Cramming it all in

Suddenly it is July 1st!  Our trip is almost to its 1/2 way point!  Aside from the kids' terrific trip to Nags Head with Gaga, Mamama, Sallie, Joe, and Sam, we haven't even really done anything - what?! So the girls had things they have been wanting to buy during our time in the US, and we decided a shopping trip to Wilmington was in order.  Once we made it to the mall, Lucy decided she wanted to get her ears pierced.  I have been trying to get her to do this for a couple of years now so I told her it could be an early birthday gift and she was onboard.  Lucky for us, Claire's had same-day appointments and before she could change her mind, we got her in the chair! 

Fourth of July was crazy busy!  Currently Casper's is the only place to get gas on the Swansboro waterfront since Dudley's Marina is refitting gas tanks, so it is pretty much crazy around here from opening to closing.  The kids have been taking shifts down on the docks working for tips.  It keeps them busy and it is pretty good exercise for them to be running up and down the stairs ... AND they get to make some money!  I told them as long as they weren't getting in the way and the dock boys wanted them down there they could help out.  That left me and Gigi upstairs working the register.  Nanny was in the back office posting tickets.  It was a pretty good system we worked out. 

As soon as we closed for the day, I put the kids in the car and we headed over to Emerald Isle to celebrate the 4th with my best friend Stephanie and her family.  It was a pretty subdued celebration, but we did get some neighborhood fireworks and sparklers by the pool.  Given that we are all social distancing I am not sure I would have felt comfortable if there had been a huge crowd of people there!  My tolerance for large crowds has certainly dwindled as of late.

The next week started a summer enrichment program (SEP) that had originally been an in-residence camp at UVA, but thanks to COVID turned into a bunch of zoom meetings on Nanny's sun porch.  The girls begrudgingly fulfilled the obligation and they took great pride in telling both me and Jim that it was totally not worth it until magically it became not a total waste of their time.  I know it wasn't what we thought it was going to be, but we really appreciated the girls hanging in there.  

So here's something you don't see every day around sleepy little Swansboro.  Nanny took the kids out to eat one night and I met up with Stephanie down at a local restaurant for a drink.  We were sitting outside on the deck catching up when all of a sudden a trawler that had been aground earlier in the day became "un-aground" and slammed into the bridge!  The following day we got the rest of the story from the captain.  Apparently he had just gotten in the shower when he was surprised to feel the boat moving and by the time he got on deck he had already hit the bridge!  Talk about a rude awakening! 

Way back when I was working at the marina, I started a newsletter for the dry stack customers to give them additional information and to highlight upcoming events for the marina and also the town.  The newsletter featured a healthy dose of sarcasm, but the information within was pertinent for our customers. I started awarding "The Dry Stack Customer of the Year" at some point, although there wasn't an actual award or any perk other than bragging rights.  One customer was awarded the title two years in a row because he paid for his space and never brought his boat in for storage!  Well the newsletter is now defunct, but we still talk about the "DSCOY" from time to time.  But this year as far as I am concerned, the award is most certainly a lock.  We have a new customer who manages several Chick-Fil-A's and I asked if I could purchase a case of Chick-Fil-A sauce.  The kids LOVE it!!  They talk/dream about it.  Lo and Behold guess what is currently awaiting shipment to Tokyo?  That's right!  This is several hundred packets of Chick-Fil-A sauce, these are like gold in Japan.  Wonder how long they will last?

 

Finally the 4th of July is behind us, which means there is time to do some fun things after the marina closes for the day.  My nephew Ward was almost too happy to volunteer to take the kids tubing/knee boarding/skiing for a few hours.  I think he enjoyed it more than they did.  He definitely was good at making them wipe out!  It was AWESOME!

Sadly the big 3-person tube from years past was no longer functional so they had to settle for a solo tube.  It didn't matter to Ward.  He said he could toss one off as easily as three and then proceeded to do so.

Next they broke out the knee board or as we old people call it a Hydro slide.  I will say they have made some improvements in the design but it still makes my knees hurt just watching.

