Off base adventures

This weekend we were able to go off base for the first time. We had to do so in our whites though which presented several challenges, mainly keeping them clean. The city of Newport is very nice, but very expensive as well. A beer cost about $5.50 each and my pasta dish was about $18. We were told beforehand that most of the servers don’t like the Navy people because they are known to be bad tippers. So, we wanted to try and change that. The only problem was the service was so bad that they didn’t deserve a good tip. It was a vicious circle. After dinner we bar-hopped for a little while before eventually finding a place where a bunch of our classmates were already at. I left around 10:00 and spoke to Teresa for a while. Unfortunately, I fell asleep while I was on the phone with her…whoops!

Yesterday, I went on the cliff walk. It’s a long hike that takes you along the coast and you can see a lot of old mansions. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention about the whites is how people react to us. We got a lot of weird looks, some thanking us for our service, and even the occasional car full of girls honking and telling us we were hot. It’s an odd feeling, but it does make you realize that you are always watched and always judged. But getting back to the cliff walk. We actually went into one mansion called the Breakers. This was the summer cottage for the Vanderbilt family and it was enormous. We found out that they only used the place for 6-8 weeks each summer…what a waste. I can only imagine what their main house in NYC was like. The tour was fun and our guide used to be in the Navy as well. We had dinner at the O Club later and I chose to call it a night after that and talk to Teresa for a while. A number of my classmates went to a Blues Bar in town though and I guess they were a big hit in their Navy whites. Hopefully they all acted appropriately.

Today was all about football though. We went to a sports bar that broadcast most all of the games, including the Vikings win over Atlanta. There was only one other Vikes fan there and he was really annoying. It was fun but I’ll probably just watch most of the games from the O Club since the beer and stuff will be cheaper.

Tomorrow we have the Buttercup. It’s a simulator that helps us with ship salvage. Its supposed to be a lot of fun so I’m really hoping it lives up to the hype.