Boat Dive

Alright, I am sure by now you are tired of scuba diving pictures, but quite frankly, that is all we do on weekends because my husband is just a little obsessed!
Last weekend we decided to do a boat dive to the Kerama Islands. The guys we had planned on booking through were not going out there this particular weekend, so we had to settle for going through the Air Force's Scuba Locker. Sorry to my Air Force loving family, but this was just a bad idea. They don't exactly have their act together over there, but I think it is partially the fault of the 5 teenagers behind the counter. We got on the boat at 7am (let me remind you that I am sooooo not a morning person). An hour later we still had not left. It was pretty disorganized and then to top it off, John overheard the captain talking about another island. Luckily he asked about it back the boat we were on was not going to the Keramas, but to Ie island...meaning we were in for a 2 hour boat ride each way. Ugh. Absolutely no one on the boat knew we were going there, they all thought the same way we did. The captain decided to do what he wanted to do, not what the rest of us wanted (and paid for!) so off we went to these other islands. By this time we were one hour and 1/2 behind schedule. Add that to the ridiculous amount of time we had to spend on the boat; needless to say, we had a REALLY long day!
Alright, now the complaining stops! We wound up having a great time and the water was absolutely gorgeous. I have to say, there are some fabulous places around here, and dare I say, some are prettier than Hawaii!
This was the bluest water I have ever seen and the visibility was incredible.
You have to really watch your gauges to be sure you don't go too deep because the water is so clear.
Check out this giant mushroom coral. Hopefully you can see the other divers around it to put into perspective how big it is!
I love this picture John took of me.

























Here is John in a creepy crevice. I just hovered above and watched. Too narrow for me and my weenie self!
Diving near our house isn't going to be nearly as fun since we have been to this beautiful place!
This is a little video of what it is like down there!

Happy 4th of July!

I wrote this a few days ago, but I guess I forgot to actually post it! Anyway...

We had a pretty chill 4th of July weekend. John had a 96 (military speak for 4 days off...96 hours), so we got to hang out pretty much all weekend. This island has a ridiculous number of military bases, at least one for each branch. The large Air Force Base (Kadena AFB) hosts an Independence Day celebration every year. Friday was only for service members, then Saturday they opened it up to the local nationals. We decided to go on Friday and check it out. It has been so rainy and nasty here and that day was no exception. Here is kind of a sorry photo of the flightline at Kadena. There was hardly anyone out there since the weather was bad.

Melinda Doolittle (remember her from American Idol?) was out there performing and she was really good! She came in third on the sixth season of Idol.
Gary Sinise (of CSI and Forrest Gump) also performed along with his "Lieutenant Dan Band". He is a huge military supporter and he and his band travel all over the world performing for the troops.

They also had one of each of the military aircraft that fly here on this island along with some Japanese jets.

And of course the awesome new F-22!

Switching gears...our dogs definitely LOVE the water! We spent some time with them at the beach this weekend so here are a few pictures of them living it up!

Zeke got a bit sandy!
We found a little crab and the dogs were surprisingly scared of it!
It was time to go and Mischa refused to get out of the water. Here she is pretending she didn't hear us calling her so we could go!

They also got a pool this weekend to play in since it gets so hot around here!
Yes, I know, our dogs are spoiled.

I hope each of you had a great weekend. Living in another country really makes you think about how good we have it as Americans. Here is a picture of the HUGE flags that fly at the headquarters of Marine Corps Bases Japan which is on the base where we live. It is a little weird to see them together, but I am glad we are able to peacefully co-exist with the Japanese.

*Side note* I corrected a little paragraph on the previous post. I think I kind of made it sound completely different than what I was intending. John caught it and questioned me, so I just wanted to clarify the "break" part I wrote about. When I said this place can either make or break a realationship, then said, I have seen the break part, I meant I have seen it break up marriages, not ours! I think I scared my poor husband a little!

Two years of wedded bliss...

Ok, maybe it hasn't been all "bliss", but living the military life where my husband has been gone about 6 or 7 months of our marriage, and a move to the other side of the world might be partially to blame! All in all I have a fabulous husband! Living here has definitely brought us closer together. We really only have each other to rely on because we are so far away from family, and we have only a few good friends here. I think it has been great for us, and a place like this can either make or break a relationship. Sadly I have seen the "break part". It is tough, but we are in it for the long haul! (Just to clarify on the "break part", I meant I have seen living overseas break up OTHER familes, not us!)

