Hi There, I'm Aviva!

Yeah, I figured you thought I'd forgotten about this blog - but I haven't! Bear with me.

Catch up time - things are good. Busy with work. Craig's fine. Mia's working hard in school and playing piano, I'm thinking she might try out for swim team but not if she isn't into it. We're using weekends to do some exploring despite the fact that it's still hot as blazes outside. But when the typhoon winds aren't blowing, it makes for amazing skies... as you can see from our recent trip up north to Hiro's Coffee Farm!
About 1 1/2 hours' drive north is this little gem. I read about it on Okinawa Hai! and had to see for myself. What a hidden little paradise for the coffee lovers!

What.... I said farm, right? There were chickens. Mia was fascinated. This guy was just hanging out under our table. Very friendly, even when Mia decided to pet it.

Now just MENTIONING Mia petting chickens reminded me of this:

Pardon the quality - they're screen shots from an album on Kodak gallery from October of 2004 at Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center (aka "Nate's Butt Farm"). That is Mia. Carrying a chicken. A poor defenseless small and fuzzy chicken. Who, surprisingly, did NOT peck her eyes out. Many of you reading this blog didn't know Mia when she was 3, so here she was - in all her long-haired cuteness.

Onward to Mia (and BOTH Craig and I!) in the present day! Enjoying our time at Hiro's Coffee Farm. Hiro himself took this shot - he offered, and as he took my camera he lifted it with a surprised face and said, "Whoa, big camera." No kidding.


We got macro tubes. For those who don't know, these are cylinders that attach between the camera body and the lens that extend your focal length. It allows you to focus in to details of things MUCH closer (like flowers, bugs, water droplets...) - so we experimented, and I think these are quite nice.

One of my favorite flowers - particularly for its incredibly delicious smell - the plumeria.


Of course the Hibiscus.

And some bouganvilla.
Here's the kid with her dad. She enjoyed a couple of cookies and an OJ while we downed a fantastic mug of iced coffee. (as you can see here, Craig's is already empty)
The inside ceiling was lined in burlap coffee bags.
Here's the menu. We knew to bring a cooler with lunch food because there's not much food on the menu here... but that was quite alright with us. Mmmmm...

We bought a small bag of freshly roasted beans from Hiro, and he brought it in this cute paper sack. Craig snapped this interesting shot, I'm pointing out a photo in a magazine to Mia in the background.
This is a milk canister as far as I can tell (or cream). I just thought it was cool.
Here are some young seedlings. Hiro told us that the 1000 plants he harvests from on his farm are 20 years old.
Here are some new young beans on a 10-year-old plant:
Neat, huh? And here is Hiro with Mia & Craig. What a sweet man, very appreciative - and definitely doing some good business. By the way, we tried the coffee this morning - and it's fantastic. Though the atmosphere up north while sipping iced java on a hot day is EVEN better.

A few more photos from the nearby beach to come - soon, I promise - more of Mia (for you, Mom) because I know it has been a while!

I'm Back - Much To Say!

I still exist - really I do! More pictures for you from the last - jeez, almost 10 days? Sorry.

We went to Kurashiki Dam the weekend before last, which was very cool. It was WINDY (as you will notice from our kid's wild hair in the pictures. The signs have pictures so that they're universally understood. We realized they were also very funny, and our witty child with the sharp sense of humor was posing up a storm when we said, "Do something funny".


Don't you dare leave your doggie poop here!
Ok - so she didn't pose like she was holding a fishing pole...
Having some fun in the middle of the street. Yes, I did have to move from my lying down position in the center of the road several times during these shots.


This was my fav - TOTALLY Mia's idea. (the "no swimming" sign in the background)

Holding back her hair because of the wind:

The bridge out to the mystery building in the middle of the water next to the dam (you can see the dam on the right):

Some pretty water lilies on a pond next to a croquet course (they call it lawn golf or gate ball!):
Headed back across the dam/bridge:

I like this one - just some lone interesting tree on a green green lawn.

Ok, so some stuff has happened since then, but nothing I've photographically documented. Mia's parent/teacher conference was this week. Not surprisingly, she's thriving in kindergarten and is a real leader in her class. She has a strong personality, but avoids conflict with other strong personalities - so that's encouraging. We are very happy with her progress and her development. We were talking, and even in the past 5 months we've been here we've seen a real change in her. She's growing up - she's oh so smart - she is just a great kid. We're very happy and VERY lucky.

On that note, I want to mention that not everyone is as lucky - my friend-by-blogging, Edith, and her husband Trinity are now in Hawaii after only a brief time in Okinawa. Their son, Diego, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia this week, and they immediately left to begin treatment at Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu. We are praying for all of you, you are at an amazing care facility and I'm so very glad that you found out when you did.

