Joanne's Okinawa Adventure Day 3. A Maine Photographer

Day 3
A note about my photos from this trip.  I carried around my Nikon D500 with a Tamron lens 18-270. I could photograph ALL DAY LONG...but obviously, this was a vacation, and when sight seeing with my better half, I sometimes sense frustration of the amount of time I "can spend" photographing.  He is somewhat patient with me, and I know he values what I capture, but he also keeps me moving when I begin to lag behind, which sometimes frustrates me...but it does help keep us on schedule and requires me to think on my feet.  A shout out to my three co-sightseers...thank you for pausing occasionally, when I insisted on taking a group photo of the four of us to capture a memory.  For quick photos, selfies, and all photos taken from a moving vehicle, plane, bus or car, those were taken with my cellphone, a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.  FYI, I am becoming quite a fan of my cell phone camera!

One of the very best things I loved about this vacation was the fact that Matt and I didn't need to do anything but relax.  We couldn't drive because you need an international license to drive, and Jill and Philip took care of all the driving.  Eliminating the obstruction of navigating ourselves through a foreign land gave us an opportunity to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery.  In addition, our host had narrowed down the best possible places for us to eat and experience the local cuisine, we had it made, only thing left to do was show up and enjoy!

First stop of day 3, the Mother Coffee, for a breakfast to remember.  Matt and I had already joked that when we arrived in Japan, we noticed all of the restaurants in the airport had plastic food in the window showcasing their menu.  With that said, we really enjoyed the menu at the Mother Coffee :)

Breakfast was amazing, and from there we traveled to the northern end of Okinawa to visit the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium the second largest aquarium in the world.

one of our sights...don't ask...we haven't a clue

After our aquarium visit we travelled further north, to the most northern tip of Okinawa, Cape Hedo.
This was the Okinawa I couldn't wait to see!!  In this very spot we have the South China Sea on the West, and the Pacific ocean on the East.  And, to top it off, we pretty much had the place to ourselves...and yes...the photographer in me was dancing!!

there were these beautiful aquamarine blue fish in the water below the cliffs

Somewhere down the road, when I reminisce about my vacation in Okinawa, this, right here, is what I will remember.

Joanne's Okinawa Adventure Day 2. A Maine Photographer

Day 2
Meet my friends, Jill and Philip, our hosts, our chauffeurs, our tour guides.  Jill and I go back 30 years.  We were both in retail management jobs where fraternization with the help was extremely frowned upon...so we started our own social circle...a few years later we became roommates...and have remained friends ever since.

The first beach Jill took us to, on a part of the Island called American Village

some more sights from American Village

Perhaps my favorite photo of all

 a little smoke shop, common sight

A great view of part of the massive Sea wall, for protection of tsunami

coral, coral, coral

our US military bases are a huge presence on this Island

I was constantly amazed at how built up this Island is.  So many buildings, so close together, I took many many photos, I will be sharing many more over the next few days.

Shi-sa dogs  Possibly one of our favorite facts about Okinawa.  A pair of Lion dogs that guard most entrances.  I promise to share many more photos of Shi-sa's :)

Genghis Khan, our fabulous dinner stop for our first feast in Japan.  Jill described it as a hole in the wall, off the grid, with fabulous food.  We were not disappointed.  It's an all you can eat, buffet style...like no other.  You fill up your bowl with uncooked meat and veggies, bring it to the grill, watch it cook up, then handed back to you in a fresh clean bowl.  Amazing!!  

Before I close out day 2, a few words about my friends Jill and Philip.  Philip is a Commander in the Navy, and this is his second time serving in Okinawa. Philip and Jill live on Kedena Air Force base and welcomed us into their home.  These are scary times in our world, and now that I have returned from vacation I can admit that both my husband and I were a bit uneasy about traveling, and yes, we did fly United, believe it or not, that was the least of our concerns.  Words like air strike and the mother of all missals...it was ironic to be in Okinawa, hallowed grounds, the largest and bloodiest battle of the Pacific of WW2.  We are happy to be home.

