Where do I start. I hope this will help all you new dads who have sons/daughters going to bootcamp and are full of questions concerning PIR (Graduation). About 6 weeks ago someone posted something similar to this and it helped me out alot. Well here goes. If you can rent a room at the Navy Lodge. You can go on line and do this and all they will want to know is your sons name. It was 65.00 a night and go ahead and get the kitchenette. You will want to go to the NEX right down the street and get drinks, chips and whatever for you and your family to munch on and having a fridge is great. The rooms are very nice and clean. We were able to check in at 12:00 althought they say checkin time is 1500 hours. The staff is really friendly. Fly in to Chicago Ohare if you can, they make it real easy to find your way around. Also go online and rent a car from Alamo. They have a weekend deal that will save you money. We rented a car from Thursday till Monday and it was 119.99
Make sure you rent a car it will be so much more convienient. There is not much around the Base. Also take a GPS, if you dont have one you can rent one from Alamo. It was a lifesaver. My wife who is on the Navyformoms website had set up a Meet and Greet for Thursday night at Flanagans and it was nice to meet other families who had been going through the same thing. In fact all three parties sitting at our table got the I am a sailor phone call at the same time Thursday night. All of them passed it was great but until then we were on pins and needles. After graduation when they called liberty it was a mad rush out on the floor to see our son. It was great. He was allowed to leave with us and we took him straight back to the room. Dont be surprised if he just wants to hang out in the room, take a long shower or just sit and watch TV. They have been cut off from socializing for a long time. We listened to all his stories and and couldnt believe how he had changed. We took him back around 1900 that night because he had to be back by 2000 hours. Dont be late, our son said a few came back about 1 1/2 hours late and really got in trouble. I could not believe how they could be late knowing what the consequences would be. You will be surprised at how he/she takes the time to make sure they have gloves, scarf, ear muffs etc on right and will not walk out the door until they are squared away. Saturday we picked Steven up at 0800 and went straight to breakfast. We had him until 2000 that night as well. Make sure you take him to the Gurnee Mills Mall. He will like that. We had to have him back again at 2000 hours again. He always wanted to be back 1 1/2 hours early, then we could just sit in the car and talk. It is about a 20 minute walk for them to get back to their ship. We picked him up again on Sunday morning at 0800 and just kinda of hung out at the room. By Sunday he was getting homesick being around us and his attitude wasnt as great as it was on Friday. I loved seeing my son but I think we got him off schedule they are not use to just being layed back It was very hard saying goodbye Sunday night to him. He is completely ready to leave the cold and get to Florida. I was so proud of all he had accomplished. My wife and I wish now we would have flown out Sunday night because sitting around in the motel was terrible not having him with us but it was nice to get up early and head for the airport. We dropped the rental car off, then a shuttle took us back to O'Hare and from then on we waited on our flight. It was a great experience and something I will never forget. If I can be of any assistance please don't hesitate to ask.
Good stuff guys, I only wish I was going to Chicago, but found out today, that my son don't get to do PIR, he was a hold back, due to some swimming issue's, which he has concored, graduated Battle Stations 21, and is now waiting for travel orders, and some last minute dental work, so I guess I will just have to make his "A" school graduation..
Randy Leeper said:
Just got back from our son's PIR. I suggest reading any & all the blogs you can regarding the area and places to eat and stay. Our son David was chosen as a 'Grad & Go', which kind of changed a lot of our plans. The first night we stayed in the Sleep Inn across from the western side of base. It was close, clean, and reasonably priced when I did research all the local places ($75/rm night). We needed 2 rooms since we had my wife and I, and my two other grown sons. We got a shuttle over to the base ($3/ea) and they dropped us off inside the gate eliminating the need of having your car inspected. The car line was about 5-6 blocks long to get in and the driver passed by all of them. We then had to pass thru security; the line took about 20 min. to get thru and another 15 min. to get into the PIR building. We ended up on the second level which was good and bad. We could see everything great, but it took extra time to get to our sailor. We then had to hurry out of the building so our sailor didn't have to clean up. We went over to the NEX since it was rainy and wet. We stood in the detergent aisle since it wasn't crowded there and talked. Dave had to leave in 45 min. to pack and get ready to travel to Groton, CT. Next our sailor was on to the O'hare airport, so we went to meet him there. We got there ahead of them and parked in the hourly garage which was fairly expensive (5 hrs = $31). We went to the USO but since none us had military ID we couldn't get in until we had our sailor. The sailors arrived about 2:30PM. They weren't told much of what to do when they got to the airport, which caused a lot of wasted time going from terminals #1 to #3 /USO to #1 then on to free time until 6:15pm. The only place to eat if you don't have a ticket is in terminal #5. We did ask different TSA people regarding getting a pass to go to the gate but the first 3 said we couldn't but when we finally went to walk him to leave the last agent said we could have been given a pass from the ticket agent. When we did go to the food court our sailor only wanted some fast food (McDonald's big Macs and fries). We stayed there and talked and he began texting all his family & friends. We chose not to go to the USO since there were 2 bus loads of sailors leaving that day and it seemed crowded. We only had a few hours with Dave, but the whole experience was well worth the 13 hr. drive. Well since we had planned on spending time in Chicago we chose to stay somewhere between O'hare and Midway. I found a great hotel at a reasonable price in Lombard, IL about 20 min from O'hare. We had a suite with all the amenities for $89 and it had 3 beds in a Hyatt Place. We then took our 17 year old son into Chicago for the first time. We all had a blast in the Museum of Science & Industry. We went to the Navy pier but didn't stay. Then headed home to PA. I hope this helps future Family visits to PIR.