  

 

Earlier in the month Ben picked up a set of skis at a local thrift store for $7.50 and decided he wanted to learn to ski.  I remember my daddy trying to teach me to ski - it was horrible.  I also think I was a lot younger then 12 when he was trying to do it too.  I told Ben to keep his skis together and to let the boat pull him up instead of him trying to pull himself up and told him "Good Luck."  Darn if he didn't do it on the first try! He said he enjoyed it but likes kneeboarding more.  I also couldn't get the kids to deviate much past staying directly behind the boat.  Maybe next time they will start to venture out to the sides and then jump the wake and then maybe slalom skiing - that is where the fun really starts!

We haven't made it back to our favorite spot to pick up more shark teeth so Gigi and I decided to head over to Onslow Beach to see if we could find any.  Surprisingly the girls both said they wanted to go, even though it was early.  Thankfully the tides were in our favor and we were able to get there early enough one morning to look for about 1 1/2 hours before the girls had to get back for their morning session of SEP.  We found some, but not nearly as many as previous trips and sadly, no big ones. Sigh.

It wouldn't be summer in NC without Lucy having a birthday!!  Her 14th to be exact!  I think she has spent all but two or three in Swansboro - the lucky girl!  Her bed is directly in front of the AC unit and the balloons were flying all over the place but I was able to get the traditional balloons in the bed photos - whew!

We weren't able to celebrate with our traditional evening at Mac Daddy's playing video games, bowling and pool - thanks Covid - but we did manage to have a family dinner and cake! Happy Birthday Lucy!  You constantly keep us on our toes and we love you so much baby!

We are really getting into the short rows with our trip.  Just a few more days before we head back to Japan and still SO MANY THINGS TO DO!!  We decided to hit up the go carts at Mac Daddy's - mainly to get Ben to quit begging us to do it.  He, unbeknownst to us, had already done the go carts with Drew one evening after they had been skateboarding at the skatepark in Atlantic Beach.  Real Cool Ben.

After go-carting, we decided to go over to the Emerald Isle Pier.  Gigi and I usually do this at least once a summer but we have missed a few here and there.  Nothing like a walk on the pier with a Mt Dew slushy if you can make it happen.

On our last full day in NC we decided to go to Beaufort with Nanny.  It is fitting to go to Beaufort on this day, because it is Jim and my 17th Anniversary and he used to live in Beaufort, we had our rehearsal dinner here AND we spent our wedding night at a local B&B. Beaufort has really changed since the last time I was here!  We hit most of the highlights.  I didn't take them into the Back Street Pub but I got some pictures of them in front of Clawson's - where Jim and I met 23 years ago on that fateful blind date.  Lots of new restaurants and shops lining the waterfront.  It is amazing! People for the most part were trying to social distance but not enough were wearing masks.

On our way home from Beaufort, I called the rental car place in Jacksonville to confirm that I was picking up the rental car and was told that the reservation had been canceled due to lack of vehicle availability.  WHAT? Ugh.  Plan B was to drive Jim's car to Richmond and rent a car there.  We were able to leave Jim's car at Lindley's house and at some point in the future his parents would take it to their home and then rendezvous with my parents so the car would eventually make it back to Swansboro.  I must say that added level of stress was not welcome.

So the next morning we FINALLY got on the road (several hours late) and made our way to Richmond.  We were meeting up with all three of Jim's sisters and his parents along with two nephews and Mary Catherine and David's beautiful baby Madeline!  It was awesome to see everyone and to finally hold the baby!  She is sooo cute!!

We really enjoyed seeing Jim's family even though it was a pretty quick visit.  Sunday morning we got up and drove to the Richmond Airport to pick up our rental to proceed up to Arlington to see some friends for a few hours before heading over to spend the night at a hotel near Dulles.  We woke up super early on Monday to head over to the airport.  While we were sleeping Jim took delivery of our Household Goods shipment all by himself.  Well I guess that isn't entirely true.  Wesley helped out.  Yoshi on the other hand, got in his yurt and was antisocial.

Our flight from Dulles to Dallas was at 7:00am so we got to the airport a few hours early in order to check all of our bags and have enough time to get through security.  We had plenty of time as the airport was essentially EMPTY.  Eerily empty.

Not quite the case in Dallas however.  Dallas was hopping.  Pretty much everything was wide open.  Everyone was wearing masks but the social distancing wasn't really happening anywhere there was a line.