Joanne's Okinawa Adventure Day 1. A Maine Photographer

Until now, I had never had a passport.  Until now, my husband Matt had never had a passport.
About two years ago, give or take a few months, my girlfriend Jill suggested I come visit her and her husband Philip in Okinawa.  Okinawa is not on my bucket list.  Japan is not on my bucket list. Traveling abroad is not really on my bucket list.
My husband...well let's just say he's not a fan of traveling anywhere that a plane ride is required.  It's not the act of flying that bothers him, it's the hassle...all of the security, customs, cramped seats and not being able to move when you want...etc...etc...

So, after giving Jill's suggestion some thought, and picking up a part time job for saving, I asked Matt this question.
"If I am able to save enough money to buy you and I a plane ticket to visit Jill and Philip (her Navy husband) would you go with me?"
He did roll the sentence around his head, nodding a bit as he gave it a bit of thought, and after a brief silence he said something like this, "ya, I suppose I would go with you"

So, I began saving.  I took him to the post office and we applied for our passports, and about 6 months ago I told Matt I had the money saved and had made an appointment with a AAA agent to purchase the tickets.  I asked my husband if he had any last thoughts.  No, he had no final words of wisdom or requests.

Before leaving AAA, I texted my husband and told him the tickets were purchased, and what our date of departure was.  It's a 10 mile, 20 minute ride home with the traffic, and Matt had finally googled Okinawa during the time it took me to get from point A to point B.
"That's half way around the world" he said to me as I walked in the door.  "Did you make the tickets so that we stop in Hawaii on the way?...so the flight isn't so long...how long is it?...there is no way a plane can fly that long non stop before refueling?  ...."

Seriously.

Two weeks ago today Matt and I left on our big adventure.  Okinawa is 13 hours ahead of us here on Eastern daylight savings time.  We left our home at 4:45 am Tuesday morning, and arrived without delay in Okinawa time at 9:30 pm on Wednesday.

Here are a few photos from our first day of adventure.
A co-worker of my husband spent time in Okinawa 30 years ago.  Once he found out we were going he brought a few items to us so we could begin our planning.  Here is a 30 year old poster map of Okinawa.

 The $200 American value in Japanese Yen

Matt and I in the Portland Jetport at 6am before our first flight out

Beautiful sight from our first flight, reminded me of a scene in an earlier Star Wars movie.

This is one of the bars in the Newark airport.  I was a bit impressed.

Map of our first flight, from Newark to Tokyo...interesting flight path...

Time for a selfie in the Tokyo airport.

Let's just say the Japanese take their rest stop/toilet time to a whole new level

Okinawa, we have arrived

Upon arriving at our friends house, we logged into wi-fi, this is how it looked :)

Queen of Unfinished Projects. A Maine Photographer and A Queen

This photo, taken quite a few years ago, is a great example of a photo being worth a thousand words, but for me is symbolizes something more, it symbolizes thousands of "unfinished"words.

This photo was taken at a Creating Keepsake scrapbooking convention in Manchester NH.  My friend Cheryl was attending with her sister for the weekend, a regular family tradition for them, and my friend Lisa and I did a quick, "during the school day"roadtrip shopping excursion to join Cheryl for a little lunch date and some shopping fun while the kids were busy attending just a regular day at school.  This is kind of the way I live my life. Enjoying life, spending time with my friends at a vendor fair focusing on just one of the hobbies I love,  Yes, I don't mind spending half my day in a car to get to a destination to enjoy these things, even if the things I am enjoying last just a few hours.
Where am I going here.  Oh ya, it was during this very day, during these few hours that I had carefully scheduled fun time with my friends, that they mentioned that the two of them had talked about buying me a particular t-shirt.  They didn't buy it, but they talked about how the two of them had discussed buying it for me,  The t-shirt in discussion...had 4 words on it.

