Friday, September 23, 2011

Vacation...mostly Free...Thanks Air Force!

Last week we went to Garmisch. There is a great Army Resort, Edelweiss there. No matter what military branch you serve for, you can still take advantage of what all the branches offer. J had a conference that was held at Edelweiss for the entire week. Which means, the AF paid for his gas, lodging and food. Reminder these are called TDY's. What I LOVE about TDY's are that as a family we can totally tag along and is costs us nearly nothing. J gets so much allotted for food each day, so he ate cheaply and we used some of the money for our food. Plus at this resort kids under 5 ate free. Needless to say we had a FANTASTIC week. The girls and I went to the lake one day, visited 2 different castles, went swimming, hiking, bobsledding and more. J got out no later than 4:30 each day and then we would go explore the area even more.

Obviously, you can't go to all TDY's with your spouse because kids have school, it may be too far for your family to drive too and the JAG has to fly, etc. But either way it is a way to make a little extra cash. J went TDY a few times when we were in Texas. If he chose to drive we would make money on gas and rarely could he ever use the full amount of money allotted for food each day.

Plus TDY's are a great time for the JAG's to meet other JAG throughout the military and discuss what's happening in their specific offices. At this particular conference there were JAG from Army and Air Force. I met a gal and her 3 children whose husband was an Army JAG that was doing the conference too. Our kids ended up playing together whenever we went to the pool and I got to chat with her.

Which reminded me why I am grateful J chose the Air Force. It is only for one reason and that is the deployment. Her husband has been in 9 years, part of that was as a Reservist but he has already been deployed twice and for roughly 1 year each time. It has been hard on her kids, more so when they were older than younger because they understand more. I never thought about that! I thought it would be easier if your kids were older. Which brought me to this conclusion about deployment:



Easier on kids if they are young, harder on Mom when they are young


Harder on kids when they are older, easier on Mom when they are older

3 comments:

  1. Thank you SO much!! Your comment regarding the army JAG and air force JAG helped a lot!! Thanks for your amazing blog, it has helped me so much!

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  2. My two young kids and I are "tagging along" with my husband later this month for a similar trip. Would you mind sharing what one or two of your favorite things were that you did during the day in the surrounding area while your husband was in his conference?

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  3. We went to the Gorge there. It's amazing! There were also toboggan rides right by the Ski stadium over by the Gorge. The stadium there held the 4th Olympics! Huge tip about the Gorge. Do not park at the stadium. Keep driving down the road where you'll see people walking to the Gorge. Stay on the road until you get to the very end, and park at the restaurant, otherwise you'll have to walk the 20 minutes it would take! You'll feel like everyone is staring at you and as if you shouldn't be driving down the road...trust me!

    We also went to Ludwigs Castle. It was only 30 minutes from the resort. Lake Eisbee is great too. It's cold right now but they may still have fun walking around it, throwing rocks, feeding ducks etc. Have fun! I can't wait to go back!

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