So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

Well, as you can gather from the title, Branden has left on his second deployment. After a busy weekend spent packing, organizing, and sneaking in some quality time, Branden left yesterday for a six month deployment. Since this great blog is out on the www, I can't say exactly where he's headed, but it's west and it's not where he went before (if you want to know, give me a call). We were both sad to say goodbye, but we're hoping the next six months go by fast and that I can go for a visit to one of his scheduled ports.

This time around, Branden got to fly out to meet the ship, so I went out to the Cabrillo Monument on the top of Point Loma to watch him fly out. He was able to get pretty close and give me a little rocking of the wings to say goodbye. The tourists up there with me all thought I was crazy (I was jumping up and down and waving to make sure he saw me), but once I explained, they started waving too!

Thanks to my dear friend, Kari, for keeping me company while I waited for the fly-by and for all the great pics she snapped. Thanks also to all of you who have reached out to me in the last day...we both feel so grateful to have such caring and thoughtful family and friends.

This is the view from the top of Point Loma. The land in the picture is Coronado Island, on the other side of the bay from the point. The area of the island you see is "North Island", the Navy base where Branden works.

Here, you see Branden flying by, with Coronado and Downtown San Diego in the background. You can make out the Coronado Bay Bridge on the right side.

Though you can barely see him, Branden is the pilot on the right side, closest to me.