Parents Weekend 2007

[Stealth_81]

The 2007 Parents Weekend schedule has been posted on the USAFA website:

http://www.usafa.af.mil/superintendent/parentsweekend/pwSchedule.cfm?catname=Parents'%20Weekend

 

[Stealth_81]

Parents Weekend Report

Hi All,
I am back, and I did have a great weekend with my son. Thursday night we arrived in town and met with 2011'sMom and her husband and had dinner, then we headed to the Academy to meet our cadets at the Chapel. This was not an 'official' visit, but since we knew our cadets went to chapel in the evening, we went there and had a nice half hour chat with them.
Friday we spent the morning touring the campus and taking a turn in the flight simulator in Fairchild Hall. My 10-year-old was in heaven. At 10 we went to the Parade Field for the Cadet Parade and flyovers, then went to Mitchell Hall for lunch with our 4 degree. In the afternoon, I got to go to classes with my son, while the wife ran up to Denver to pick up our daughter and her friend who flew in a day later than us due to volleyball.
That evening we went to our son's squadron open house for an hour, then headed to the Officers Club for the Wisconsin Parents Association reception. I must say, the Wisconsin chapter has it's stuff together. They has a nice spread of snacks and drinks, and also had a duffel bag of goodies for the 4 degrees, and a gift pack for each of the upperclassmen. Our son got to leave base with us to stay at our hotel.
Saturday morning he had to be back to his dorm by 0800 to get ready for the football game, because he was a part of the push-up crew who did the push-ups after each Air Force score. We went to his squadron's tailgate party, and then watched as Air Force dominated South Carolina State 34-3 in Falcon Staduim. Before the game my son introduced me to Redhead89 and Potterfan from the other site. After the game, son was released to us for the rest of the weekend, and didn't have to be back to the Academy until 1900 on Monday. We headed to his sponsor family's house for a cook-out on Saturday evening, and had a great time meeting them. They are truly wonderful people who treat our son as one of their own. He is a retired Colonel and classmate of my uncle's (USAFA class of 1963).
Most of the rest of the time, he just wanted to hang out in the hotel and swim. (I think he just didn't want to put on his service dress to go out) We did go to Mass at the Chapel on Sunday and drove through Garden of the Gods on Monday, but otherwise we just relaxed and enjoyed seeing him.
We took him back at about 1700 on Monday, because he was terrified of being caught in traffic and being late. He was not mistaken, because as we drove out of the cadet area at 1845, the line of cars heading in was quite long and backed-up.
Overall the weekend went well. Our hotel was wonderful, but expensive (Staybridge Suites on Commerce Dr.) $269/night(ouch). The only bad experience we had was with our rental car. We had booked a full-size car (Dodge Charger or similar) through Advantage Car Rental in Denver. We were given a Hundai Azera , and told it was a full-size. We disagreed. It was small, but we didn't have a choice...all the other rental places were sold out, so we were stuck with it.
If any other parents want to share their weekend experiences, we would love to hear them. I am sure that other hopeful candidates and their parents would like to hear what the future may be like, too. Feel free to ask any questions about the Air Force Academy. I will try my best to help answer them.

Stealth_81

 

[jamzmom]

Stealth, great reporting! Can you tell us more about the classes? Just wonderin' the difference between the different academy's first year. Glad ya'll are back safe & sound!

 

[2011's Mom]

As Stealth said, we got in on Thursday and had dinner with his family. Great food, fun company & it was Stealths idea to swing by the chapel to try to see our cadet. I learned how to send an e-mail from a cell phone & told D if she is available we will be at the chapel. She showed up and we had a great visit.

D had a presentation to do in one of her classes (It sounded good to us!) She had nice audi-visual aids and spoke as if she knew what she was talking about, got a few questions from the other kids and interacted with the teacher etc. I would give it an "A" - and I'm not biased! After class she had an open period so we traipsed through the library and then on to her next class where there was lots of interaction with the teacher. Listened as D activly participating in class - obiously she knew the material. Somewhere in there was the parade (hot) and lunch (nothing spectacular, but the company was great!). Her Beh Sci class was cancelled but she wanted us to meet with the teacher anyway so we did. D also wanted us to meet Chem teacher so somehow crammed that treck accross the world in there someplace and he, too, was rather impressive. In fact, we met every instructor and were very impressed with them all.

After classes we did the squadron open house and then took off. D asked for pizza at the hotel, wanting out of uniform. On the way we passed Appleby's and suddenly the back seat hollars, "stop - go right, I want to eat there". Had a nice meal at Appleby's - the 30 minute wait was somehow tranformed into 5 minutes as our family was put to the front of the line (later found out that those waiting suggested that we be seated first). At the end of the meal our bill was a very pleasant surprise too! Our food was great and the time together even better and the support from the restaurant and other guests the greatest! By the way, we did not stay in CS - we were in Castle Rock. A little drive, but not bad. When we left campus on Friday the traffic trying to go south to CS was very bad - we zipped right past to head north. It was so easy we'll likely stay in Castle Rock again. The traffic heading into CS looked abismal both Friday evening and Saturday after the game. No traffic heading north either time.

Saturday was the game. D is in D&B so had to be there quite early. Made for lots of sun but a great day. Loved watching D&B perform in the tunnel before the game. If you have the chance to see them in the tunnel take advantage of it. They were clearly having so much fun. After the game we returned to our hotel for the evening.

Sunday was our mother/daughter "Spa Day". By far the greatest thing we did (except Dad didn't want to partake!). They told us to allow for 3-4 hours and it was actually 5-6. We each got a great massage, pedicure/manicure/facial and a gourmet lunch. D told me she would have felt guilty sleeping away the day at the hotel but sleeping it away at the spa was cool! She came back with rebel purple toe nails! D implied she looks forward to this becoming a regular PW event for us!

Monday was spent setting up her new "cool college like stuff". Translation: desk organizers, pens, staples etc.... she was having a grand time organizing her desk and told us she was excited to get back to classes.

That pretty much sumarizes our weekend. Sure that I left some things out. The weekend was fabulous and I am certain to enjoy PW for years to come. I understand WP only does PW for the freshman - wow am I glad we get to go again next year!

 

[Stealth_81]

My son is taking: Intro to Engineering, Calc 2, Chemistry, Advanced Spanish, Reading Skills, and Phys Ed. I was only able to go to the Reading and Chem. classes, because it was an 'M' day. The Cadets have two different types of days: 'M' days and 'T' days, and have different classes on each day. His Chem class is actually two periods long, but his Prof kept them for only one due to PW. The second period we went to the Chemistry Dept. conference room for snacks and punch. I was really impressed by the instructors that I met. They were very engaging and took the students seriously. I loved when the class was called to attention when the Chem prof (and active duty major) walked into the room.

Stealth_81

 

[hornetguy]

I LOVE the chem department. Of course I'm biased since its my major, but the people are great there and they organize many neat events for us chem geeks. Glad to hear y'all had a good time. I enjoyed going up to Denver for some Cheesecake Factory and a bit of mall shopping.