I am a hunter!!!

Or a fisher, either way, I CAN catch my own food if need be!

On Sunday, we met up with John and Lauren Aaron at Kadena Marine. We had lunch at the Seaside Grill and afterwards our plan was to go Kayaking. Well we could not go kayaking because there was some sort of rescue going on in the marina. We are not real sure what happened, but there were a lot of police, scuba divers and helicopters. 

Since our plans had been altered, we took a walk along the coral around to the oceanside to see what we could see. And yes, I sang, "The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see." Guess what we saw, the other side of the bay. HAHA!

 As we got to the other side, we started to notice the schools of bright blue fish. They were so blue, but so tiny. When they got scared or startled, they turned green. So I had the fascination of catching one, just because I could. So I did, but Bill did not get a photo. I had it in my hand, and said look, I can catch my own food. I let it go and he says, Oh I should have taken a photo. So I had to do it again.

 Here is proof, I am a hunter! I can catch fish with my own two hands!...There is water in my hands, it just looks like there is not. No harm was done to any of the fish I caught.

After the scuba divers, police and helicopters had all packed up and left, we too thought it was time to leave. The only things we know, is that there was a lot of commotion, a lady crying, a search party was lead. We think someone drowned, but nothing was pulled from the water. The entire time we were walking around the bay, I was looking for a floating hand or body. I have seen to many movies. I am sad to think that someone may have lost their life that day, but we made the best of our day and had a great walk around Kadena Marina!

4th of July...AWESOME FIreworks!!!

For my Birthday/4th of July celebration, the Morrison's took me and my parents to Concert in the Park at the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens. It was pretty awesome! Thank you Laurie and Mike for the experience.

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Bill planned a lovely Anniversary dinner. 

We went to a hotel resort called Avillia, north near Cape Zampa. We ate at a tepanyaki place. This is where they cook the food on a large cook top in front of you. 

 Here we are at the table. The server offered to take this photo. All of the servers at the restaurant were very kind and interested in what we were celebrating, why we were on island. They enjoyed practicing their English. and we did our best to practice our Japanese.
We don't normally take photos of our food, but this meal was so unique, that we could only take pictures to describe what we ate.

 The first course was shiquasa (lime) jelly with paprika, and cured fish. It was rather tasty!

 Next we had grilled white fish with large scallops. As we ate that the chef prepared the next course.

 The third course was goya (bitter melon), bacon, fried tofu and fried egg.

 Bill forgot to get a photo before it was mostly gone. But it was a stir-fryed green, tasted like spinach and edemame sprouts.

 The fifth course was a local greens salad with a finer dressing.

 In this photo it is a salad again, but you can also see the special salt (far left) that was heated on the grill as well as all of the special sauces that were prepared.

 Here the chef is preparing the main dish, I had ordered lobster and Bill ordered sirloin. My lobster came out really fresh, it was still moving when it arrived grill side before cooking. I am sure they had chopped it in half right before it came out. The chef is preparing it on flambé. I am sure this is just for show. My lobster was grilled shell side down for sometime and then placed under a copper wok, where he tossed in some cooking wine and it was steamed. Then he removed it from the shell, tossed it on the grill, put it back in the shell, set it on fire and then it was served. Bill's steak, was prepared like any steak.

 The lobster was very good. I could have done without the shell. All the guts are a little gross, but it was tasty!

 Here is Bill's sirloin. It was served with garlic chips. The chef had chopped up the garlic and cooked them to a crispy state. They were very good with the steak, added nice texture.

 Last and final course, was the desert and tea. Desert was sweet cream topped with a chocolate wafer on top of ice, on top of tapioca with sweet beans. We had never had sweet beans before, they were just a sweet taste, but it still tasted as if we were eating beans. A little weird.

 After dinner we went for a nice walk along the beach. Here I got on a giant tricycle. Our friends had just been talking about these the other day. Looks like fun, but we have been told, they move slow and you hoover above the water and it is just hot!

 Here is a resort behind us.

 Bill's favorite thing to do is to set up photos.

Last photo of the night, out front. It was a beautiful resort, I am sorry we did not get to see it in the daylight, we will have to take a trip back to see it again. Such a nice surprise for our one year wedding anniversary. Only a few days till we celebrate being married for 2 whole years!!!

Disney Photos

We love Disney!

Here are some professional photos we had taken at the parks while we were in California!

                                                           One of our favorite rides.

 In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I am not sure I knew that the castles were different at each park.

 Disney magic! Tinker Bell was in my hand! Boy do we look surprised.

 Family Portraits! What a great background!

 Another great ride!

 It's my Birthday! It was a great day!

 Cars Land was awesome! The Radiator Springs Ride was awesome! A new favorite for sure!

