Beach Weather

This past weekend the weather was rather wonderful, so we decided to head to our favorite pool spot the Renaissance Hotel. This place has everything, indoor pools, outdoor pools, a beach, water slides, free arm floats for the kids, a delicious snack bar and locker rooms with free shampoo, conditioner and body wash. In short it has everything one needs to have a wonderful day in the water. We got there and lathered up in our sunscreen and hopped in the pool. It's been a while since Gabriella has been swimming and she hasn't lost any of her skills. She was diving underwater within the first few minutes of getting in the pool. The weather was fantastic, not too hot or cool. The sun was out for a bit before a nice cloud cover descended to keep us slightly shaded. Gabriella worked hard on her swimming skills and getting acclimated to the water in general. We took a brief break for lunch, I had taco rice, Greg had takoyaki and Gabriella had soba. It was clear from the silence at lunch that we were all very hungry. Our friends joined us after lunch and we spent the whole day in and out of the water. After showering and changing we headed back towards home. We stopped briefly for dinner at Sushi Zen, the food was delicious as always. It was a wonderful family day.

Babies Update

I've been to a lot of prenatal appointments in the last few months, however I realized that I haven't updated about them on this blog. This is a picture of the twins at 25 weeks. They are both doing well and weigh almost 2 pounds each. They are still growing at the same rate, which is great news for us. The doctors both agree they are looking good developmentally, there are no signs of any physical deformities or any other cause for concern. They are very active, especially in the evening and after any meal. I've gone swimming and they don't really seem to like or dislike the water, although personally I don't feel them as much when I'm in the water. Being in the water is great, I feel weightless and it's nice to take the stress off my legs and back. I'm looking forward to lots of trips to the pool this summer. Greg and Gabriella have both witnessed the babies kicking my stomach and while Greg is impressed Gabriella is not. She is excited about helping me when they are born, so far she plans to rock them and change their diapers. We will see if those statements hold true.

Macau

On Tuesday we once again went on a tour, this time it was to the island of Macau. This island, like Hong Kong, was just recently handed over to China. Before it was leased by Portugal. Many of the buildings there take their influence in architecture from the Portuguese. Many of the buildings we passed during the walking portion of our tour looked like they could be in Europe. Macau is not famous for it's architecture, rather it's certainly not most famous for that, it's famous for gambling. Macau is home to many many casinos, it's turning into its own little Las Vegas. In fact our tour guide said that it passed Vegas in the amount spent at it's casinos.

Our tour started with a ferry ride across the foggy ocean to Macau island. When we arrived we met Cisco our tour guide and quickly set off. The first stop was a giant statue next to the bay, it's a beautiful woman facing the city of Macau. Our next stop was a temple, the oldest in Macau, while we were there we bought some delicious egg tarts. They were fresh and delicious and as our guide said the best outside of Portugal. Our next stop was the Macau tower, we rode a very tall elevator up to the observation level. As we stepped out on the tower, we were treated to the sight of someone jumping over the side. The tower offers a freefall type attraction that allows you to jump off the building or walk around it on a sky walk. There was quite a line of people waiting their turn. As each jumper jumped there was a huge burst of applause. Our next stop was lunch, we had a delicious buffet lunch of both Portuguese and Chinese specialties. After lunch we went on a walking tour to see a church facade which has withstood many typhoons, high winds and weather. As we continued the walk we passed places where movies were filmed, including a famous scene from Indiana Jones. We wrapped up our tour at a casino owned by Jackie Chan. I spent 100 Hong Kong dollars trying my luck at the machines. I was completely unsuccessful, but had fun playing. Gabriella and Greg found a park to play at and before we knew it we were headed back to the ferry.

Once back in Kowloon we found a delicious pub where we chose to eat dinner. Greg of course got beer, I got ginger beer and Gabriella had a soda. The food was delicious and we all felt satiated on the walk back to the hotel. Once we got back we packed our bags in expectation of leaving early the next day. Our flight home was uneventful and as we headed back to Okinawa we smiled happily at our successful last big vacation before the twins arrive.

Happiest Place on Earth

Monday morning was our Disneyland day and of course it dawned rainy and cool. We were met at the hotel by the shuttle bus that took us to the park. Hong Kong Disneyland is significantly smaller than any of the other Disney parks we've been to. Although it was rainy it was still the happiest place on earth. We got there almost an hour after the park opened and our first stop was the Emporium to buy an autograph book for Gabriella. After we got the book we set off to go on a few rides and find the characters. Our first stop was Tomorrowland, this land contains Space Mountain, Autopia, Buzz Lightyear and the Astro Orbiter. Greg and Gabriella were able to ride the Autopia and Space Mountain together. The rest of the rides all three of us rode as a family. Our next stop was fantasyland, where we rode small world, winnie the pooh, tea cups and dumbo. We even watched the golden mickey show. In the center of Fantasyland there was a wonderful garden where all the characters line up for autographs and pictures. The last land to visit was adventure land, which is home to the Jungle Cruise, the Lion King show and a few cool water play areas. We managed to do almost every single attraction and show with the exception of the train. We stayed until the park closed at 7:30 and were able to watch a wonderful firework show. The whole day was great even though the weather was pretty miserable, Gabriella got a lot of great signatures and pictures with the characters, I got to peruse all the cool shops and food places for snacks, and Greg once again proved that amazing planning and strategy can help you to see almost every single thing at Disneyland in one day.

