Nago Cherry Blossom Festival 2010

We went North and hit the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival on a beautiful Saturday afternoon! We had gone the last two years to see the sakura (cherry blossoms), but this was the first time we had attended the actual festival. There were lots of people and TONS of food!

Michael at the festival:

The Marine Corps band was playing some tunes when we got there:

A few sakura trees lined the path next to the vendors:

The sakura were really beautiful :)

The vendors sold everything from french fries to yakitori (my fave) and yakisoba:

This is the lower portion of the trees. The hike Michael and I took during July of 2009 started down here and ended at the top of Mt. Nago :)

On the way up:

We hiked up a good ways so we could see some of the panoramic views of the pink blossoms:

(notice the special can of Orion that celebrates the cherry blossom festival?!)

We also saw some of the parades - this high school band was a little disturbing. Evidently (?) they didn't have enough members, or wanted to seem like they had more members, so they attached sticks with department store mannequins to them and marched:

Choco covered bananas

... kind of like a Bluth banana - "there's always money in the banana stand!" (where are my Arrested Development people!?)

a view of the festival after walking back down:

... and me eating a sakura:

... just kidding (see the post from Feb 2008) :P

Moon Beach and Cape Zanpa

Although our plans to go camping were spoiled, we did pull ourselves away from the PS3 long enough to do a little exploring. We're really trying not to take the beauty the island has to offer for granted, so we jumped in Michael's little Rav 4 and headed North. Our first stop was Moon Beach. I had gone here a few days prior for a farewell of two of my colleagues and I really wanted Michael to see it.

When you walk into the basement of the Moon Beach Hotel, you see these gorgeous cascading vines from the top floor:

The amazing beach:

Now THIS reminds me of Hawaii:

Moon Beach is beautiful - here is Michael heading down towards the sand:

There were lots of secluded little areas:

After coming down the steps, there was a little hidden area that Michael went to explore:

Michael in front of the little pier:

Down from the hotel in a little alcove:

The mermaid lady:

Us by the ocean:

Me with the mermaid lady:

Behind the hotel were these great climbing rocks - what a perfect day to explore!

Our second stop of the day was down at Cape Zanpa. When we got there, the first thing we noticed was that there was a statue of some guy:

The lighthouse!

Michael coming up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse:

Me on top of the lighthouse - it was super windy!!

What a gorgeous view!

A fisherman on the rocks:

Heading back down the lighthouse:

The big shisa at Cape Zanpa!

What a great weekend! We finished the afternoon off with a quick trip to a local farmer's market and a delicious curry lunch at the Nepal Spice Kitchen :)

Cold Weather in Oki ... and an Earthquake

We had such high hopes for MLK weekend. We were going to go camping up on the beach at Torii Station, but the low tonight is supposed to be in the 40's ... yeah, I'm not a big fan of the cold especially when it is compounded with the wind coming off the ocean!! Soooo - with NO heat in our cement boxes (I mean houses), it gets cold! The kids even snuggled :) (You can't see the small space heater that is blowing on them) We also had a 5.3 earthquake last night! It hit about 90 miles off of Naha so our little cement dwelling was a'shakin! Guess we better get used to it - (we'll make that announcement when official orders are cut though!)

I decided to combat the cold with some sake. Because who WOULDN'T want to try sparkling fruity sake in a pink bottle?!?

Hmmm....

Interesting ... good thing there is beer in the fridge!

My view leaving work at Torii Station

Sometimes I have to remind myself that we live in a beautiful paradise ... and at other times it slaps me in the face (i.e. whenever I leave work through the back gate)!! I haven't taken this view for granted since taking my job with the Army ...

No kidding, I was in my car taking these pictures:

Breathtaking.

New Toes to Start the Year ...

They aren't my favorites (the girl seemed new) ... and I've had them for awhile (so there have been quite a few workouts which resulted in chipped toes) ... but nonetheless, here they are!

Mission Accomplished

We did it! We finished the puzzle before the New Years weekend was done :)

It's the little victories ...

Happy 2010!!

We had a great New Year's Eve - it was our best one on island!!

Here is me and Pigdog before we headed to the Howard's house:

Shelly explaining the "rules" for the night.

Chris (BN FRO), broke the rule first ... and had to take a shot and wear the stylish bow-tie:

after a while, the bow-tie couldn't keep up with who was the last one to have to take a shot ... somehow Jim ended up wearing it most of the night!

Shelly kept adding words to the "forbidden" list :)

Travis upset that he had to take more shots:

Eventually we all meandered outside since it was chilly :P

The CO enjoying a cigar:

then it started going downhill ... when the girls wrote out things for the guys to act out and vice versa in a game of charades. Here, Michael is acting out "brazillian wax" ... they actually guessed it!!

the best part of the night was enjoying the firepit outside ...

Happy New Year!!! May you have a healthy and happy 2010!!

This is the year we head back to the states ... WHOOP!!