"Queen of Unfinished Projects"  

Surprisingly, I was a bit offended.  I NEVER start something I am not 100% committed to.  Never.

Life goes on.  Shit happens.  Priorities change.  Shit happens.  Life goes on.

It's been years since my friends discussed buying me this shirt.  One year, I really don't know which one it was...but one year, I took my daily planner out, and wrote in an "unfinished project" for every month of the year.  How many could there be?  ... who knows, I never finished it.

Let's start with scrapbooks...I've probably got 23 of them going...none of them current...none of them completed...but very close on some of them.  

Sewing.  I started making curtains for our pop-up in 2012 or 13...but then we bought a house, I packed up the stuff...haven't gotten around to finding it.  Oh ya, and I'm making my boy a t-shirt quilt...for high school graduation...I've got the pattern and a box of t-shirts.  He's in the second half of his first year of college.  Oh, and I have all the fabric to make curtains for his room, here in our new house...that we moved into summer of 2013...oh...and...one more sewing project that I started in 2010 that is the reason for this blog post today.

I have decided to OWN this title.  Yes, that is right.  I am, starting today, admitting to myself and those hereby witnessing me, embracing with an open heart and without offence, the endearing title of Queen of unfinished projects.  I have decided to take ownership for the things I am great at, and one of those "things" is my desire to try and do as many things that I can that bring me joy and bring joy to those around me.

It would take me a week to write down all of my unfinished projects.  Some of them I haven't even started yet, but they have been in my head for years.  These thoughts, these projects, there was a time when I took them very seriously, after all, in my head, an unfinished project was an attempt at something, and the unfinished part signified my failure at something.  It's taken me a while to get here, and I did have some help along the way, shout out to my life coach Lynne McGhee, but I have learned quite a bit about being kinder to myself, and accepting of myself and my goals when life hands me another priority and "an unfinished project" needs to be re-evaluated.  I've learned that if the unfinished part is going to make me feel bad about myself and cause me sleepless nights, then I need to take a few minutes to answer some questions about it...re-prioritize it...or let it go...for the time being at least.

I want to share with you a couple epiphanies I had recently that caused me to re-evaluate my "projects" and decide to either re-prioritize or let it go.

My dog Chloe had three pups, three years ago.  I have one of the pups and I have kept in touch with the other two families, and I have blogged about the pups on their birthdays.  This year, one of the human Moms of one of Chloe's pups died in January, after fighting breast cancer for a number of years.  When she picked up the pup, three years ago she told me she wanted it to eventually become a therapy dog.  When I heard of Penny's passing, I immediately signed up to become a therapy team with Chloe.  I invested some hard earned money, took an online course, and then had a hands on evaluation with Chloe as the final piece.  Chloe failed the obedience part of the evaluation.  She just couldn't sit for three seconds without getting up to come sit by my side.  The evaluation  team immediately started talking to me about working with Chloe and trying again in six months, but in the back of my head I was already thinking, what are you doing girl, taking on this additional commitment, you don't have any time as it is?!!  And just like that, I decided that the reason the Joanne/Chloe team had failed the evaluation was because the timing for the Joanne/Chloe team was not now...so...for the time being, that decision was made for me, and I have accepted it.  What was I thinking?

Second epiphany.  When my Mother-in-law passed away in 2011 I saved out about a dozen of her knit shirts, to make teddy bears with and give to her grand kids on the anniversary of her death.  The first year came and went.  I only had three bears done, so I gave none.  This year came and went.  6 year anniversary.  I haven't returned to the project since I packed it up to move in 2013.  Recently, the first of the "great grandchildren" of my Mother-in-law celebrated her 1st birthday.  I decided to "re-evaluate" my project, and I mailed out the first of the re-purposed teddy bears.

and now, in the spirit of my new title, I am celebrating the completion of my first blog post in 7 months...and in keeping my title and taking ownership of my title, I will leave you with yet another unfinished...