RVirgin trip to Leavenworth, WA!

30.  My new age.  Yes, I am 3 decades old.  and I LOVE IT!!
Totally embracing this new number and excited to see what the next 10 years will hold.
Of course, this was a big birthday, and I wasn't sure what my husband was planning.  If you know me, you know that I'm not too keen on big surprises.  When I watch a suspenseful movie, you can bet I've already seen the plot.  No surprises.  When I read a book, I usually scan through the end before I start reading it.  No surprises.  I've been known to explore our bank account history before Christmas.  No surprises.  Of course, the usual gifts and things are fun and exciting.  I surprise myself sometimes with how excited I become when I am caught off guard.
So to the point...
I WAS SO SURPRISED!!!!!!
Adam told me he had to take a buddy to pick up his car downtown.  A 30 minute trip, or less.  So after an hour went by, I wondered where he was!
Finally, I hear a strange rumble out in the driveway...
He rented us an RV for an extended weekend trip to anywhere I wanted!!!

This is our first time RVing, RVirgins...but it's a much more feasible venture than taking our baby and toddler on a backpacking trip (our first choice sans kids)...so, I did some research and the closest place, in the mountains, in fall...Leavenworth, GA.  This is a quaint little Bavarian village ...touristy, but charming, that sits in the heart of the Cascade mountain range of Washington.  It just so happened to be Oktoberfest that weekend, so I expected booked RV parks and sloshed crowds double fisting their beer garden mugs.  We went anyway, and were pleasantly surprised!!!

 First of all, the leaves were changing colors, and there was a recent cancellation at one of the local RV parks so we pulled in to find that it was located on a gorgeous river, winding its way through the mountains.

We literally backed the RV in and could see the flowing water through the back window. There was also a mountain range across the river.  My husband is a bit of an extreme athlete.  He climbs mountains, and he loves trail running.  So when we arrived at the RV park, he was oogling the mountain.  I urged him to go trail running and he was determined to make it to the top.  So the next morning, he was gone for a few hours and he called me from the top.  Luke and I ran down to the river to see if we could find him...but he was WAY too small and far away to be seen.  If you check out this picture, he was at the very highest peak.

He ended up bushwacking his way back down and his legs were so scratched and bruised!!  But what an exciting accomplishment!  The thrill of spontaneous adventures was definitely our trip's theme.  

 I am so in love with this photo of Luke.  It looks like he is watching the river flow and pondering life's deepest meaning.  In reality, I told him there might be a bear in the woods.  For the rest of the trip, he was searching for the friendly bear.  (mean Mommy)
Another cool experience!  A random tropical bird flew out of the woods and landed right on my arm!

 Just kidding.  But it was very random.  A woman staying at the RV park had a pet bird.  A beautiful, colorful and completely domesticated

MACAW

 It was around 7 am and we walked down to the misty river to do a little stretching.  (yoga is our morning routine usually).  There was a woman with this bird on her shoulder!  She saw us walking down and asked if Luke would like to hold the bird.  He held it for about a minute and then basically said in his sweet little voice...Get this thing off of me.
So I held it, and to make it even better, the sweet bird owner offered to take my camera and get some photos of us with her bird.  How awesome is that?!?!

I'm so glad that we decided to take our trip to Leavenworth.  Adam knows me so well...For months I have been saying how badly I want to go to the mountains, be in the woods, go hiking, go to the river...Being close to nature brings you closer to each other, allows you to listen to your heart and enjoy and cherish the little things.  It just makes us happy!!  No matter how much stress we have in our lives, when we can get outside, even for 30 minutes, it's so refreshing.

I forgot to mention that this BEAR wandered up to the RV!!

 We took a drive through Icicle Rd.

This was our route.  I researched a little bit and found an amazing hike...

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/enchantment-lakes

Adam and I are going to come back and do this weekend loop, backpacking with our tent in the backcountry without the kids!  Maybe for our next anniversary.  It just looks too beautiful to pass up.  The drive was breathtaking, so I can't even imagine how amazing this hike would be!!

 We got back to the RV and had our own personal concert of Adam originals.  He's so dreamy!

And this picture pretty much sums up how amazing it all was.  We were so high on life and loving on each other.  We decided that we aren't exactly 'RV folk'  ...but the boys will get older and easier to take on camping trips.  This was great for us with them being so little.

Leavenworth is so beautiful!  We made more great memories...

Yoshi Hachi, Okinawan food and Health

One of our favorite places to eat in Okinawa was Yoshi's.
A traditional sushi joint with the most delicious and fresh sushi EVER!
We have officially become sushi snobs.  Since moving to Japan, I realize we will never have sushi like that again.  And at the cheap prices that we are used to!
However, when we first got to Japan, we were so excited about the food!  I mean...Asian food is a favorite!  But we quickly realized that our expectations were WAY off.  Of course, the sushi was the best thing in terms of a traditional Japanese dish;  But there were a lot of things that we just couldn't get into.

 Take off your shoes when you get in, and sit on the tatami mats on the floor!

