Monday, March 2, 2009

Dining Out

Navy events called Dining Out are required social events for every part of the command. Shannon is part of the Hospital Command and so we got to go to the Dining Out for hospital officers. All the Navy personnel wore their dress blues and all the spouses had to get dressed up too. I had to wear a suit and Shannon made me get a haircut. The Dining Out is full of various Navy traditions but the only one I really grasped was if you did something that the Commanding Officer deemed as “bad” you were sent to the grog as punishment. The grog is basically a punchbowl filled with lots of mysterious liquids and it also has some things floating in it. The criteria for being sent to the grog was pretty vague- Shannon had to take some a number of times for such offenses as living in Aci Trezza and being a pharmacist. Even I got sent up there once for being a spouse.
It doesn’t seem like Sicily has that many hikes but we did find a very interesting one. Pantalica is a limestone gorge carved out by the Anapo River. The drive is only about two hours south of us. It is not that long a hike but it has a lot of change in elevation. The unique part of the hike is that it is lined with tombs that have been carved into the rock. Some of the tombs are from the thirteenth century BC however the majority of them are from the eighth century BC. As you walk along the gorge there are thousands of niches, caves and homes cut out of the rocks and part of the point of the hike is to spend a couple of hours just exploring.