For the most part, my business trips while working at NAVFAC were of one week duration, particularly those that took me to te West Coast. Monday and Friday would be travel days with Tuesday through Thursday as work days. However, in August 1996 I attended a two week course on Environmental Law in Port Hueneme CA which gave me a two day weekend. Never one to waste two days, especially on the California coast, I and a collague of mine decided to take a road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway. 10 August 1996 Saturday. We left Port Hueneme quite early as we had set an ambitious itinerary for ourselves. We caught US101 in Ventura headed north, passing Santa Barbara, one of my favorite spots to eat when on one week trips. Our first stop was ... read more

I had decided in 1994 that we would move back to the States as soon as I could find a job. My kids were growing up fast, and I wanted them to grow up in the United States. I didn't want them to experience the same adjustment problems that other expatriot children had as they left they became independent of their parents, and their benefits associated with their employment with the government or multinational corporations (e.g., no citizenship benefits, no work permits or visas). As there were many base closures taking place with people losing jobs, this took longer than I anticipated. I paid for our home leave in 1994 and went through Washington, DC to visit the Pentagon to enquire about taking the position of my counterpart there who was retiring. They had decided to ... read more

As this might be our last chance to visit Linda’s sister in Northern Ireland before we returned to the States, we decided to spend our one week summer vacation with her family. It was to be a quick trip; not stopping in England either going or coming back other than necessary. 12 August 1995 Saturday. We left Overijse early and crossed the channel from Calais to Dover. From Dover we continued around on the M25 the south of London and west on the M4 to Wales. We arrived at the ferry terminal in Fishguard by late afternoon. As I was driving onto the ferry I heard my brakes squeal metal on metal. That meant my brakes were gone. There wasn’t much I could do, but I knew what to expect when I disembarked. We arrived in ... read more

As we were hoping that 1995 would be our last year in Europe, we decided to make the most of it. We wanted to make one more trip to the French Riviera, which we hadn't been to in several years; a trip to Norway to trace Bob's ancestors; and one final trip to visit Shirley and the cousins in Northern Ireland, at least while we lived in Europe. 8 April 1995 Saturday. We had never taken the kids on a train ride so we took the train from Brussels to Paris where we transferred to the fast TGV. It was a quick ride to Lyon, Marseilles, and Toulon, before we disembarked at Le Lavandou. There we caught a taxi to the Pierre et Vacances resort at Pramousquier. We would be there for a week. We had ... read more

By the summer of 1994 we had been living in Europe for 17 years. We had "been there and done that." Our kids were growing up without knowing what America was really like. To them it was just a fun vacation. So I declined my contract extension whereby the government would pay the transportation for my home leave in return for serving two more years. I paid for my family to return for home leave. 6 July 1994 Wednesday. The day after my final Infrastructure Committee meeting before the summer break, we flew to Washington, DC. We stayed in a hotel in Crystal City. 7 - 8 July 1994 Thursday and Friday. I had an appointment to see the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment about taking the job of my counterpart in his ... read more