Hong Kong Island

After a very good night sleep in our comfortable room we headed out early for a quick trip to Starbucks for breakfast before getting on our tour bus for an island tour. Hong Kong is made up of many different islands. For example we landed on Lantau Island but are staying on Kowloon island. The bus travelled through the complicated tunnel system towards Hong Kong island. The tour was half day and we saw a lot of landmarks. We started at a beautiful temple, then headed up to Victoria Peak. To travel to the peak we rode a vintage cable car up the side of a mountain. As we head up we traveled at a 45 degree angle, luckily we had a few seats to sit in or it could have gotten a little crazy. Once at the top we admired the beautiful view of the harbor. We managed to grab a few souvenirs from the Hard Rock store before getting back on the bus. Our next stop was the floating city of junks and sanpans. We boarded our own junk and were able to float through their city. Greg had been on this same boat ride 12 years before and he said that there were significantly less boats in this small protected harbor. When we asked the tour guide why she said it was because the yacht club has moved in and demanded the boats be moved away from the docks so they can use them. Another reason most are gone is a serious typhoon that hit the harbor wiping out a lot of boats. The people that were displaced were moved into government housing. After our boat ride we headed to Stanley Market. I'd been given a special job by my father in law Sam when he heard we were traveling to Hong Kong. He sent me on a mission to find Greg Norman shirts at a small stall inside the sprawling market. He gave me what I thought were vague directions that turned out to be spot on. We found Sam the golf shirt seller with ease, his dog was sleeping on the floor just as my father in law had described. The shop owner even remembered Sam even though it had been years since he'd seen him. We got the shirts as well as a picture of Greg with Sam the stall owner. It made us both happy to have successfully completed our mission. We boarded the bus and headed back to our final destination a jewelry shop. Since it was mother's day my parents had sent me to Hong Kong with money to buy a ring. Gabriella helped me select a beautiful jade ring. While I was ring shopping Greg selected a beautiful necklace for me as a 10th anniversary present. The necklace contains a diamond dragon which spins in a gold circle, it symbolizes my chinese birth symbol and the spinning means that good luck will always come to me. I walked out of the jewelry shop with two new beautiful pieces of jewelry.

After the tour we arrived back at the hotel to change clothes and headed out to my special Mother's Day surprise. We walked to the hotel next door, The Peninsula is a very high end hotel which has a special High Tea. We waited in line for a table and soon sat down to a scrumptious tea service. While Greg and I enjoyed tea Gabriella sipped daintily on a vanilla milkshake. The food was delicious, my favorite were the salmon tea sandwiches, Greg's were the scones and Gabriella's were the cookies. It was really absolutely glamorous, a fantastic way to celebrate mother's day. After tea we changed again and took the ferry across the water back to Hong Kong island. The trip over made me a little sick and the heat and humidity made walking around uncomfortable. We only made it a few blocks before I needed to find a place to sit down. We finally found a spot in the convention center, Greg and Gabriella took a look at the view while I relaxed for a few minutes with a large cold bottle of water. After returning to Kowloon we watched the evening laser show from the waterfront, it was very impressive. By the time we called it a night we were all tired.

Hong Kong Express

We managed to take a short vacation before I become too uncomfortable to travel. Our choice of destination was Hong Kong. It was a short plane ride from Okinawa, only 3 hours. The flight was international so we got some delicious food on the plane. I think it was the best food we've received on a flight. We arrived in Hong Kong in the early evening and easily found our shuttle to the hotel. We stayed in the same hotel Greg and his family stayed in 12 years ago, the Y.M.C.A. Yep that's right, it's fun to stay at the YMCA. The hotel has the smell of pool as you enter the building but that's the only way the hotel is different from any other. We checked into the room just in time to see the laser light show across the water. We were able to view the show from our room and listen to the accompanying music on the radio, the tall buildings flashed with lights and lasers. After the light show we went out in search of dinner. We'd read in one of the travel magazines that a hotel near us had a New York style deli. We found the deli and quickly sat down to dinner. It was the best Ruben Sandwich I've ever had. Granted it's the first one I've had since moving to Japan, it was made with real corned beef and pastrami, and it came with sweet potato fries. The best part of the meal was the Doc Browns Cel-Ray soda that I had with my meal. I use to have that kind of soda when I was little, it tasted even better than I remembered. After dinner we headed back to the hotel because Gabriella was falling asleep at the table. Once Gabriella and I were all tucked into bed Greg headed out to find a pub. He was eventually successful but by the time he got back to the room he was soaking wet. Our first few hours in Hong Kong had come to a close and we rested up for our next big adventure.

