Dave's Graduation from UVA

I took a leave day on Friday 15 May 09 and we (my Mom and Dad and Carol and me) took a leisurely drive to Charlottesville, VA. It was threatening rain all day and actually did start to rain ever so slightly at 4PM and then continued through the evening. My brother John and his wife Erika and Ed and Cindy were driving up separately and they all got there late in the afternoon. Both Dad and I were able to reserve rooms at the US Army’s JAG School on the UVA campus for $40-50 per night. As I was apparently the senior officer to check in on Friday, I was given one of the VIP suites. Not bad considering most everyone else in Charlottesville was paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $700-$1000 for lodging over the graduation weekend. We all met at the JAG school shortly before 4 PM and wound up going over to Dave’s apartment and cooked a tenderloin we had brought with us. A good night was had by all.

Saturday the rain held off and we had a great time seeing the sights of Charlottesville. We started at lunch when Dave took us to the Belmont Bar BQ restaurant. AWESOME! We then went downtown and walked the mall until we all got thirsty and stopped for a beer at one of the cafes. We decided to go out to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner and drove into the parking lot just as the sky opened up. Man, did it rain.

Sunday, the day of Graduation, the rain was continuing to threaten. But first, let me tell you that it was like old home week at the JAG school. I ran into a retired Flag Officer I had worked with in the past at 6 AM in the elevator going down to get coffee. I ran into Dan from MITRE, and Steve from West Point, all in the span of the 15 minutes we were checking out of the BOQ. After driving away form the Q it did much more than threaten rain, it poured and it poured and it poured. It was a blast. We parked at the Stadium and got on buses that took us to the Rotunda. There were so many people all trying to get on the lawn (graduation site) at campus, it was almost comical. Everyone was wearing beautiful (or at least nice) clothes and the lawn was churned up so much that everyone’s lower half was red from the mud. Claudia’s Mom and Dad drove up to see Dave graduate as well. That was special. The ceremonies were wonderful, both for the University and the E (Engineering) School and the rain finally ended at 4PM, whereupon we all went back to Dave’s apartment and played corn hole until it was time to drive back to Virginia Beach.