The Philippines

Here's a photo of one of USNS Mercy's helicopters picking up a pallet of supplies for the mission in Mindanao, (GPS) N 7 22.4345, E 124 12.4554.

Here is a photo of me having dinner on 30 May 2008 with a group of Operation Smile health care providers from Davao City, Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines.

The Pacific

Dad calls this a "boring picture of me," but I don't think it's boring at all.

Looks pretty exciting to me!

He sent us this picture on Saturday, May 17th. We're still not sure exactly where he's at. Due to security issues, Dad is only allowed to give us information on where he was located 3 days ago. We believe, however, that they are still on their way to Guam.

Here's an image that I got off GoogleEarth. Hawaii is in the mid-right side, behind the magnifier scale. Guam is all the way on the left side, nearer the bottom. I marked the Mariana Trench on the map, because I thought it was cool that if they do go to Guam, they'll have to sail over the deepest place on earth. That would be really awesome. Guam is located sort of in the middle of the crescent of the Mariana Trench.

Docked in Hawaii

The Mercy just left Hawaii, on its way to Guam, at 2pm Hawaii time. Here are a couple of pictures taken while we were docked.

The Mercy is at a pier not far from the USS Missouri (left) and the Arizona Memorial (right).

This is the conch shell that I got for my daughter for her birthday. Just so everyone knows, it didn't come with the eyeballs. That was my doing. In this picture, Shell pays respects to the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri.

Shell watches as the USS Pelilieu docks near the Mercy.

It will take them about 10 days to make it to Guam, so we'll try to keep everyone updated with pictures in the meantime.

From the Flight Deck

On May 6, 2008, one of USNS Mercy's helicopters sits on the flight deck as the sun sets over the calm Pacific, about 2 days out from Hawaii.

Dad arrived in Hawaii on Thursday, and was finally able to use his new blackberry to call Mom, and then home. He's planning on hiking a volcano while there. When I asked him what Hawaii was like, he said it pretty much looks like San Diego: Ocean, mountains, beach. Sounds like paradise to me!

Pictures from my first day aboard the Mercy

The Fam, making our way up to the ship.

Mikel, pretending to be cool. Okay, we'll say that he is.

David, taking advantage of the yummy breakfast we ate on board before the ship pulled out, and looking suspiciously like he's in the MTC...

Dad, pointing out the general area of where the ship will be heading off to.

We took a quick family picture in Dad's computer room before we had to leave the ship

Dad, waving from below the flight deck. See his Hawaiian shirt? Looks like he's going off on a cruise ship!

The USNS Mercy is about the size of an oil tanker. It was actually built as an oil tanker at first, but before it could be used as an oil tanker it was converted into a hospital ship. The ship itself weighs about 750,000 tons, and has seven decks. Don't get lost!

Here's the Mercy going under the Coronado bridge, on its way out of San Diego Harbor. I never realized how tall the Coronado Bridge was until then!