Edith is so incredibly brave, honest, and helpful to others - she is blogging the experience on her site: http://senoritamommy.blogspot.com. I was in tears reading her post today...any parent probably would be, but I'm so very happy that he's getting such great care and so much overflowing love. And that his mommy & daddy are there to be with him and hold his hand, sweet baby boy. Edith, I am here to do or send anything - ANYTHING you need. Just say the word. Please let me know what would make things easier for your family. Craig, Mia and I wish you all the best and hope this story continues in every positive way it can.

Last but not least - the 7th Communications Battalion USMC Birthday Ball was last night. We got ourselves all dolled up and schlepped up to Camp Hansen for a 650-person party!


Thanks for taking a couple of pictures, Anne. I don't have any from the ball itself because I brought my small camera and it took pathetically blurry pictures. Suffice it to say we had fun enjoying the company of friends/coworkers, and decent food. Not great, decent. The ceremony was mercifully short. The drinks at the cash bar were mercifully cheap. And not so merciful was the amount of people that someone saw fit to put into this ROOM! We were packed like sardines in there. Craig said they're the biggest battalion on the island - and it showed. I had full body contact with the people on either side of me at my table. I had to squish my arms together to cut my meat. It was rather crazy. We left at about 9:30, got back and had a drink with the Neatherys who were watching Mia, and then came home to crash. Very very fun.

Thursday thru Sunday

Ok, been a few days again - already!

First of all, I'm happy to report, that after a layaway mishap we found the one and only Weber Spirit 210 on the island and I put it together this week. Finally - I can grill my dinners! Back to steak and seafood - I couldn't be happier. (Thanks, Mom - that cover finally was put to use!)

Thursday I met a few moms at a children's center not too far from home - it was fantastic! Big park area with roller slide and zip lines...

Here's Parker enjoying the zip lines - Mia (who quickly developed a Parker crush) in the background.
Parker's little brother, William. Yes - I swam in the pools of those blue eyes and lived to show you the photo....
Eli rollin' right at me!
Parker taking on the slide on his belly.
Oh goodness... and then there's Yukari. Her folks will definitely need to keep this girl under lock & key!
So since it was gloomy out, we thought the backup plan would be that the center also has an indoor part; complete with a room for toddlers & babies, a big library with some chairs and tables (even if the books were in Japanese, Mia & Parker were fine with it!) and a gymnasium. This is where the kids tried to work that hula hoop:
Really fun morning!

Friday night we went to Banyan Tree (an on-base restaurant) to have pizza. On the recommendation of a Jersey dude from Asbury Park who Craig works with and said that's the best pizza here. Well, it was ok - I'd eat it, but it's not what I'd run for if I was craving pizza. Frankly, I guess I'd just keep on craving pizza because I haven't found anything great yet. I AM hopeful - the Neatherys have a favorite place that we'll definitely try - and it might be the only place I'll go for pizza from then on.

Saturday Mia played in a soccer game and had lots of fun.
And then we headed up north for a drive. We found ourselves on Camp Schwab - the northernmost military installation here - and they had cottages at Oura Wan Beach. These were taken at the beach below the cottages. As you can see - gloomy cloudy day - WINDY too, but it was so nice that it was not hot! Here are a few gems - the rest can be found here.





Can you tell by this smile that she's slightly tired of cheesing for the camera? Not surprising.

Saturday night we went to Somchai again - this time I worked a picture of my green-lip mussels...
Oh my goodness. Everything else came to the table and was dug into so quickly I couldn't take pictures. Besides, I couldn't be bothered to turn on the camera when it smelled and tasted so fantastic! I'm drooling again just looking at this picture.

Anywho, that's the haps. Chargers lost - pathetically - to the Vikings, and now I'm watching THE game - Indi vs. the Pats - GO INDI! (However, let the record show that I do think Brady is one of the best looking football players ever.)

The Long Weekend

It's Tuesday. I'm sorry I made you all wait for all this, but the post here should catch up. I've really barely been in front of my computer let alone at home for a few days!

Mia's birthday was Thursday, and as I mentioned in a previous post, Craig was on a 10-mile hike after work so he wasn't home to celebrate. We put off the celebration until Friday, so when Mia got home from school she opened gifts from family & friends. She got (among other things) books of "why" (yes, she's at that stage and starting to read big-time, so she should go LOOK IT UP), an origami set, clothes from Gymboree (that are adorable and fit great - long-time family friends sent them and she wore an outfit from that box to the birthday party, see below), The Jungle Book DVD, a game for the DS, more clothing from her parents, and a Littlest Pet Shop set.

