Sunflower Festival 2014

This weekend was filled with so many simple things, but was one of my favorite ones in a long time. We shopped, we ate wonderful food, we went to a festival, we went on walks, we went on drives, we took the dog to the dog park, we watched movies and snuggled; all things that make my heart smile a little bit brighter. My favorite part was the sunflower festival I had been dying to go to. I have already said I love festivals, but mix flowers in there and I am one happy girl. The days leading up had been stunningly gorgeous, but Saturday started to get a bit gloomy as soon as we got to the festival. I was a bit disappointed, but it was still beautiful. I was able to get a bouquet of the sunflowers for only 300Y ($3) and a huge bundle of fresh spinach for only 100Y. I mixed some of it with coconut water and almond milk and froze it in ice cube trays for my green smoothies. I already can't wait for the sunflower festival next year!

Linking up with Leeann and Kimberlee

Nago Cherry Blossom Festival

I had been looking forward to the Cherry Blossom Festival since we got to the island. We went to the festival in DC last year and we were a little late to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. I had heard that the blossoms are one of the best things to see while on the island. I also love Okinawan festivals with the street food, games, and performances. The festival was great, even though I don't think the street food is as good as the street food in Thailand. I was somewhat disappointed with the cherry blossoms. I thought they had already bloomed and started falling, but I think that maybe they weren't all bloomed yet. We climbed up a million stairs to the top of the hill. We were so hot and sweaty, but the view of the island with the blossoms was so worth it. Hopefully we can get up North again in the next few weeks to see the blossoms in full bloom. 

Linking up with Leeann and Kimberlee

An Okinawan Festival

Even though Jake worked ALL weekend, I was able to stay pretty busy. On Friday night, my friend and I went to an annual event hosted by the spouses club on our base. Basically, it is a progressive dinner. We loaded a bus Friday afternoon and went to the first house, which was a New England theme. We had salads, clam chowder in cute little bread bowls, Mac and Cheese muffins, and drinks. Then we boarded the bus and went to the entree house where we had cider and a turkey dinner. We got back on the bus and headed to another house. We pulled up to the biggest base house I had ever seen (relative to what is seen here on the island, so still not that big). It even had a garage, which is unheard of for the base houses here. I then found out it was the commander of the division's house, which explained a lot. At that house we had southwestern style desserts. It was a lot of fun event and nice to get dressed up and get out. At the end of the night we opted out of the after party with the husbands, and ours just picked us up instead. We went home and played catchphrase, our favorite game.

Such a good idea for a party. Miniature bread bowls

cider on the party bus

I won this cute little ornament from the raffle

Saturday morning Jake had to go into work pretty early, so I slept in a bit and then made breakfast for our friends. They were nice to come back up later that day to go to the festival on our base with me. Each base has a festival throughout the year with food, games, and entertainment. Locals are invited to come and really love enjoy them, especially the pizza! Our base has a Christmas festival every year. There was so much good food, tt was hard to decide exactly what to try. I ended up getting a potato cheese ball and potato pancake. I also brought a shiskabab of BBQ home for Jake. We also played a shooting game which I was horrible at. I'm usually a pretty good shot, but I was struggling. It was supposed to be just a fun game, but the guy running it was kind of yelling at me for being bad, which made me even worse. Excuse me for not practicing my shooting very often. 

All of the kids were walking around with these cute things

reminded me of Greece!

Sunday Jake had to be at work REALLY early. I brought him and his coworkers breakfast. It was weird being up so early on the weekend, but I usually don't mind being up early. I got so much done, it made it worth it. I ran errands ALL day and got our Christmas cards printed and addressed. Since we were down to the wire with getting out pictures done and back, I didn't have time to order the ones I wanted and had to make our own. I like how they turned out, but would have liked the perfect ones I had picked out better. I also had a hard time finding envelopes to fit our cards and ended up using not very pretty ones. You win some, you lose some. I was just glad to have them done and on their way. When Jake got home, I made him breakfast for dinner since I had bought so much stuff for our weekend breakfast that he missed out on. 

breakfast for dinner and Christmas cards

It was a good weekend and I am so glad I have friends who are nice enough to keep me company, but I've got to be honest, I will be SO glad when Jake doesn't have to work so much. Our trip to Thailand at the end of the month will be very deserved and very needed by my hard working husband. 

Have a great week!

