Friday morning we were up at the crack of dawn (which was like 3:00 AM our time) to get to the West Point main gate before the lines backed up for the security check. We went to the uniform factory where Shelley and I bought wool winter coats like the cadets wear. We rode the shuttle bus back to the museum and visitors center and wandered around until lunchtime. We were able to meet Kevin at 1:00 PM at Macarthur’s statue. Shelley and Michelle went to Kevin's history class while Brian and I went back to the car to take a nap. We got back together around 5:00 and had dinner in the gigantic mess hall where they feed 4000 cadets 3 times a day. We brought Kevin back to our hotel (30 minutes south) and I fell asleep while the family went to the lounge and played pool. Kevin got a ride back to West Point from another cadet's dad.
Saturday we got to West Point at 7:30 AM and attended the Commandant’s briefing at 8:30. There was a wonderful parade at 12:30 put on by the Plebes. We walked to the academic open house in Thayer hall then had lunch in Kevin's company day room before the TAC briefing at 2:00. After listening to Kevin's military advisor, we toured his barracks for about half an hour. Then we drove back to the hotel to change into our formal wear for the banquet and "hop." Brian and Michelle begged not to go so we let them sleep. We should have insisted, but we were too tired to argue anymore (we had been arguing non-stop for 2 days by then).
Shelley and I drove back to West Point at 5:00 and walked to Washington hall where we met Kevin and his friend Ryan Mehan. We attended the banquet and then walked over to Eisenhower (Ike) hall for the reception and hop. We stood in line for the reception for about 60 minutes and decided to go downstairs to have our picture taken. We stood in that line for another 45 minutes and finally got the picture taken. It was 11:00 PM by then and we just wanted to get back to our room so we said “good night” to Kevin and limped the mile back to where we parked for the drive back to Nanuet.
We slept in on Sunday. We were all very tired from the walking and flights of stair climbing. Who says I don’t get any exercise? We set off for USMA at 10:30 picked up Kevin and Ryan and visited the cemetery. Kevin just wanted to get out of Dodge so we drove to Piermont on 9W south and had lunch at a very nice restaurant on the Hudson. From there we drove to Nanuet and went to a movie at the mall. There were a lot of cadets there too. We had dinner after the movie and went back to the hotel to watch the 49er game. Shelley and I drove the cadets back to WP and got back to bed around 1:00 AM.
Monday we got up and out of the hotel by 10:00 and met Kevin at Trophy point around 11:00. We drove around and Kevin showed us where he throws the shot put. We visited the museum and gift shop and had lunch at the Park restaurant in Highland Falls. After lunch, we drove down to the south dock and sat by the river. Around 2:00 we drove back up to the barracks and parked in front of the Supe's house, chatted and took some pictures. Kevin needed to start on his homework so we thought we would get an early start back to the airport.
We got lost on our way to JFK of course. So I had to have my required upset and get us back on track. My wife finally asked me to meditate quietly - so I did.
We got to the airport with 30 minutes to spare before our flight, poured ourselves onto the plane and sat for another 6 hours before arriving in Oakland at 9:30 PM. It took an hour and a half to get the car and finally going on the hour ride home. We got in around 1:00 AM our time (3:00 AM EST) and crashed into bed, exhausted.
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