Mommy Brain

Day three was much lower-key, which we all needed. It started with Josiah and I driving about 15 minutes to Bremerton to have the wiper arm fixed on the van. A repair that they said would take 30 minutes took 2 1/2 hours. At 1 hour and 45 minutes the service rep came and told me the repair was finished and they were taking the van out for a courtesy wash. Okay, I’ve waited this long, how long can a wash take?

35 minutes later I went to the service desk and asked if we could please skip the wash and just bring my van around. What kind of a courtesy is it if it makes you wait that much longer? Not to mention that a repair of ONE wiper arm cost $133. Ouch.

After having lunch at Deb’s, we headed to the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. These were outside:

Inside, we walked through the many exhibits on the ocean environment and submarine technology. Did you know the Japanese had a manned torpedo during World War II? It had a driver whose job it was to drive it into an enemy ship or sub and blow it to smithareens, along with himself. Crazy.

There were some creepy looking diving suits like this one:

The kids got to play in the simulated control room of the nuclear fast attack submarine Greenling.

After dinner, the kids and I moved out of Deb and Derek’s house into our hotel. The timing was perfect, as the kids all needed a break from each other and my back needed a break from sleeping on Deb’s couch.

I had made the reservations six weeks in advance, and yet when we checked in I was informed that the kind of room I’d requested (two queens) had not come available and that they’d “upgraded” me to a room with a king-size bed and a roll-away at no extra charge. The lady assured me that the roll-away was just a little bit smaller than a full-size bed and so two of the boys should be able to fit on it, no problem.

I then asked for directions to the elevator, since she’d put us on the third floor. No elevator. “Your kids are young, they’ll be fine,” was her response. I’m not worried about the kids, lady. I’m the one who will be lugging all of our baggage up two flights of stairs!

The roll-away was barely a twin, of course, but a borrowed sleeping bag sufficed and Jonathan was perfectly content to sleep on the floor. We watched a borrowed movie on the VCR and then crashed. Natalie, Josiah, and I all shared the king and I learned that Josiah likes to turn around upside-down and back to right-side up in his sleep. He’s one wiggly sleeper! But it was still better than the couch.