Bombs Away

Well, this week started out with all the potential that every week does....a wonder of new things to explore, new people to meet, new possibilities.... however, it quickly BOMBED BIG TIME!

It all started with our Tuesday.  Michael's first choice of restaurant was closed.  No big, we had a back up.  But we couldn't find the back up.  You aren't going to believe me when I tell you that the roads here do NOT have street signs.  It makes it quite difficult to go places you have not been before, especially since most every building looks the same.  We ended up at American Village with the thought that with so many places to choose from we'd have a good meal.  Nope, we at Depot's Garden (I think something was lost in translation).  Our first bad meal on Oki.

The week continued with me either overcooking or just plain making something that tasted terrible for dinner.  I like to think of myself as a decent cook, but my experiments with Japanese soba and gyoza and chocolate pumpkin cookies did not agree.

On a brighter note, Michael did get qualified for his new job.  That means he can stand a 12 hour watch all by himself without anyone teaching him what to do.  Of course I am proud of him, but I'm really not looking forward to the 5 times a month he has to do this.  If he has night watches, he's asleep the day before and sleeps the day after so Grayson and I loose almost 2 days with him.  Call me selfish, but this is shore tour and I want to spend time with him.

Speaking of Grayson, he's in Daddy mode.  He wants nothing, but Daddy all the time.  Which kinda hurt my feelings this past Saturday.  For Grayson's first year of life, we've tried to get his picture professionally taken every 3 months.   We hired a photographer to do some 1 year pictures at a local park Saturday, but it turned out to be the Daddy and Grayson show  :(   We should be able to see the proofs this Thursday so with a little luck I'll have some to post next week.

On Memorial Day morning, we decided to let Grayson play in his pool in the front yard before we headed out for a picnic at a local waterfall.

The hose water was a little icy, but he didn't seem to care.  Guess that rules out my theory that he doesn't like the ocean because it's not as warm as the pool.

After a few splashes around the pool he wanted to go for a walk down the street to meet some of the neighbors on the top of the hill.  Turned out to be a really nice guy with great tips on what to do around here.

So we packed up our picnic basket and headed out for our weekend adventure.  By the way, Michael's mom gave us this basket when we first got married, but this was our first time using it.  It was nice to have her with us on Memorial Day.

We went to a place called Todokori-no-Taki, which means "Roar of the Falls" in Japanese. We forgot the battery for our camera so I'm showing you the photos from the Okinawa hai website where I got the idea to go from.

Looks pretty nice, right?

Turned out to be more of a trickle than a roar or a falls.

The mosquitos where out so we literally got out of the car, looked around for 5 minutes and left.  We stopped at one of the many beach spots along the highway on our way home and had our picnic beside a dolphin statue.  The sun was setting and I thought that we'd get to see a pretty sunset and have a silver lining to the trip.  The sun ducked down behind some clouds and was gone before anything pretty could happen.  Seriously?????

At least we had another week together as a family.  Thanks to all of those who have lost loved ones over the years in service to our country.  Thanks to all those who risk their lives everyday to keep us safe.  As long as I can kiss my son goodnight and lay my head on Michael's shoulder how bad of a week could it really have been?