but they either stopped at 0700 or found a way to attack each other in a quieter manor. Later, when normal people wake up, we could hear them counting cadence in unison while doing exercises, and a lot of yelling by their instructors (I’m sure) to motivate them as they navigated obstacles (my guess). It was pretty entertaining as we tried to envision what was actually going on. I think we were pretty close.

It’s another beautiful day here at the bottom the Western USA, unlike the dangerous weather going on in the Eastern USA. They’re having a terrible time and we’re praying for all of the people affected.

Now I must stop and contemplate a bowl of popcorn to finish off my eating efforts for today.