Once we arrived in Tokyo we were held in a separate area until we cleared medical, immigration and customs and were only released when our driver showed up to transport us to Yokota Air Base.  Any dependents traveling from the USA to Japan are required to take a COVID test and then ROM (Restriction of Movement) in an approved facility for 14 days onboard Yokota Air Base.  Since we now live on Yokota we were approved to ROM at home with some conditions.  Since Jim was also living in our house we had to keep separated from him and wear a mask when that wasn't possible.  So Jim moved into Ben's bunkbed and Ben moved into our room for 14 days. Jim says the bunkbed was actually comfortable, I'm not so sure!

The pets were super excited to see us!  Well I think Wesley was excited for about 3 minutes.  HA!  Sorry Wesley!!  Yoshi took a few days to warm back up to us.  He was sleeping in the bed with me before the 3rd day - it was like we had never left.

Jim had done a really good job of getting everything out of boxes before we got there so now we were in charge of setting up the rest of the house.  Since we couldn't leave our house for 14 days anyway, it was pretty good timing.  The first weekend of our return, Jim headed to Ikea to pick up the furniture we had looked at way back in June.  He is such a trooper!  I can't believe he was able to get all that stuff in our car!

This is the fastest we have ever been able to get all the boxes out and rooms situated in our lives!  I guess there are positives to having to ROM after all.  On day 10 of our quarantine the boxes from Mom arrived from NC (the one with all the Chick-Fil-A sauces and all the other stuff we bought but couldn't fit in our suitcases)!  You would have thought it was CHRISTMAS!!!  About 5 minutes after this photo was taken all that was left was packing material and two empty boxes!  

On the last day of the month (still a few days left in our ROM) I get this alert on my phone.  We never got anything like this while living in Okinawa.  Sure there were Typhoons and Tsunami warnings and the occasional earthquake, but in the 10 months we were there I have never gotten this!  We didn't feel any tremors but it would have been nice if they had given us a time frame for this alert.  Kids were still asking me about this several hours later.

Resetting the Move Clock - AGAIN

I know I have been talking about the move to Yokota for what seems like FOREVER but suddenly it is June the 1st and I am so not ready for this move - in any way, shape, or form! 

We have seriously enjoyed ourselves here in Okinawa. We met so many awesome people and had a fabulous 10 months here.  I know we are only moving up the street so to speak and maybe this the "Rona" talking, but we fell hard and fast for Okinawa and all our friends.  Leaving here is going to leave a mark for sure -- I am so not ready for the movers.  But before they show up, we need to give Lilly a little love.  She really excelled at her first year in High School!  It is not easy to move before your freshman year, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her!  Good Job Lilly!

"Moving day" has arrived.  Every move comes with its own challenges and logistics and you would think by now I would have this moving thing down to a science.  Not even close.  There are just too many unknowns to count on anything going according to "plan."  Ready or not, the crates are here and they must be filled.

    

This particular move requires quite of bit of coordination for temporary lodging in Okinawa after all the stuff is packed up.  The first night is easy, we are just scooting down the street to stay at the Geiger House across from the Butler Officer's Club in Plaza Housing Area.  The kids were super excited to check it out all the amenities (bathrobes, etc.) and I must admit it has a pretty sweet view of the East China Sea.  

We only get one night here kids, soak it up.  The next two nights we stayed at the WESTPAC Inn on Foster.  This is Ben's dream location.  He was able to hang with all his Camp Foster peeps all day.  In fact once he gets up and has breakfast he is gone and doesn't roll back in until dark.  Our friends hosted us with a farewell cookout so all the kids could get together one last time before we leave.  It was awesome for them all to be together but also heartbreaking to know that it could be the last time they are all together (sniff sniff).

The next night we are back on Plaza staying at the Day House.  The view isn't as nice, but it is cozy enough. 

Bye Plaza!  It was fun while it lasted

Our last night on Okinawa is spent on Kadena in one of the few pet-friendly rooms since we will be flying out of Kadena on the Patriot Express the following morning. Jim got some intel about checking the big bags the day before, so instead of showing up with our mountain of bags (we are only moving 600 nautical miles away - why so much luggage you may ask? Read on and you will see..).  The important piece of this information is you have to check the bags before 5pm because that is when the ticket counter closes.  At any rate, we took full advantage of the pre-check. 

