May 11, 2009 to April 25, 2010 – YOUR HOME,,,,,ANY PLACE, ANYWHERE ANY TIME,,,
October 5, 2009 at 7pm to March 1, 2010 at 8:45pm – Stillwater Public Library - Room 138
November 16, 2009 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm – Red Lobster, Avon, IN
November 19, 2009 from 5pm to 7pm – Full Moon Family Restaurant
November 19, 2009 from 6pm to 10pm – Ramada Inn
November 19, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm – Ramada-Waukegan Saddle Ridge Lounge
November 21, 2009 from 6:30pm to 10pm – Paul's Porterhouse Restaurant
November 22, 2009 from 10:15am to 1pm – we can do Golden Corral or Olive Garden if not too many Moms
November 24, 2009 at 9am to November 27, 2009 at 7pm – GREATLAKES, IL
November 24, 2009 from 6pm to 8pm – The Ramada Waukegen Gurnee
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Have you heard from your son, Damien was able to call home once, but I missed his call, I so want to hear his voice, I really miss my son.
Will you be attending the meet n greet, hope to meet you there.
AIRPORT AND TRANSPORTATION
1. Fly into Milwaukee as it is only 40 miles north from Great Lakes. It is a small enough airport that car rental and getting to and from the airport is quite convenient.
Speaking of car rentals if you do rent a car make sure to ask your insurance company if your present insurance covers rentals as a $125.00 car rental for the week can turn into $400.00 really easy with their insurance.
2. If you do fly into Milwaukee remember your toll money (in this case I needed $1.50 and .50 to get off of hwy 94 at Buckley)
LODGING
3. If at all possible stay at the Great Lakes Navy Lodge. It is possible to get a room if you reserve it as soon as you see your loved ones division on this website
http://www1.netc.navy.mil/nstc/rtcgl/fa ... ggrad.html
This motel was convenient only about 1 mile away from the base and the people were very nice. If I had one complaint from this motel is that there is no hot tub or pool or lounge or restaurant attached. They do however have great coffee.
4. Do not stay at Great Lakes Motel on Buckley Road it is not the Navy Lodge and is definetly a "no tell don't tell motel". I had a family member stay there last weekend and it was the worst motel I have ever been in. (I.E. soap was the size of a quarter, the towels were almost see through and the noise from the road traffic was really bad). By the way I am used to staying at Motel 6.
FOOD
5. I ate at several really great restaurants. Close to base is Flannigans where you can have a steak dinner for around $10.00. Full moon has good food too.
PIR DAY
6. When you leave for PIR make sure that you leave your motel at 6:00 A.M. as the line to get onto the base is long and then they search your car.
7. You can buy a division t-shirt but you need to bring cash. It is $15.00 for a t-shirt. Buy it as soon as you get into the graduation building as they sell out really quickly.
8. Be prepared to cry as it is awesome!! Don't worry about getting there to early as they have movies to watch and the time really does go by pretty quickly. Although once your recruit walks in all you do is stare at that person anyways and think all right already enough of the speaches I want to be with my loved one.
9. Liberty is not the same as it used to be. It is now a "Cinderella Liberty" in that you have to have your recruit back nightly around 8:30 p.m. (except for Sunday when it is 7:30 p.m.) and you can pick him or her up at 7:00 a.m.
This makes it hard to go into the city to do things but it is possible.
SIGHT SEEING CHICAGO
10. I would definetly recommend using the train. You can park by the base for $2.00 and take the train into Chicago on the weekend for $5.00 your sailor will be $2.50. It is an hour ride but when you get there you are really close to everything.
You can take the free trolley to what ever you want to see (the trolley driver was saying that do to cut backs this might not be available come 1/1/09).
Sears tower is within walking distance and about 3 blocks away from the train station...be prepared to spend 1 hour there as the lines are pretty long. But well worth the view!!
Navy Pier is a great attraction too. Good food, ferris wheel and great shops.
The aquarium must have been really popular as the lines were way to long to go into this attraction.
One thing that I thought was neat is that the sailors didn't have to pay for anything. The water taxi was free for them, the buses were free for them and the train was reduced. Sears tower was also free for them.
Remember to not let anyone have a copy of their id...except for Sears tower as they do shred these every night.
Try to ignore the bums as they will hound you for money.
BUYING SOUVENIERS
The NEX is the best place to buy your Navy items as it is really cheap there. By the way the NEX (off of Green Bay Road) has a Fedex where you can send your sailors photos and photo frames home. The fedex prices there seemed to be really cheap.
I hope this helps you...I will be making another trip to a PIR in December for my other son who is graduating and this time I will feel like an old pro.
My name is Heidi and I noticed your post on Karen Gallagher's page. I just have to tell you that my oldest child, Adam, has been at basic for two weeks now and I truly know how you feel. It was very difficult to see him leave as he has never been away from me for more than a week or so for the past 18 years! We had a going away party for him (with a Taco Bell theme because he is junkie) and we played a slide show my daughter put together showing him growing up from baby to now. I was a mess watching that! I have received two letters and that has helped me remember that he hasn't gone to Mars, just GL! Well, I just wanted to let you know you are not alone. I am brand new to Navy For Moms and love the opportunity to share with others who are in the same boat as me (that really sounds like a bad pun on this particular site but you know what I mean)!
My name is Catherine the Admin and I want to thank you for joining us! To help you know the “Do’s and Don’ts” for the community- I wrote up a quick little ditty for you to read. So click here and read them (pretty please with a cherry on top because the rules are enforced)! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns afterwards- please don’t hesitate to contact me.
So, enjoy your time here and I'm looking forward (along with the community) to reading more about you. :D
Sincerely, Catherine
We are so glad that you are here! This is a great place to meet others that know exactly how you feel!
We have something for everyone here groups from boot camp moms to overseas moms and moms that like to scrap book. We have meet and greets to events that the moms set up to meet each other and have dinner or an outing. There are groups to help you with each and every step of this wonderful adventure that our children have chosen called the US Navy.
Please tell us about your sailor and what they have chosen to do in the navy and ohh yeah we LOVE pictures of everyone !!
Please let me know if you have any questions I can help you with.