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Comment by Chipmunk on January 29, 2020 at 10:31am

The Hammer - The entire area there is beautiful!  Olympic National Park contains the Hoh Rainforest which I highly recommend. We were out there visiting at the height of the Twilight book series and had to stopped at Forks, WA for lunch and our girls wanted pictures. We never made it to Whidbey Island or able to take a boat cruise. Lots of possibilities for a vacation!

Comment by Chipmunk on January 29, 2020 at 10:20am

Sunflower - thanks for sharing about your recent trip!

Comment by Chipmunk on January 29, 2020 at 10:18am

You may have whatever color umbrella you like, but the sailors may only have black, so when I found some small inexpensive ones, I bought an extra one for him, if his broke.

Comment by Chipmunk on January 29, 2020 at 10:16am

Canuka - I am not surprised that your son doesn't feel like he can give you definite information. My son had the same difficulty since they just had liberty time and didn't know anything specific till after we arrived and talked to him late Thursday night. 

As for meeting at the mini Nex that isn't too big of a deal, but I would still suggest being early, because you will have to leave back out of there and make a left into probably waiting traffic for the line into NNPTC. The only reason for them to do that is so that your sailor is "escorting" you and it will save time on them checking everyone's ID against their list. But the sailors are to be in their spots about an hour ahead of schedule as I recall. Depending on where their BEQ is the trek out to meet you at the mini NEX will vary on how quickly they can reach you, so I am hopeful you all have nice weather. Umbrellas (black) are always a must for SC. Be sure to Google NNPTC and familiarize yourself with that birds eye view. I am a visual person, but I found it very helpful since my first trip out my husband could not attend. We drove. 

The Hammer - I miss SC as well. VA is pretty nice also, the little bit that we visited. But WA is also gorgeous! The entire state has so much beauty and variety of climate and natural surroundings, we miss living there! 

Comment by The Hammer on January 29, 2020 at 10:14am

Thanks ProudOfK! I will add that to my Washington bucket list! My sailor will be stationed at Kitsap in Bangor and reports mid-February. We are thinking of heading out there in May/June.

Comment by ProudOfK on January 29, 2020 at 9:33am

The Hammer - since you mentioned French toast and your son is in Washington now I must tell you there is a cafe in Silverdale, the Oak Table cafe that is just awesome. Our son is a French toast fan and he says it’s the best he’s ever had. I don’t know if he ever made it to the French cafe in Charleston so can’t tell you how it compares with that. Sometimes there can be a long wait to get seated but when you do it’s worth the wait. And if the weather is nice it’s quite pleasant to sit and wait outside. I don’t remember if you’re son is in the Bremerton or Everett area but if he’s in the Bremerton area and you come out to visit him I strongly suggest that you check out the Oak Table cafe. 

Comment by The Hammer on January 29, 2020 at 6:39am

I already miss SC!

Now that my son is home and will be heading to Washington, I am remembering all of my trips to SC and the great places we ate at. There is a french cafe in Charleston that has the best french toast ever! It's always the food that gets me!

Comment by Canuka on January 29, 2020 at 3:11am

To all: thank you for the great advice and thoughts.

We are being very flexible having gotten very little information from our boy; mostly when I ask because of postings from you. He isn't sure when or how much time he will have; he thinks he will have Friday and maybe Monday since they aren't getting extended leave.

We are also waiting for him to tell us when & where to meet on Friday morning. Last I heard, he thinks he will have to escort us on to the school site.

Thank you for the information regarding traffic & timing. That makes sense with PS graduation too (we have the early, very early, one). 

We are taking the red-eye arriving Thursday a.m. I was very surprised at the limited Southwest options (only through Chicago Midway); I prefer not to fly north to go east and especially in winter. The scarcity of flights was a surprise as we had many more choices when we flew back in early December (after our cross-country drive). There were many flights out of Charleston to many different places. The difference may have been their recent flight sales and the fact that we were looking only about 3 weeks out.

Hotel-wise, the more we go to GC, the more we get familiar with the area. Over Thanksgiving, we stayed downtown, our sailor's choice. This time we are staying closer to the base but only have one night's definite reservation.

Sunflower - I will mention Red's Ice House to our son. He is very much into the Charleston food scene, especially downtown. 

Shipofdoodles - another option is the Foster Creek Villas/RV area that is the military lodge for the base. My son didn't know anything about it until I mentioned it. This has been mentioned in other discussions on this site.

Looking forward to the end of round 1.

Comment by ProudOfK on January 28, 2020 at 11:12pm

Sunflower- Red’s Ice House was one of our favorites. We went there on a couple different trips. We actually stayed in a two bedroom condo on Isle of Palms that we rented through VRBO when we were there for Power School grad. It was only about a 30 to 45 minute drive to base and our condo was a very short walk from the ocean. 

Comment by NonnaB on January 28, 2020 at 10:43pm

Hi all.If you are going to SC for graduation, check out hotels in the surrounding areas, like MoncksCorner, Summerville, Larsen.the are about 30-45 minutes from the base and may be more affordable.

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