He's
on
the
Right
Side

Doesn't it look weird to see Matt driving on the right side of the car? At least for those of you stateside...

Mike doesn't care for being a "Back Seat Driver"....




Matt is done with the classroom part of Driver's Education and has been trying to put in the time behind the wheel. It isn't easy here...being able to drive only on base sure limits the driving opportunities!

We often pull over right after coming on to base and let Matt take over. If we have time, we let him drive in circles around base. (oh so thrilling!) On this day we actually spent a good chunk of time over on Kadena and let Matt drive for quite a while. Kadena Air Force Base is the only base big enough to feel like you are really DRIVING. If you drive out around the flight line/runways, you can do a good 8 to 10 mile loop.

You can see the size differences on the map. Kadena is on the top. Camp Lester (hospital and where we live) is just below it where it says "Chatan Town". Camp Foster is South of Lester. From our house (at the back of the base) to the gate of Lester is just over 1/2 mile.

December 1, 2008

Housing is Going Green!

Well, kinda...
These are the "Towers" on Camp Foster- right near Kubasaki High (Matt's school). They have been working on the outside for several weeks now- looks like they are repainting them. It is quite a job to put this netting up- there is a complete structure of scaffolding for the workers underneath.

I can't help but think of how weird it must look on the inside...looking out through all that green!

When they do exterior work on buildings here, they always put the netting up. I'm not sure if this is because buildings are so close, the fact that it is often breezy, or if there is a safety reason....
I know when our neighbors in Anacortes painted the outside it made a mess at our house- our crop of apples that year all had to have paint scrubbed off.

Anyway, just thought this was interesting!

Sunday, November 30

Our Second Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated a family Thanksgiving...and cooked our huge 26+ pound bird! The Turkey was excellent- even if it did take 6 hours to cook. It was a real workout pulling the turkey in and out of the oven- I recruited Mike's help when I flipped it over after the first hour.

The skin looks burnt, but it is just where the sugar in the sugar, mustard & bourbon marinade caramelized. We had all our favorites- mashed potatoes, rolls, peas and pearl onions in white sauce (my favorite!), cranberry sauce (which Matt grudgingly shared with the rest of us), and, of course, gravy and stuffing (Mike's only required dish). I did forget to cook the butternut squash- but we can cook that tomorrow and have with the leftovers. (At least I didn't forget it in the microwave or oven- I completely forgot to even start it!) Oh well, what's Thanksgiving without forgetting a dish??

Here Mike once again practices his carving skills...with an eager David awaiting the first taste of the turkey.

I did realize there were are lot of things I wish I would have brought with me...and a few things I thought I had but didn't. My turkey platter, my turkey cooking rack, more serving bowls...Cooking stuff is not easy to find here. Angie has promised to show me a local cooking store so I am looking forward to that! I had to borrow her springform pan for the pumpkin Cheesecake I made for Thursday's get together.

Today was and early day for the boy and I. We got up before 5 am to go down to the Exchange on Camp Foster. All weekend they were giving out $20 gift cards to the first 100 people in line. We went down on Black Friday- but at 4:30 am we were about 200th in line. We ended up staying even though we knew we wouldn't get any gift cards- they were having other give-a-ways too. We FROZE in line though! Felt like we were back in Anacortes! Very glad we had thought to take down a blanket- David and I huddled in that (Matt just went back to the van to warm up). Someone said it had dropped to 54 degrees- and there was a stiff wind blowing to cool it down even more. I know, 54 degrees does not sound cold- but for here it is freezing!

This morning was much better- it was much warmer and we were about 40th in line so all three of us received the $20 gift card when they opened at 8am. They were also giving out Scratcher Cards and Matt won a $25 gift card! He was very excited- David less so... David really couldn't complain though...he won 2 $5 gift cards on Friday. I just won a free haircut (about $7) and free french fries. Didn't do any shopping this morning- just went for the special give-aways. Friday morning we did finds some good deals...including a serving platter I could use for my Turkey. The big demand items were the 1 Terabyte external hard drive for $129 and the notebook computer for $349 (that was tempting even though we didn't need one!). Matt, of course, shopped for clothes...the Nike apparel was 40% off and he was looking for sweats (it is cool enough now we are all digging out our fleece and looking for warm stuff to wear).