Our last night on island was not as much fun as we wanted it to be, but I did have a mini celebration of drinking my last souvenir from my trip to the Maldives/Sri Lanka. I am hoping these are available on the mainland.  Tasty!!

Wesley has the advantage misfortune of flying previously.  Poor Yoshi has no idea what is in store for him.  Luckily he does get to fly up in the cabin with us instead of down in baggage area with Wesley, but I am not sure if he thinks that is much of an upgrade.  At least it is only a 2 hour plane ride Yoshi. Just wait until you have to fly back across the Pacific Ocean - ugh.

 

We made it to the airport the next day, blissfully unencumbered - hahaha.  Since we had pets we were told to wait until right before departure to clear security so we basically had the terminal to ourselves.  Finally it was time to board.  Jim and I had seats together in the front and the kids had Yoshi a few rows behind us.  Since we were the first of our Oki friends to fly during this move season, we took some pictures of our seating arrangements.  Seats were comfortable and everyone is wearing masks.

Again, it was a pretty short flight for us.  We made a quick stop in Iwakuni, even though no one got on or off.  Everyone gets off at Yokota for a pet potty break and usually a crew change before the long flight to Seattle.  I believe we were the only people who had Yokota as their final destination.  So once we collected Wesley and our baggage we were transported to the TLF (temporary living facility) that will be our home for the next week.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Big Rock Tournament is in full swing at home.  A friend of mine sent me this via messenger.  While MJ was not on board it was nice to see the marina had his boat tied up.  

We decided to ship my car from Okinawa to Tokyo instead of selling it in Okinawa, and that ended up being one of the best "move hacks" we have discovered.  Our express shipment is delayed until end of June and our HHG aren't scheduled to arrive until middle of July.  We are supposed to be in the TLF for a week, potentially two depending on when our house is ready -- so what we need versus what will be provided is a tricky puzzle to solve.  We decided to pack the car with items that we would need right away along with Hazmat items the movers wouldn't pack. Somehow an essential tote I thought was going in the car ended up in the express shipment.  It was full of sheets, towels, shower curtain and a few pots/pans.  Not sure if this will be a problem or not down the road.  

My car was available for pickup at the port 3 days after our arrival at Yokota.  Jim and I drove down together following a set of hand written directions, google maps and Waze.  Surprisingly it wasn't as complicated as we feared and it only took about 1.5 hrs.  The biggest challenge was locating the correct pier and communicating with the locals as to why we were there.  Thank goodness for "google translate."  Of course, we have no idea if what we thought we were asking is what we actually were asking - HA!

A glimpse of the Tokyo skyline from the road

Every day Yoshi reminds me that he is NOT Oscar and I need to stop calling him by that name ... but they do share a love for making my heart lurch and a knack for hiding in the most unlikely of places.  On this morning Yoshi took a page out of Oscar's playbook by hiding up in the underpinning of the sofa.  Lord, that was a fun 10 minute grid search - NOT!

When Yoshi isn't hiding in the furniture, he continues to make great strides in his interaction with the kids.  I hope our being away from him for a month doesn't mean a setback in their relationship.  That is right - we are heading to the STATES!

 

While we were in the TLF, Wesley, when stressed, would get in his crate.  I am not sure if he felt safe in there or if he was just trying to lay claim to it.  Get out of my space Ben!!

Jim took me to the Post Office so I could see where our box is located. Much to my delight, our box looks just like the old PO Boxes in Swansboro!  I remember my Granny Casper walking up the the Post Office with me to teach me how to open the box.  Talk about OLD SCHOOL!  

We got a walk through the new house and the kids are excited to get moved in and put their rooms together.  We are going to need to purchase a few things - mainly a bed for Lucy!  Last year, she and Ben shared a room and we couldn't find a bed that would work in their room.  Lucky for us there is an IKEA nearby.  We decided to head over and check out what the options were - but of course you can't visit IKEA without buying something!