Cinco de Drinko

This year we were able to introduce our Okinawa friends to our notorious cinco de mayo party. Our evite list swelled to over 50 as we readied ourselves for our biggest party yet. The food was purchased, the beer was chilled and the tequila was waiting to be shot. Our friends arrived bearing trays of delicious desserts and were greeted by a table full of salsa, guacamole, chips and all the makings for amazing quesadillas. The only hinderance was that we only brought one quesadilla maker, but we countered that by offering all the makings for delicious burritos and tacos. We blew out two blenders while attempting to make frozen margaritas. I blame the "rock ice" which clearly is made out of rocks. But everyone sallied on and had their margaritas on the rocks. The delicious food and fantastic party lasted well into the night. The pinata for the kids was a huge success, but like the ice was clearly party rock. It took an adult to finally break it open. We all gorged ourselves on mexican food and tasty pastries until the night wound it's way to a close. A few friends stayed late into the night and did all the dishes while I put my feet up on the couch and rested. It was a fantastic party but kind of bitter sweet. I would say it will be our last big party here on Okinawa, as I get more pregnant my ability to hostess and cook will diminish. All the friends we shared our party with this year will either still be on Okinawa or in other duty stations far from where we host the party next year, but they made this year an amazing success.

Dragon Boat Races

Every year on Children's day Okinawa hosts a series of Dragon Boat Races. This year a few of my friends were on teams. Each team consists of 32 members all paddling their hearts out in an attempt to be the fastest of three boats. The photo on this page is of my friend Rachel and the Women's Navy team. This team raced against the single Marine's team and the Army women's team. They won by a huge margin showing once again the Navy team's superiority. These teams have practiced for weeks ahead of time, some getting up at 5 in the morning to stand in the frigid waters and practice their paddling. We went 2 different days to the dragon boat festival and watched a variety of teams race for their shot at glory. My personal favorite was the Orion Beer team who got ready for the race by downing shots of sake. Another memorable team was the Starbucks team who all wore their green aprons. The surrounding carnival had a huge stage which featured a variety of performers, rides and games for the kids and lots of places to buy food and beverages. Gabriella and Greg shared a huge bowl of soba while I sampled some dumplings from the Orion tent. Gabriella played a few games and won an inflatable animal of an unknown variety. The teams would walk through the crowds after their races were won celebrating their victories or brushing off their defeats. It was a wonderful experience and we are please we were able to cheer our friends to victory.

Another tooth lost

Well obviously I haven't posted in a while but I'm just going to pretend it's a week ago. We went out on a northern island adventure to quite a few spots. First we headed to 21st century park in Nago. It's a spacious park with beach facilities, miles of walking paths and various sports fields. It was some sort of kids sport day so there were kids in a variety of uniforms walking and playing throughout the park. While we were there Gabriella bit into her sandwich and loosened her bottom tooth. This tooth is located right next to the other one she lost a month or so ago. It's been loose for a while but I wasn't expecting it to come off in a sandwich. It didn't actually come off in the sandwich but it was loosened enough to require a little daddy assistance to remove it before she accidentally swallowed it.

After the tooth extraction we headed up to the Pineapple Park for some ice cream. Greg and Gabriella both got pineapple soft serve while I went the more traditional root and got a sugarcane flavored cone. The cold ice cream soothed Gabriella's mouth and put her in a much better state of mind.

The next stop was Expo Park which is the home to a variety of museums and the aquarium. This time we went to the nautical museum. It featured a wide variety of boats from the pacific nations, including Samoa, New Guinea, Polynesia and others. It was quite fascinating to see how these past civilizations lived so closely with the sea. We were fortunate enough to be in time for the planetarium show. Although it was narrated in Japanese we were able to get the gist of the presentation and all of us enjoyed reclining in the very comfortable seats. After the museum we walked through the aquarium. We've gone quite a few times since we've moved here, we purchased annual passes. I have to say that each time we go there is something different. This time I broke down and purchased Gabriella a plastic folder to hold all the free information cards they give out throughout the aquarium. I have yet to put the cards in the folder but the intent is there.

On the drive home we stopped at the Manza sub shop for dinner. It had the most delicious sandwiches we've had on the island. The bread was fresh and soft. The fillings were all freshly prepared and the french fries were amazing. Gabriella had coconut soup and loved all the vegetables in it. With full bellies we headed home tired and content from a fun day out. When we arrived home Gabriella slipped her tooth into her special pillow and low and behold the tooth fairy gave her 200 yen for her second tooth.