One thing we all agreed on regarding Thanksgiving...it is all about the left overs!
Yummm! (and no cooking for several days- yea!!)

November 27, 2008

Our Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We were invited to Peter and Melissa's house and were thrilled to have the opportunity to spend the day with friends.Peter and Melissa live just a few miles from us out on the Town. They are just steps away from the Seawall. This is the view from their front balcony. It was great to see their house- we haven't seen any of the off base housing before today. Melissa calls it a "pencil house"- very thin and tall. On the ground floor is a two car garage (drool!!) and a mud room. Up a flight of stairs to the living room/dining room/kitchen/bathroom. Up another flight of stairs to the master bedroom and a bedroom/den. Up yet another flight of stairs (yes, this house has LOTS of stairs!) which takes you to two more bedrooms. Definitely "Western Style Housing" verses a traditional Japanese house.

Mike had the honor of carving the turkeys. (yes, that's Matt being a goof in the back!)

Not sure how many people where there, but Peter and Melissa had lots of people coming and going all day. Everyone brought oh so much yummy food- especially Angie's mashed potatoes and Ray's gravy.

Lalon and Ray enjoyed the peach cobbler (with ice cream and whip cream, of course!)Joe (and Melissa too) was nice enough to take our picture before we left. As you can see, it was a bit breezy out! Really felt like fall today- cool, breezy and a bit of rain.

We still plan on having our own Turkey Day- I have a 26 pound bird in the fridge defrosting. (and it is taking it's taking its time doing so...think I may resort to a sink full of cool water to get it going...) The Commissary didn't have a whole lot of choices- either a 25-26 pound Butterball or a 14 pound off brand turkey. Well, if I'm going through the trouble of cooking a turkey, might as well make it big!
The boys are already planning on those turkey sandwiches with lots of cranberry sauce...

As We Give Our Blessings

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


We give our THANKS for our Loving and Supporting Families- we love you all!

We give our THANKS for all of our giving and generous friends....we don't know what we would do without each and every one of you.

So many people who hold such special places in our hearts.
We have much to be Thankful for- Today and Everyday.

May your Thanksgiving be filled with Family, Friends, Love and Blessings (and lots of good things to eat!).

I Guess Some Things DO Change!!

We are all jumping for joy!!
Gas Prices Finally Falling...

Well, the word is out, and spreading FAST!
AAFES has announced that starting November 28th (Black Friday) our gas prices will drop from $4.06 a gallon to $2.433 a gallon! YES!!!

Here is the announcement from AAFES:

Gas prices fall Friday in Japan / Okinawa

OKINAWA – Motorists will pay less at the gas pumps in Japan and on Okinawa when AAFES service stations open on Black Friday, historically the busiest shopping day of the year. Midgrade unleaded gas will sell for $2.433 per gallon, due to a reduction in cost AAFES pays for fuel through the Defense Energy Support Center .

DESC, the most economical fuel supplier available to AAFES in Japan and on Okinawa , will lower their wholesale cost beginning Dec. 1, and AAFES is happy to pass along the savings to customers a few days early.


May it be a long time before we see these costs again...

Putt-Putt Golf

A Challenging 18 Holes

For weeks we have been eying the miniature golf course on Kadena saying "We have got to give that a try sometime".

After spending the morning at Forest Adventure Park, we had to back at Kadena for Matt to have is first session of "Behind the Wheel" Driver's Ed. Since we had an hour or two to kill, David, Mike and I decided to hit the golf course...putt putt style!

It's a cute little course just behind the Schilling Center and next to the Commissary and Exchange. Best of all, it's free of charge! You just have to go in and check out the putters and golf balls.

David tries to line up a challenging put. I think all three of us managed to get our ball stuck underneath the rhino on our first attempt (or two or three) at this hole.

That is one hungry gator! Too bad it is so hard to "feed" it! I showed the most "skill" (translation- "luck") on this hole...I think it only took me two tries to successfully shoot the gut...This was fun to keep trying tho..we got a lot of laughs from this hole.
This was another difficult hole...you have to hit it just hard enough for the ball to stop under the canon and drop into the little ravine which will run the ball down to where the hole is. If you it the ball too hard, it goes past and it's even harder to make it from the other direction.

For a "Kids" course, this thing was very challenging....



These flowers were in the middle of the course, and are all over the island. I love the way they look before the flowers open all the way- and the contrast between the the spikes and flowers.