Swimming Lessons

With both kids in lessons, half of our day is spent at the pool. Mason is doing super and is practicing the different strokes. He can do a great crawl now. I noticed him doing some extra fancy spins at the beginning and end of his strokes in practice (do I need to tell you he has a pretty young, blonde instructor?). Alaina is another story... I must say she has improved greatly. But the beginning of the lessons went like this:

Instructor--"Let's put your face under the water, Alaina!"

Alaina--"Noooo. I'll put my EAR in!"

Instructor--"Alaina, don't you want to go under the water!"

Alaina--"Well, I can put my NOSE in!"

You get the picture! She has tried to con her teacher in every class. But in spite of it, she's managed to learn a good bit.

Over the Rainbow

It's been a week or so since we've posted. No big adventures lately. Last weekend was full of errands and the week has been busy with swimming lessons, dance, vacation bible school, etc. We have seen several huge rainbows lately and we were able to get a shot of this one yesterday evening. Okinawa is like FL in that it frequently rains and shines at the same time. But I won't complain. Lately, the clouds have given some much needed relief from scorching sun. It's been "black flag" on base, meaning no outdoor exercise due to the heat. So far, I still have to say the weather is pretty comparable to FL's. We read in the County Record recently that the temps in Blountstown were reaching 100. We'll see how things are here in August!

Torii Beach

We spent the weekend at Torii Beach celebrating Mason's birthday and Father's Day. We had such a fun time kyaking, snorkeling, playing volleyball, hitting the waterslide and eating out at a fabulous local restaurant, JAM, where we were treated quite royally. And now we are sending out lots of hugs and kisses to Papa, Grand-daddy Andy, Grandpa, Grandpa MC, Grandpa Dunc and Dennis this Father's Day!

Yomitan Pottery Village

During our trip to Torii Beach this weekend we visited Yomitan Pottery Village. It's a wonderful little community of artisans with studios along one road. Shoppers can park and stroll up and down the street and in and out of the studios. Visit this link (and click on Yomitan village) to see it's location on the island and read a little more about it... http://www.okinawaindex.com/index/?tid=3&cid=98&id=18

The Birthday Boy

Life sure is good when you turn 6 and get a stack of packages in the mail as big as you are! Add to it, losing your first tooth and that makes for a pretty good birthday! (Thanks to everyone for the packages, phone calls, emails, and blog notes!)

Sunday

Sunday's outing began with a flat tire on the one and only interstate in Okinawa (called the Expressway). The Expressway is a good example of how everything is "miniature" here... there are only 10 exits and the entire expressway is 57 km or 36 miles long. The speed limit is a whopping 80 km/hr or about 50 miles an hour. And that's, by far and away, the fastest road on the island! After recovering from the flat tire, we ventured out onto some nearby islands for the first time. (If you look on the map a few posts below you can see them out in our bay... past Gushikawa.) We found an excellent beach for gathering shells and took these photos of a couple of fishing boats.

Photo by Mason...

... or could you tell!? He received a kid's camera as an early birthday gift and has been excitedly snapping pictures everywhere. This one is from yesterday on Kokusai Street. It's the neat shopping district we've mentioned before--with endless back alleys full of shops, cafes, fresh markets and street performers. We wanted to go back for a second look at everything. This shot is a rack of real frogs turned into purses! (And, NO, we didn't buy one!)

Comments

Just a quick note to say... leave us a comment! I've changed the settings so you no longer have to register to do so. Maybe that will make things a little easier. I really wasn't sure how everything worked when I started this blog. And I'm still trying to figure it all out! But we miss and love all our friends and family and would be tickled to hear from you!

More Decor

We've had a rainy week, so there are no pretty flower or sunny beach photos to share. Had to do an inside shot instead. This is the antique Indian cabinet we bought about a month ago. I don't think I took a picture before. Above it are 2 old kimono stencils I bought at a bazaar for $9 each. When I took them to Mori, an Okinawan framer, he went on and on about them and even wanted some for himself. If I ever see any more I'll pick up some for him. But that's the thing about the shopping around here, you never know if you'll see the same thing twice. In the bowl are some old glass japanese floats and a couple of seashell balls.

A Map

I was looking for a photo of the Okuma Recreation Facility to show you where we went this weekend when I found this map. I thought you might like to see the entire island and get an idea of where we are on it. Do you see where the arrow is pointing on the north end? That's Okuma. It's a great little camping/beach resort operated by the Air Force. We spent the day there swimming and picnicing with friends on Saturday. We live about half-way down on the Pacific side of the island, right between Ishikawa and Camp Courtney. To give you an idea, the island is 67 miles long and varies between 2 and 17 miles wide. The population is about 1 million.