 

We were able to talk the kids into holding off on buying any furniture since we are still in temporary lodging, but it wasn't easy.

Jim's aide is a contestant on The Rock's "Titan Games."  The first episode has him battling his brother in order to advance.  Spoiler alert - HE WON!!  It was crazy! Noah is just the nicest guy.  Of course the show was filmed earlier this year before all the pandemic stuff so I am sure everyone here already knows how he ends up doing, but we have no idea so we are super excited to watch!

We have been in Yokota about a week and are trying to get oriented, but now it is time to head to the U.S. for about a month.  The kids and I are super excited, but also sad to leave Jim to move into the house with just the pets for company.  We weren't sure if our trip to the states would be cancelled or not due to the travel restrictions coming into and out of Japan, but it looks like it is going to happen!! Jim took us out into town for dinner to celebrate.  Of course the restaurant he wanted to go to wasn't open but we found another which is right outside one of the gates and as an added bonus, as we were driving around we got to check out a little bit of what will be available within walking distance of our new home.

We got everyone up super early the next morning.  Jim wasn't able to drive us to the airport - it is about 2 hours away depending on traffic - so he hired a car.  We still aren't 100% sure the flight will go so fingers crossed!!!

Last group shot for a while!

Jim sent me this along with the caption "there they go"

We made it to our gate - looks like this trip is a GO!

The airports we travelled through - Tokyo Narita, Dallas and Dulles - are completely EMPTY!  Nothing is open with the exception of one coffee place/store per section. The planes were also way under capacity.  Once the doors were closed we were free to spread out as long as we stayed within our section of seats.  No moving up to business or first class - dang it!

We made it to Virginia!!

Someone lost a wheel - small price to pay to get to come home

We continued on to the rental car counter and shortly after loading up our bags, Ben hands me his phone with this on the screen.  Guess I know where his priorities lie. Ha ha!

Speaking of priorities, Lilly said the first thing she wanted to do was go look for shark's teeth.  NC had just had a ton of rain dumped on them so the water in the ICW was extremely gross.  Thankfully brown water doesn't inhibit the ability to find shark's teeth.  

Now the fun really begins.  We aren't technically required to ROM (restriction of movement) since we aren't going on any military installations, but we decided it made sense to limit our exposure to people and wear masks continuously for the first 14 days.  It is a small price to pay to be home.  NC is crazy.  We don't see anyone wearing masks.  And EVERYONE is using their boats.  The marina is typically busy Thursday through Sunday but now with so many activities closed down lots of people are choosing boating for recreation.  Now the marina is busy pretty much seven days a week!  It is a good problem to have, don't get me wrong.  We still have some reconstruction debt from Hurricane Florence.  

This guy was heading to a Trump Rally in Beaufort 

My first cousins and their families are staying at Emerald Isle for a week, so Gregg and I decided to swing by for a socially distant visit on the beach.  It was great to see them but by far the best part of the visit for the kids was checking out their one wheel.  Of course Ben now wants one - BAD!

Typically the kids spend a week with Jim's parents in Victoria.  This year we weren't able to make that happen.  They did however get to spend a long weekend with them at Nags Head.  Jim's sister and their cousin Sam came along as well as cousin Joe.  The kids reported they had a ball!  So thankful we were able to spend some quality time together.

My dad used to hang lizards on his ear lobes.  He also used to hang them from our ear lobes.  I made the mistake of telling the kids about this a few years back and now every time they catch a lizard they attempt to get it to hang from their ears. Sometimes the lizard is willing, most of the time it isn't.  Today Ben got lucky!

Produce shopping in the states is glorious!!  After 10 months of having a limited over ripe/over priced selection at the commissary I was floored at all the different apple choices, plums, peaches and melons!  A melon this size would set you back at least $5.00 per POUND in Japan!  I have already told the kids we are going to crank up the garden when we get back.  

Jim has several cousins that live in the Wilmington area.  We have tried for YEARS to get together with them and this year we finally made it happen!!  The kids and I drove down to Hampstead for dinner and a little pool time.  It was great to see them.  I am thankful we were able to meet Jim's nieces three precious children. They were so cute!!

How can it be that our trip home is now almost 1/2 over.  Feels like we just got here!!