Baby your a FIREWORK!!!

 Near Churaumi Aquarium, each July there is a firework festival...after the river trek we high tailed it across the peninsula to see the fireworks. There were to be 10,000 fireworks set off. We cleaned up and made haste. We knew that there was going to be traffic, but never this bad. We were directed though these back roads, lots of cars, no parking and we were told to keep moving. I had Bill stop following the cars in front of us and take off on a dark alley just as we turn off, we see the first of the fireworks. So we begin to chase them down. We come to a side street and see people staring on a rock hill. We park and climb up. We had packed a blanket and a picnic dinner. We happened across the most perfect viewing spot. It was an awesome show! Sughoi! Sughoi!

 

We didn't get any pictures of my favorite, but my favorite ones were the ones are the hearts, stars, smiley faces and mushrooms. I had never seen shapes before in fireworks. They were awesome!

River Trekking at Fukugawa Falls

 What does this girl do day two of being back on island to help with jet lag...take a hike up a river to see some awesome waterfalls! So the journey begins by heading to the North end of the island, from where we live that is about a 2-3 hr drive depending on traffic and how far North we had to go. We made great time and got to the turn off for the trail about 3:40pm. We then proceeded to drive into the jungle down a one-way windy road to the middle of no where. I kept thinking, is Bill taking me to the forest to dump my body. There was not a single sign of civilization till we reachers the trail head. Even there it was devoid of actual people, there cars were parked. I thought, well we will see people on our hike. 

I had read up on the hike and knew that the first part was easy and well groomed. The post that I read was correct. There was a gravel road that lead to a clearing with the Map of the trail. Then you headed over a wooden bridge and off into the woods. At this point the groomed part stopped. The trail was no more than a beaten path through tall grass. And then all of a sudden we come across a covered picnic table. I thought, well at least were are where we are supposed to be. Then came an up hill trek with large stairs. In Japan, stairs are one of two things, giant that require two steps for each step up, or incredibly small, where your foot does not fit on the stair and it is not a normal height for a step up. These stairs were giant! So we climbed, and climbed, at this point we passed a family with small children. and just over a small hill there was the 1st water fall!

It was beautiful! But there were about 10 people there and we figured we would head off into the woods to seek the 2nd waterfall. Now I regret there are no pictures of this next part of the trail. It would have been hazardous for us to stop and take pictures, our full attention was needed to navigate this part of the hike. When we headed up the hill, large, large hill, I was not sure if we were headed in the right direction. All I knew was we had to get up and around the 1st waterfall. It was a muddy, beaten path, few have traveled. We were using roots at footholds and trees to help us climb. After a very quick assent, we were able to see that the river had leveled out again. 

It was now time to head up stream to find the 2nd waterfall. There was no real path to hike, except straight through the river. On a hot July afternoon, the cool water was very refreshing. 

This was staged, Bill wanted it to look like we had to walk a fallen tree. I kept thinking if one of us falls  and hits our heads, we are going to be in BIG trouble. We were far, far from the car and far from cell service and farther from help.

Hiking through the river was lots of fun. I got the impression that Bill did not think it was going to be fun when we started. But he quickly changed his tune when we got to this part of the hike. He kept saying, this is fun, I like this, we should do this more often. I kept screaming and jumping every time something touched me, there were bugs and spiders and things I do not like. But I trekked on.

Here is a calm part of the river. The hardest part was finding a place to put your foot so you would not slip and fall. The rocks were very slippery. 

Waterfall number 2! After about 30 mins up the river, slowly climbing a hill we made it. We could hear it for quite sometime before we saw it. It was a glorious sight. Looking back at these pictures I am not sure I enjoyed all of Mother Natures beauty yesterday. I am sure I was more worried about bugs.

 Bill had to climb up into the waterfall. I kept saying, if you fall I can not save you. He kept saying, I am being safe, don't worry. I am not going to fall. He was right. He did not fall, but I was nervous.

 After cooling down in the water and playing by the falls, it was time to head back down stream. Now at this point, we are trying to make an event on time as well as beat out the rain that is upon us. There was thundering, but luckily it never rained on our trek down.

 I learned it was much easier to go up stream than it was to go down stream. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Bill would fall, I would ask are you ok and then I would slip and fall. Neither one of us ended up hurt, but we do have a few bumps and bruises.

 At several bends in the river, we stopped to take pictures. It really was a great hike.

 Once we made it down the river and past the treacherous part over the first water fall, we stopped for a photo opportunity. Looking at this picture, I realize that this area really was a beautiful part of Okinawa.

 What a great way to spend a weekend with my husband. But this is only part one of the great day. Read the next post to see what happened next.

                                                           Happy river trekking day!