Sizzling Anniversary

 Dan and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  I know, I'm pretty impressed myself.  To celebrate, we went out to dinner. We are unromantic and I'm okay with that.  Dan took us out for Okonomiyaki, which is my favorite!  Unfortunately, the closest one we know of is a do-it-yourself.  We have done that before, but not with great results.

This time, we had the benefit of prior experience, and we you-tubed a video on how to do it right and it came out perfect!

We prefer Hiroshima style with the noodles.

Dan, weilding the spatula with good effect. 

I know it looks a mess.  It kind of is.  But it tastes delicious!  A couple more times here and I'll be ready to try to make it from scratch for you. 

My finished product. 

Yes, I was quite pleased with myself!  And it tasted wonderful!

Okinawa Trip: Monday

 Monday morning we drove the hour back down to Camp Foster.  I wanted to go by Plaza Housing, so we did that.  I was able to find my house and that was really neat.  We drove around a bit but there was little that was familiar, aside from the house and some of my close neighbors.  The weather was drizzly and rainy, and we drove down to see the "American Village" that had been built since I had lived there.   It was raining, so we didn't look around too  much.

The rain stopped about the time we got back to the cabin, which was good.  We needed nice weather for our grand adventure!  At low tide, we planned to walk out to a fun-looking cluster of tiny islands. The weather wasn't "nice" exactly.  It was a breezy 68, but it wasn't raining and the water was not cold, and we had islands to explore.

So we did!  And it was just as awesome a it sounds.  Low tide was at 2:15, so we waded out at 1:30, and it was waist deep on me.  Dan piggy-backed Rylee and Delaney clung tightly to my hand.  Callie walked and Marian just swam.  We had a good time exploring and collecting shells and I made us head back at 2:15 on the dot.  I did not want to get stuck out there when the tide came in.

Tuesday we visited Kadena and the thrift stores and then drove back to Naha, where we flew back to Fukuoka and took the Shin back to Iwakuni.  No pictures of that because it wasn't very exciting.

The entry gate to Plaza.

 That's my house!  I lived there!

 And it looks exactly the same.   It is up for renovation in the next few years, so that's nice.

In American Village, the girls found a fun shop with these excellent stuffed animals.

So they all had to pose that they were being eaten by them.  I love Delaney's face here.

They are silly girls. And they make me laugh. 

That is the cluster of islands we wanted to walk over to. And the tide is down. 

Off we went! 

Okay, maybe it wasn't really thrilling, but it was cool to do it. 

Marian wanted a photo here.  I love the deadpan face! 

Callie's Heroic Pose on the rocks.  Exploring was fun. 

Walking over to the next little rock island. 

Rylee sure is cute. 

 And she still lets me take photos, so that's why you get more of her!

Eventually we all moseyed over to this rock island. 

Marian walked all the way around it.  Apparently it was really rocky and there were some big crabs that were cool, but scary. 

Only Rylee would take a selfie with me! 

While collecting shells, we tried really hard to not steal any that were inhabited.  Callie did get a lovely collection of homeowners though. 

They were a lively crew, but we had to leave them behind.   

Starting the hike back. 

There's Callie, swimming along.

And  here is the goodbye picture.  This is the view from Naha Airport.  

Okinawa Trip: Sunday

 Sunday morning we were up and out the door at 8.  With traffic, it is an hour to get to Camp Foster, so we wanted plenty of time to get to 9am church.  But there was no traffic on Sunday morning!  We had more than enough time, so we swung through Camp Foster to drive by the schools.

Then we drove to church.  Wow!  Everything is so different than it was 22 years ago!  But the church is the same.  I don't remember it being that big though.  It was neat to see these places, even though I recall very little about them.  There was a Linger-longer after church and we were invited to stay, so we did so with great delight.

After a lovely lunch we went back to our cabin at White Beach and several of us went down to walk along the gorgeous beach.  It is soothing to the soul, I have decided.  And it gave a glorious sunset.

Adam and Miranda- did you go to Zukeran?! 

Here I am, at my old High School!Who'd have thought?!  Kubasaki looks..... I don't know!  I think I have blocked the memory, but it looks the same and very different.  

I did sneak a picture inside the chapel.  I miss having real pews. 

Me, at the front of the chapel I use to go to. 

The much more familiar back entrance to the church. 

Down at the beach, with Callie posing on the rock. 

And Marian must do it too. 

She cracks me up! 

Callie and Rylee. 

Dan and Rylee. 

Callie made a friend. 

It was very cute. And a little shy. 

Rylee wanted to bring it home. 

We found this on the beach and HAD to poke at it. 

It was a very long (dead) snake. 

So pretty!  And can you see that speck in the sky?  A helocpotor flew over. 

Delaney had much fun practicing her gymnastics on this balance beam. 

These two make me laugh.  

And a dazzling gift from God.  I love it.

Kyoto: Sanjusangen-do Temple

The Sanjusan-do Temple was our second stop on Saturday.  Sadly, no photos were permitted inside so I can't show you what it is most famous for.  The temple is gi-normous and took a good 15 minutes to circle inside.  There ate 1001 wooden statues of goddess of Mercy.  I was less impressed with them because they are identical- no creativity at all there.  However, the sheer number is rather impressive. Plus there were other statues depicting buddha and those were all very different and fun to see.

The grounds around the temple were lovely and fun to stroll around.

Rats, I just realized these first photos are from the Torii Inari Shrine.  Meh.

Too much trouble to move it to the other post, so yeah, this belonged with the pari Shrine pictures.

As does this.  I thought this was funny- traditional kimono-wearing couple taking selfies.

I love that the bathroom felt the need to give specific directions on how to use it!

Okay, on to the pretty temple grounds....

It was really cool to see so many people in kimonos. And cute to see them taking pictures of each other.

This is the short end of the temple, and looks much smaller from here.

Dan, hamming it up in front of the.... rock.

Pretty shrine.

The ceremonial bell.

This was a shrine dedicated to babies that cry in the middle of the night.