That evening we went upstairs to Hokulea, the yummy restaurant on the top floor of our building, where I finally took some food pictures. Here's the Funky Franky Roll (spicy sausage wrapped in a banana pepper and then rolled in lettuce, rice, seaweed, roe, and some kind of sauce. Craig wanted to try it and he dug it):


My delicious lomi lomi salmon appetizer:

My beef with mushrooms entree, which was good down to the licked plate:

Craig's gigantic pina colada girlie drink. He wouldn't pose with it for me:
All in all, great Friday.

Saturday was rather windy & rainy - there was supposed to be a typhoon. We stayed inside most of the day. I had a shoot at 5 which I think went great and was lots and lots of FUN (our first shoot on our own, so that was fabulous), and then we just hunkered down for a relaxing evening together.

Sunday was Mia's birthday party. We held it at Skoshi Bowl, a separate bowling alley that is ONLY used for kids' parties on weekend days. They have the whole place done up glow-in-the-dark and provide pizza and drinks and shoes and FUN. Brilliant and inexpensive idea. We came early and set up the cake & goodie cups.

This year we decided it'd be a great idea to tell guests to bring a donation to the Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society in lieu of a birthday gift. It worked out great, and we collected $100 for the cause! Our family will bring the donation this week. Mia was very excited, and we won't have to find a place for a bunch of toys she doesn't really need.

A great time was had by all, here are a few pictures. Here's Mia and her buddy Zoe (whose family lives across the street):
Here's Nicholas in his size 10 (he's 11 years old) glow-in-the-dark shoes! Dang.

The happy bowman family after Mia blew out her candles. Thanks for taking some pictures, Leighanne!
Leighanne SOOOOooo busted Mia licking her cake!

Leah & Mia ready for another game.

They developed a game where they'd roll the ball and then lie down in the lane to watch the results. See that shine? I'm pretty sure that was due to their bodies polishing the floors.
The rest of the birthday shots are here.

After the party and some cool-down time at home, we got in touch with Derek & Anne across the street (parents of the new baby Knyte). Anne offered up the babysitting services of her visiting mother, and the 5 of us (baby Knyte was just a passed out child the whole time, so that was easy) went to Transit Cafe down the road for a stellar dinner and even better company. How nice it was to have a grown-up night out, and thanks to Grandma Friedlich, a great kid night out too!

She said our kid had some pretty funny things to say... one of which was of course about vegetables. She had chicken & macaroni and cheese, and I guess some green beans were on the plate. She said she didn't have to eat vegetables and when asked why, she said, "because I'm the guest." Nice try, kid.

After sleeping off our meals, we woke up to watch most of game 3 of the Cleveland/NY playoff series, and then headed out to meet Asako (local friend and sweetheart) and the Cyr family at Cafe Curcuma. This Thai restaurant was waaaaaay down south on the island. We drove over an hour, but when we got there, we realized why this place is booked a week in advance for lunches & dinners. The food is good, but the view makes it taste even better. For those who know the place in Big Sur, we're now calling this the Nepenthe of Okinawa.


Here's a shot of my curry sampler plate (I tried it before I thought to take the picture, so the big blob of sauce on the rice was NOT there when it arrived). There was rice, a salad, a delicious piece of plain chicken, and 3 kinds of curry on the plate (all yummy). In the center is a small bowl with tapioca pearls & azuki beans. Sweet & delicious after the spicy curry. In the background of this shot to the left you can see a papaya salad that was also scrumptious. Sweet, a little spicy, and cool - great side dish for the spicy food!


Outside I found a very cool rock wall and made Mia laugh while posing, I really like this shot.

The Bowman family in front of the KILLER view!

After the nice long lunch, we went to Peace Prayer Park. It's a very big park, with many different monuments and symbolic pieces. Also a museum. The main focus is to pay respects to the people who died there during WWII. About 200,000 names are on stone slabs in the part of the park pictured below - there's a computer where you can find names you're looking for. Asako's grandfather perished there, and here are Austin & Mia pointing at his name.

Then we went up to the Okinawan Peace Hall. Unfortunately, there was a ceremony being held in the room where the large (12m high) Buddah statue was, so we couldn't go in there. However, by the entrance of that hall there was a plant and several butterflies. Upon examination, I realized these suckers were REAL!! This one was just finishing emerging from his cocoon - there were more cocoons all around him on the leaves, they are literally shining gold cocoons. It was incredibly beautiful.
More fabulous pictures can be seen at: http://gallery.mac.com/bowmancr#100111

Hope that caught everyone up! Any questions?