Just got back from our son's PIR. I suggest reading any & all the blogs you can regarding the area and places to eat and stay. Our son David was chosen as a 'Grad & Go', which kind of changed a lot of our plans.
The first night we stayed in the Sleep Inn across from the western side of base. It was close, clean, and reasonably priced when I did research all the local places ($75/rm night). We needed 2 rooms since we had my wife and I, and my two other grown sons. We got a shuttle over to the base ($3/ea) and they dropped us off inside the gate eliminating the need of having your car inspected. The car line was about 5-6 blocks long to get in and the driver passed by all of them. We then had to pass thru security; the line took about 20 min. to get thru and another 15 min. to get into the PIR building. We ended up on the second level which was good and bad. We could see everything great, but it took extra time to get to our sailor. We then had to hurry out of the building so our sailor didn't have to clean up. We went over to the NEX since it was rainy and wet. We stood in the detergent aisle since it wasn't crowded there and talked. Dave had to leave in 45 min. to pack and get ready to travel to Groton, CT.
Next our sailor was on to the O'hare airport, so we went to meet him there. We got there ahead of them and parked in the hourly garage which was fairly expensive (5 hrs = $31). We went to the USO but since none us had military ID we couldn't get in until we had our sailor. The sailors arrived about 2:30PM. They weren't told much of what to do when they got to the airport, which caused a lot of wasted time going from terminals #1 to #3 /USO to #1 then on to free time until 6:15pm.
The only place to eat if you don't have a ticket is in terminal #5. We did ask different TSA people regarding getting a pass to go to the gate but the first 3 said we couldn't but when we finally went to walk him to leave the last agent said we could have been given a pass from the ticket agent. When we did go to the food court our sailor only wanted some fast food (McDonald's big Macs and fries). We stayed there and talked and he began texting all his family & friends. We chose not to go to the USO since there were 2 bus loads of sailors leaving that day and it seemed crowded. We only had a few hours with Dave, but the whole experience was well worth the 13 hr. drive.
Well since we had planned on spending time in Chicago we chose to stay somewhere between O'hare and Midway. I found a great hotel at a reasonable price in Lombard, IL about 20 min from O'hare. We had a suite with all the amenities for $89 and it had 3 beds in a Hyatt Place. We then took our 17 year old son into Chicago for the first time. We all had a blast in the Museum of Science & Industry. We went to the Navy pier but didn't stay. Then headed home to PA.
I hope this helps future Family visits to PIR.
Replies
Randy Leeper said:
The first night we stayed in the Sleep Inn across from the western side of base. It was close, clean, and reasonably priced when I did research all the local places ($75/rm night). We needed 2 rooms since we had my wife and I, and my two other grown sons. We got a shuttle over to the base ($3/ea) and they dropped us off inside the gate eliminating the need of having your car inspected. The car line was about 5-6 blocks long to get in and the driver passed by all of them. We then had to pass thru security; the line took about 20 min. to get thru and another 15 min. to get into the PIR building. We ended up on the second level which was good and bad. We could see everything great, but it took extra time to get to our sailor. We then had to hurry out of the building so our sailor didn't have to clean up. We went over to the NEX since it was rainy and wet. We stood in the detergent aisle since it wasn't crowded there and talked. Dave had to leave in 45 min. to pack and get ready to travel to Groton, CT.
Next our sailor was on to the O'hare airport, so we went to meet him there. We got there ahead of them and parked in the hourly garage which was fairly expensive (5 hrs = $31). We went to the USO but since none us had military ID we couldn't get in until we had our sailor. The sailors arrived about 2:30PM. They weren't told much of what to do when they got to the airport, which caused a lot of wasted time going from terminals #1 to #3 /USO to #1 then on to free time until 6:15pm.
The only place to eat if you don't have a ticket is in terminal #5. We did ask different TSA people regarding getting a pass to go to the gate but the first 3 said we couldn't but when we finally went to walk him to leave the last agent said we could have been given a pass from the ticket agent. When we did go to the food court our sailor only wanted some fast food (McDonald's big Macs and fries). We stayed there and talked and he began texting all his family & friends. We chose not to go to the USO since there were 2 bus loads of sailors leaving that day and it seemed crowded. We only had a few hours with Dave, but the whole experience was well worth the 13 hr. drive.
Well since we had planned on spending time in Chicago we chose to stay somewhere between O'hare and Midway. I found a great hotel at a reasonable price in Lombard, IL about 20 min from O'hare. We had a suite with all the amenities for $89 and it had 3 beds in a Hyatt Place. We then took our 17 year old son into Chicago for the first time. We all had a blast in the Museum of Science & Industry. We went to the Navy pier but didn't stay. Then headed home to PA.
I hope this helps future Family visits to PIR.