Dear Old Mother & Father & others,

      I received your most welcome letter, and it sure did have a good welcome too. Mother don't you worry about me reading your letter – yours was the best & easy read I ever read.

      The weather here is not warm but cool & windy most all the time. As we are right on the coast, I can see worlds & worlds of water & mostly rough water too.

      Now to describe our sleeping quarters. 8 of us to a tent & each have a cot. On the cot we have 1 mattress, 6 sheets & 2 wool Army blankets & we can put our over coats over us too. We also have a unit stove which keeps us pretty warm.

      I had my pictures taken Sunday at the Cliff House, so you see I am getting fat. The grub here suit me alright, we have oatsmeal & meal potatoes & coffee for breakfast, Meat, coffee & potatoes, bread & pudding for dinner & about the same for supper. So you see the meals are not so bad as they made them (well will finish this after dinner)

      Just back from dinner, had all I could hold. The pudding today was made of prunes & tapioca so you see I sure enjoyed it.

      We were giving an inspection Sat. Morn. We had to polish our shoes, get a shave, brush our clothes & wash our leggings. Passed the inspection O. K. then.

      We had Sat. afternoon off. We went to San Francisco. Was there all afternoon & evening. Took in a lot of shows & saw lots of great sites. Saw the new building they are putting up. It is costing 1,700,000. It is the Calif. Theater.

      Saw them make some paved streets sure some work to it too. Then Sun. afternoon I went out to the beach saw thousands of people laying around on the beach letting the sand cover them up. There is rocks off in the ocean close to the Cliff House that is just covered with seals and at nite they sure do growl. Sounds like a bunch of cows.

      We can get off after five every nite except Monday nite & we drill from 7 to 9 o'clock at nite. Then we are ready for bed. Well have to go drill will finish after retreat to nite.

      After supper. Well today passed fast but awfully windy. Now for our drills & calls.

      First call is 6:15 in the morning. Then roll call at 6:25, then breakfast mess call. Then 7:30 Artillery Drill. We dress in our over hauls & jacket & drill at the mortar guns.

      Then at 9:15 we drill with rifles till 11:30. Then it is dinner & the afternoon we drill with rifles till 4:00 then rest till retreat which is 4:30.

      As for our staying here, I don't know for sure how long we'll stay here. Might be sent out any time, we might be sent to France. It is all onto so what the War Department says.

      We sure are learning fast or drilling fast. We have to clean up around camp every morning. So you see everything is sure clean, can take a bath every nite – if we want to.

      My arm was pretty sore for a while, was swoll clear to the wrist but it is alright now. My arm wasn't sore long either, but I have to take two more occulations yet. Then I'll be clear of sickness.

      We get inspected every morning now so we want like anything. There is a pretty jolly bunch of boys in my tent. All about the same age & sure happy.