Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Seabee Ball 2013

This past weekend we celebrated the Seabees at the Seabee Ball.
 Mike and I before the ball.  Not my favorite dress, but I was ordering online, so it is the best I could do (espeically since I started the search late)
 This is me and Shelley before leaving.  The fact that we are both standing is incredible considering we did a brutal 11 mile run that morning.  It was my longest ever run without walking, although at the end, most people could have walked the pace I was running!  We are prepping for the base 2 base run which is coming up in a couple of weeks.  The options are a 7.6 mile run or a half marathon.  Shelley is going for the half.  I am still deciding.


 The location was a castle not too far away from base and although we were there just as it was getting dark and we didn't get a good look at the grounds, it was beautiful.
 Sorry for the reflection.  This is a poster advertisement for the location.

Before dinner there were some appetizers set up with some decorative food displays on the table.
 This would be a chocolate horse.  It was really tempting to break off that one hoof!
 This looks like a ship that is sinking.  Maybe not the best motivation for the Navy ;)

After a little mingling, we sat down for dinner and the ceremony.
 This is the centerpiece that one lucky person at the table won, not me, and some wine.


At the top right, Joe and Shelley.  Middle left, John and Sarah.  And finally me and Mike.  Notice the bright red face.  That is actually not make-up.  I put on no blush that night.  My face was either sun or wind burned, or both.  It was a beautiful day for a run, but we were running into some pretty hefty wind for a lot of it.






After dinner, there were traditional Italian desserts set out, but also the Seabee cake.

The tradition is that the cake is cut by the youngest and the oldest Seabee at the ball.  The youngest was a girl who is just 4 years older than Tommy.  After she was identified they started calling out birth years for the oldest.  They started with 65, no taker....66, no taker....67?  There would be one Seabee there born in 67, Mike!

 So he had the honor to cut the cake with Rear Admiral Gregory.

Mike had served with RADM Gregory back in 2007, and I have seen a lot of pictures and heard a lot of stories about her over the years.  She always looked and sounded like an intimidating, no nonsense kind of person.  And I guess in her work she is.  I was fortunate to have an opportunity to talk to her.  She had Mike introduce us and then sent Mike away so she could talk about him.  She had nothing put praise for him, but was concerned that he is a little too serious and told me to get him to loosen up.  Not only was she not intimidating, she was about 6 inches shorter than me, and really petite.  Totally not what I had expected.  And after the ceremony was complete, we headed to a building out back for dancing.....

where Joe tried his best to get Mike to loosen up ;)



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