Linking up with Logan, Sami, Kimberlee, and Carissa

Cafe Gold Hall and Tug of War

Friday night we headed out to dinner at a nice place down the street we hadn't tried yet. It was a restaurant with lots of different small plates and sushi plates. We didn't know how much to get, so Jake ended up still being hungry when we left. Mcdonalds happened to be next door and we had been wanting to see what it's like, so Jake went and got a hamburger. It was pretty much the same as any Mcdonalds hamburger in the states. They did have quite a few different menu options, though.

Yes, that is a chicken and a hamburger together in one sandwich

After Mcdonals, we saw Gravity in 3D at the movie theatre on base. It was a very different and cool movie. I would recommend it if you haven't seen it. It was nice to have a typical date night. We are starting to finally feel like this is our life rather than something temporary, like a vacation. 

Saturday we had planned on going snorkeling but the weather wasn't cooperating. The day started to get away from us until Jake suggested we go to a cafe up north I had heard about and wanted to go to. We hopped in the car and made the 20 minute drive up north near another Marine Corp camp. We drove into the parking lot of a large, strange looking building. As we walked into the cafe, I realized this wasn't just an ordinary cafe. Every thing was made of wood. The tables, the stools, the floors, the walls, and all of the decorative structures. We paid 800 yen (around $8) just to get into the place. We sat at an interesting wood table and ordered lunch. We had heard they were famous for their taco rice, a very popular dish on the island. This dish was created due to the American influence on the island. It's basically a plate of rice with taco meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. Jake got the giant plate of taco rice and I got a steak sandwich. The food was amazing. Jake and I ate every single bite of our very large and delicious meal. 

Wood everywhere

Famous taco rice

After we were done stuffing our faces, we headed downstairs to where our map indicated the tour began. We are not quite sure what to expect. We walked right down into a limestone cave. There were stalactites/mites every where and lots of pottery and sculptures placed all over the walls. We continued our tour out back where the entire back hill we a beautiful garden. In this garden were tons of different rooms with different types of wood tables. It was like this place was made to have a giant party with different rooms, yet we were the only ones there. We wound our way through the garden looking at waterfalls and sculptures and then up through a few more different rooms. The top level was filled with tons and tons of bonsai trees. It was seriously the neatest place, but we still aren't quite sure exactly what this place is. 

After our visit to this interesting cafe, I made Jake stop at what I thought was a farmer's market on our way home. I was so excited, but it turned out to be a market full of American food products like Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Folgers Coffee. There was also this interesting thrift type shop with old American stuff. We were kind of confused so we left after taking a lap around the place.

We stopped at our neighborhood beach for walk and for Jake to scope out some fishing spots. 

We later went on a shopping adventure at the commissary and saw a guy out walking his bull. Yep, that's a big ole' bull just walking down the road. 

We spent the night enjoying the beautiful evening in our back yard and then facetiming our friend's back in the states who will be joining us here in January. We keep forgetting about this time difference thing and ended up waking them up at 6 am. Sorry guys! 

Sunday morning, Jake was needing a little slice of home so I made him biscuits and gravy. We then headed down to the capital city, Naha, for the annual tug of way festival. We were not sure what to expect, but as we got closer, we stumbled upon the rope in the middle of the road. It is the world's largest rope, so it took up almost one whole lane of the road! There was a parade down the main street, Kokusai, with dancers and drummers. We got there at the very tail end of the parade, but still got to see some of it. 

The streets were lined with vendors selling food. We tried some yakatori, which is some sort of skewer thing. We kept telling ourselves that it was chicken, but we weren't quite sure. 

Before the tug of war starts, there is a ceremony that takes place, uniting the two ropes together. There were so many people there that we could not see a thing that was going on. We could not even see the giant rope lining the street. We were supposed to volunteer with crowd control during the tug, but I wasn't feeling well after the weird stick meat and because of the large crowd and the heat, so we made the long walk back to our car to go get something substantial to eat. 

so many people

The beginning of the ceremony

We stopped at a delicious sushi restaurant where we ate our body weight in sushi and ramen and then headed home. 

Sushi Gen

That pretty much sums up our weekend, even though it is continuing into today and tomorrow since Jake is off. Tonight (it's late Monday night here) we had friends over tonight for a Columbus day cookout. it was nice to entertain in our new place and catch up. 

Linking up with Sami and Kimberlee