Soba noodles, Udon, Yakinuki (although we did like Yakitori)...there were many strange brothy soups.  One in particular, which I'm not sure of the name...with a true pig's food floating in it.  No thank you!!!!  They love their pork.

But the people of the Ryukyu Islands have the highest life expectancy than anyone in the world!  Why?!
For one...the average American serving size is about triple what we would get in Okinawa.  They eat very little carbs and processed foods.  In fact, many toxic ingredients and pesticides that we find in various processed foods in the US are banned in Japan.  This was a comfort when shopping at the local markets because I usually had NO IDEA what I was getting!  haha! 

Also, we would see some old ass people just doing their thing in town...walking/hobbling around or riding around on these little motorized carts, even riding bicycles or scooters.  They are very active and it continues into their old age.
Another thing and probably the most important part of their health, which they take very seriously...is maintaining a calm, positive mind. In all aspects of life.  Before work everyday the employees will stretch, yoga and meditate before beginning their work day.  When a woman becomes pregnant, she stops doing anything with any amount of stress and focuses entirely on the health of not only her body, but also her mind.

A few months after we arrived on Okinawa, I was leaving a store (it was on base, but there were many Japanese locals who worked on Kadena), and this kind Japanese lady was at the cash register.  In front of me was a woman with a tiny baby...the woman was ooh-ing and aaaah-ing at the baby.  Ironically, that very day I had found out that we were pregnant with little Luke, our first baby.
So I got up to the register, and the lady commented to me about how precious babies were (in her broken English.)
I was too excited to hold back, and told her that I had just found out I was pregnant.  Her eyes filled with tears, she literally walked around the counter and held my shoulders and told me 'Oh, you going to be good mommy.  If you happy, the baby happy.  Love is in you.'
OHMYGOD...I'm pretty sure I was changed. And my respect for the Japanese people and their cultural difference shifted.  It brought to my attention how they approach life and how different it is from myself and anyone else I know.  Over the next 3 years, many of these moments presented themselves...I feel so full that I was able to see and learn first hand from such a truly wonderful culture.

Seawall stories

Along the East China Sea was a long, paved pathway called the Sea Wall.  A great place for running, biking, strolling, scuba diving was also popular there and there were restaurants scattered around the densely packed neighborhoods.

These photos are a culmination of trips to the seawall during our three years there.  I love the golden hues of these photos because the seawall is where we always went for the most beautiful sunsets on island.
These photos tell a story...
I don't know these two, but they really epitomize Okinawa.

Fireworks on the beach for one of their Japanese holidays.  So cool!!!

These sunsets are burned into my memory.  I love this photo...check out the 3 rain storms over the ocean!

Looking back

If you look back a few posts, you will see how our journey became very infant oriented...obviously so did our lives. 
I will post some of the highlights of life with a baby in Japan as a military family.
Looking back is surreal.  What an adventure we had!!!

First of all...check out this snail in Okinawa.  The snails there were so huge and apparently poisonous.  We wouldn't let our dog go near them.

Here's a photo I took while testing out my new Nikon D7000 camera.  As a birthday gift last year, I was able to add a 50mm lens to my arsenal.  Look at the detail!

 This was a hike we went on testing out this backpack carrier.  I am so in love with this photo of Adam and Luke.  I want to blow it up and frame it.  Same expression?!

 Every hike that we went on in Oki was full of curvy tree roots, big leaves and palms, heavy canopies.

Zampa Point

 

This is Zampa Point, a peninsula on the Western coast of Okinawa.  The very tip of the peninsula is formed with rocky cliffs, parks and a beautiful lighthouse.  We strolled from the beaches of Zampa, all the way to the point.  When we reached the lighthouse, the sun was just starting to set.

 We sat on the edge of the cliffs and watched the Japanese fishermen shimmy along the rocky cliffs...dangerously close to the edge; the bait they were using was as big as my hand, the water they were casting into was a deep deep blue.

The cliffs had an eerie look...there were dark caves where the water met rock..

The ocean is SO overwhelming in size, beauty, depth, emotion...we sat and stared out over the East China Sea, watching the fishermen cast over the cliffs, watching the sun set behind the lighthouse.  It was then that we knew we needed to live in Yomitan-Son..an area of Okinawa just south of this point.  We signed on an apartment yesterday!!

Hermit Crab Beach

Hermit Crab Beach is what Adam and I named the secret little beaches on one of the Eastern Peninsulas of Okinawa.  We found this beach by accident, and we only saw one other person strolling the beach while we were there.  It was a secret beach!  On our hunt for White Beach, we followed the coastline and curved our way through farming fields on tiny little roads, and finally one of the roads dead ended.  There was a stairway leading down through the thick canopy of tropical trees.  We saw the white sand, and the formations, shells, and hermit crabs were everywhere!  We took pics, climbed the rocks and went for a dip in the gorgeous waters of the Philippine Sea.  We named it Hermit Crab beach because you could literally look around and see 10 hermit crabs crawling along the shells...some were so tiny, you couldn't see them until they crawled across the sand.

This will be a great place to snorkel when we get all our gear!

We had a great Sunday here.