My nephew, Damian graduated from USMC bootcamp in sunny California this past December. Originally we talked about all going down, but with Levi not being a great traveler quite yet it made more sense to have just me go. Then about a month or so after I used miles to get myself a ticket, we decided it would be fun experience for Owen to see and we added him to the flight.

We were able to take advantage of a lounge at the Detroit airport with one of my credit card rewards and that got us some nice breakfast, coffee, and a place to relax since we had some time before our flight.

Owen always does a great job with traveling, he knows what to expect and brings his travel must haves- headphones, Nintendo Switch, and an iPad loaded with shows.

We made it to California the night before Josh, my parents, and Jon & Miyuki so we ended up staying at The Grant Hotel (I had a free reward night so figured we should go somewhere nice). The hotel was nice and most importantly the bed was comfortable! The next morning we got breakfast at the hotel, grabbed a coffee for me at Blue Bottle and then went to meet up with everyone.

The first day, we went to a briefing where they explained what the recruits went through during bootcamp, shared some history, and talked about what they could or could not do during the next couple of days.

Afterwards, we were able to go down and see them marching, before they released them to see their family for the day. It was pretty sunny out, so here’s a pic where we are squinty or just not looking at the camera.

The morning of the ceremony, since the time zone change was in my favor, I woke up around 5AM and had text Josh I could take him whenever if he wanted to leave early. This ended up being a mistake, because I thought we would get there in plenty of time, but we ended up being stuck in traffic for about 3hours, because the base was searching every car that came through and created a hold up. When we got to the base, last minute I told him and Owen they should just get out and walk because they would probably beat me going through the car search, so they did and were able to arrive to their seats right as it began. I ended up being 45 minutes late, because a car in the lane I was getting searched in had brought a gun on the base, so they made all of the cars back up and go to another lane while they figured out what to do with him. This wasn’t a quick process. However, I made it before the end and was able to see him officially graduate. Later on I saw the guy that held everyone up, so my guess is he had a permit and just didn’t realize you can’t bring a gun on a base - not the brightest move.

It was cool to get to see my nephew graduate bootcamp, and to have my uncle there who saw me graduate from bootcamp 20 years ago.

It was also nice to have one on one time with Owen and get to have him experience this with me.