Here are a few pictures from the best day of our lives!

Our fabulous bridal party.
Who doesn't love a man in uniform?

Tonight we went out to a nice dinner at a sushi restaurant we had never tried, called Sushi Zen. It was good (just like every sushi place is here). It was nice to just be together. In the year left that we have here I hope to only grow stronger within our relationship and enjoy being here on this island.

I look forward to many, many, many more anniversaries together!

Our 15 minutes, or maybe just 15 seconds of fame!

A few months ago, my cousin Jess (fellow military wife) told me that the Military Spouse Magazine was asking people to submit pictures of their military weddings. She suggested I send a few in. Well, lo and behold, our picture showed up in the magazine this month! Ok, well it is small, but hey, it's there!

So here is a picture I scanned of the page it was on, and of course it is one of my favorites!

You can click on the picture to see it larger.

Here, There and Everywhere

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of exciting things going on here, so that is why I haven't blogged in a while. Here are a few pictures of the last few weekends, just hanging out here and there.

Last weekend we took the dogs for a long walk around the dam here. This isn't exactly a dog friendly island, so we are always looking for places that have trails or large grassy areas for them to get out their energy!

Here I am with my crazy Mischa.
John and Zeke. Zeke loves to pose for the camera!

Later, we went out on our date night to a great Italian restaurant by the ocean called Cafe Nirai.

They have a loft area with couches and a table, it is great for just hanging out and relaxing, not to mention a wonderful view!
This weekend we did what else, but scuba dive!
Here are a few pictures of us checking out the water and a few surfers at the Tsunami Seawall with John's friend Dean.

It is definately nice to have the ocean so close. It is so beautiful!
We chose a new area to dive and it was spectacular!
The coral was gorgeous and we saw tons of fish!

I know this picture is a little blurry but I was trying to show that we were 60 feet below the surface! I figured my dad would appreciate this one!

Well, I guess that is about all for now. Hopefully soon we will do something exciting for me to blog about!

Under the Sea

Back in February, John and I became certified scuba divers. Yes, February, it was cold even though we live on a tropical island! I won't go into all of the horrific things we had to do in order to get our certification, I believe I have suppressed some of those things from my memory! Basically we spent a few days going through all sorts of scenarios (in the water, no less) of bad things that could happen to us in the water so we would know what to do if any of these situations arose. Scary. Anyway, we made it through and are PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified Open Water scuba divers! John left for the States a week after we were certified, so we had to wait until he came back to go on our first dive on our own.

This past weekend was an absolutely gorgeous weekend and it was a perfect time to get in the water.

We woke up early and headed to the ocean. Luckily, we don't have to go very far. Five minutes later, we started putting on all of our gear. It takes FOREVER to put everything on! The wetsuit alone takes me around 3 minutes! So after the wetsuit, weight belt, BCD with the tank attached (buoyancy control device--the vest looking thing), regulator, snorkel, mask, and fins were all on we could finally get in the water! Here is a link for further equipment info: http://www.padi.com/scuba/scuba-gear/intro-to-scuba-dive-equipment/default.aspx

Finally we got in the water and I heard a really annoying sound. It was a discomforting sound of leaking air. Oh great. So John tried to check it out, but there is only so much you can do standing in chest-deep water and quite a few pounds strapped to your back. We had to get out, take everything off and drive back to the place where we rented our gear. Sure enough, there was a leak in my BCD. Not exactly something you want when you are out in the middle of the ocean and that is the device that will keep you floating in the water!

So, round two. We geared up again and got into the water to experience our first dive by ourselves.

It is such an amazing experience seeing things that you could never see just snorkeling.

The coral was stunning. I have never seen anything like this. I never knew some of these types existed.

There weren't a whole lot of fish where we were, but we did see a little sea snake. I kept my distance. I do not feel the need to attempt to befriend those guys.

Here we are hanging out at 40 feet underwater.

Afterwards we decided to go to one of our favorite cute little coffee shops right by the beach, relax and check out the pictures we took underwater.

I am really glad my adventurous husband convinced me to get certified with him, it was such an amazing experience.

We hope to take a day trip this summer to a small chain of islands a few miles off the coast of Okinawa, called the Kerama islands for a dive excursion. I hear you can see 200 feet down, that is how amazingly clear and beautiful the water is there. Stay tuned for more adventures of the Franklin's!