We are back!

We have made it back to the states. It was a long trip with a couple of ups and downs. Alex and Rex went on the AMC flight from Kadena while ESPN and I had to go commercial out of Naha. But come to find out while waiting for my ride to Naha that ESPN and I were both scheduled to be on the AMC flight. We all made it to Seattle at the same time so we made our connection to Phoenix.

We got off the plane in Phoenix and were met by my parents, Shelly, Paula and a giant welcome home sign. Alex and I just had to laugh.

Going Away Dinner

This evening we went to my farewell dinner with my SHES co-workers. We went to Jack's Place, oh how I love some tempa-yaki. It was great to have a fun evening with friends.

Typhoon Kompasu

Alex and I have survived our first typhoon since coming to Okinawa. We went 2 years without a typhoon hitting the island. There were 2 that came close but we were on vacation both times. It rained for 2 days straight and I had lake front property. No real damage down here but Okuma got hit pretty hard. Trees uprooted and mudslides but nothing too bad.

Alex is home

Alex finally made it home. This was one long and very annoying deployment. He had been delayed 7 times in the past 3 weeks.

I had one of the spouses from the squadron come a take pictures of the homecoming. So a big thank you to Susan Fink for the pictures.

Tea Ceremony

Michaela set up a girls night. We went on the tea ceremony tour through ITT. It was pretty similar to the one up in Kyoto that Liz and I went to over spring break. This time it was in a room with lights instead of a room at night with one candle. Liz also would of liked not having to crawl through a little door to into the room. Instead of block of sweet bean paste they gave us a ball of sweet bean paste covered in mashed rice. You eat this before the tea since traditional green tea is not sweetened. I'm still not liking the texture.

Happy Birthday Alex !!!

Happy Birthday!!! We will go out when you get back and get that lobster.

The 4th of July

I was invited to a BBQ at Torii Beach. I spent all day at the beach eating good food and getting a tan or slightly burnt. Got to watch out for that Okinawan sun. The ribs were excellent, thanks Matt. When the sun started to go down so I headed home to watch the firework from my yard. Since Kadena was shooting the fireworks off across the street from the house. I like not having to worry about parking or the traffic leaving.