Sunday, 3 November 2013

Southeast Botanical Garden or "Ann feeds the world's largest rodent"- November 2

We had terrible rainy weather for Halloween and the day after.  We saw a bit of sunshine on Saturday so Bill and I grabbed the chance to go walking...boy did we go walking.
Bill has been wanting to go to the buffet lunch at Southeast Botanical Gardens.  The gradens have been closed for 2 years (right after we got here) for upgrades.  
So the bit of sunshine was a great motivator.  We thought we would grab lunch and go for a walk around the gardens.
It was hot, about 85 and super steamy.  The water from the previous rain was just steaming.
Well, take a look at my hair throughout.  Between the the steam and my baseball hat hair, I was not a very good hair model.  But I had a great day!
I got to feed the largest rodent on the earth...




Here is my first (of 3..maybe 4) plates.


We were lucky to get a seat by the window.  The view was beautiful.



At this station, you cook pork strips and vegetables in broth. 







I chose, green tea ice cream, melon sorbet, and vanilla.  I never had melon sorbet before.  It was so refreshing and light.  The vanilla ice cream goes right into my coffee.  I am not much of an ice cream eater. But when I do, it is coffee ice cream.  At buffets, I just get a bowl of ice cream and pour a little coffee on it.  So good!


OK, then I had another tray of desserts for fun.  I am not much of a dessert eater.  I am a salt eater, we are different.  I would much rather have a bag of BBQ potato chips and sour cream than any cake, any day.  But buffets are fun to take a bite of everything.  Bill and I shared this tray.
Sesame ball in the upper right slot, bean paste and sesame paste in the bottom slots.  They love "jelly" here, that is the orange looking thing above the bean paste.  It is great in the summer because it is cool.
I liked the pastes, neat flavors.


The winner for us was the sesame balls.  They were filled with bean pastes.  The balls were rice paste. Great texture.  As you can see, we went back for seconds.


 We went for long walk around the park for about 2 hours after lunch.  Just kept circling.

Butterfly trees









Kids love to climb on the cow sculptures.  No idea why they are being led by a cow on a surfboard wearing glasses.  Who wears glasses when they surf?








Bill likes to take pictures of flowers for his mother...





Then we saw the goats, and you can feed them.
You may remember from earlier posts, Bill is not an animal lover.  So he just takes pictures.  They were so cute.






After I ran out of food and started out the pen, one of the goats got mad at me and rammed me in the butt.  With his horn.







More flowers for Bill's mom...





We had to wait an hour before the spider monkey and capybara cages open for feeding and playing.  So we kept walking and watching the clock.  The spider monkeys were co cute.  I couldn't wait to feed them.
The capybaras were hideously cute.  They are the largest rodent in the earth.


See how they have webbed feet.  And their "fur" was like a porcupine.  Really stiff.

They kind of remind me of the "Rus" "rodents of unusual size" animal from the movie, "The Princess Bride"….
























We left the park after walking for over 2 hours.  On the way home we saw Kirishi Dam and stopped by for pictures and a walk...That is part 2.  Good time, we will come back

Saturday, 2 November 2013

Bill's Bday

Bill's Birthday is October 29.  We decided to go to American Village to our favorite curry place for dinner.  All of American Village gets decked out for Halloween.  Lots of fun.





Caroline smiling at the fact we can taunt Jared and Patrick for missing out...



After dinner we got home and Caroline and I still had a surprise for Bill.  Apparently I bought Bill this exact same cake a couple birthdays ago.  Could you resist this cake? It is so cute. From a cute Japanese bakery near our old house.


Bill and I are binge watching "The Shield."  Great show that ended a few years ago.  Caroline got Jared up on Skype, then we brought in the cake...

Surprise!


Jared sang along from Skype...Skype is just a great thing...




Caroline and Jared are always cracking up...


Happy Birthday Bill!

Caroline Cross Country Meets

Caroline was really excited about trying out for volleybal this year.  She spent a lot of the summer practicing.  Tryouts were the first two weeks of school.   She did not make the team and was really down that day.
The next day she sent me a text that she was joinging the cross country team.   We were really proud of her.  Many of her friends were on the volleyball team already.  Joining cross country allowed her to really open her friend network.  Not making the volleyball team was the best thing that could have happened to her.
We are the Kubasaki dragons.
They practiced every day after school.  Which means a 5k after school everyday.  She came home  starving, eating everything that she could see.  
Here is her second meet at Futenma Marine Corp Base.
The same schools meet every week:  Kadena HS (Air Force), Okinawa Christian, Kubasaki HS, Zion Christian.
They don't compete against each other.  They compete for their PR (personal record).


Before the race

Before the race

Here is a nice view of the base.  The kids like running at Futenma because there is not as many hills a the other bases.  Cross Country means lots of hills.
Futenma is the air base for the USMC.  This is the base that has all of the controversy in the news.  The protestors want the base away from the middle of the island. It is noisy and they feel it is dangerous.

Before the race

There they go...


Caroline heading around the last corner and over the last hill toward the finish.
95 degrees and really humid...


Caroline, Dana, and Jonas (who is very fast)

After the meet


Caroline and Dana

Caroline finding out her finish time!!
This is Caroline's thirs meet at Kadena Air Force base.  This is the amazing hill they have to climb..
92 degrees and super humid.  The sun here is really intense too.


Then up this...



Here comes Caroline down the last hill and back up toward the finish line.




The kids are really encouraging, those who have finished line up near the end and cheer each other on. All of the kids do it for all of the teams.


Go Dragons!


After the race...



Great race!!