Sunday at Shore Leave is always the downer. You sleep late and end up saying goodbye to everyone and realize you eventually have to return to real life. But, it's still fun.

My son made me proud in an unexpected way. Joanie Winston is alongd standing guest at Shore Leave. If you're a Trek fan and don't know who Joan is, you should be ashamed. If you're not a Trek fan, it would take too long to explain. Suffice to say, I had met this woman when I was John's age and she still remembered me almost 30 years later. We ran into her in the hall and I introduced her to John. She is now 73 and after I told him how I met her she went off on a tangent. My son did the perfect "polite listening" thing. He looked directly at her as if he was really interesting in what she was saying while on the inside he was wishing he were a thousand miles away. You don't see that often in a 14 year old.

The play was a Harry Potter theme. This was a let down after last year's play written by Peter David. There were a few laughs but only slightly entertaining.

We hit the road out of Hunt Valley by 11AM and rode until we got to Beaufort, SC for an overnight stay. We have found this trip easier to take with these stops along the way. There is some talk about flying next year. That could make for a whole different set of experiences with this crew.

John and I went for a late night swim which I find always helps after being confined to a car for 9 hours. We were back home by 3PM Tuesday afternoon. Back to work the next day despite lingering exhaustion. Being there again cramped into a cubicle reminded of more of my desire to do voice over work. My friend, Lee Stringer, is going to be teaching at a computer animation school in Orlando for the next three months and I will be visiting. I hope to make an in with some students to do work on their student projects as a way of getting my foot in the door.

I got a few extra days with John which is always good. I gave him a cake for his birthday a week early. I really hated sending him back after having him with me for so long and all of the deep talks we had this time. Only a few weeks and he's here again for a whole week before he starts High School. He continues to amaze me. He is turning into a wonderful young man. Now that he's a little older we were all a little looser with our language and joke and he played right along with us. You could see in his eyes how he enjoyed being treated like one of the crowd and not a little kid.

So now we start making the plans and saving the pennies for next year. There is talk of Shore Leave being the location for the 20th Anniversary for the USS McAuliffe. I love the idea and really hope it happens. Hell, I'll be there anyway! I hope my little travel log gives you an glimpse of how much fun this weekend is and why it is a priority every year. I have been going since the 80's and have only missed a handful; and those were for severe health and financial reasons. I love the fact that Johnny looks forward to it as much as I do and hope we can continue these weekends long after he is on his own.