Doting Grandparents

Bella Here 

Our mornings start with “Bella here!”, and our granddaughter appears at the end of our bed. She is too short to get up by herself, so Grant gives her a lift, and we snuggle away. Until she decides time’s up, and away she goes.

We are so lucky to spend this time with Bella. When our older granddaughter was about the same age, she and her parents came to live with us. Every morning, she and I would share breakfast, then figure out what we wanted to do that day while everyone else was at work. In the afternoon, we’d have tea together, a tradition we still share.

Ready For Missy Pirate’s 

Even when Clara got older, she and I still ate breakfast together before I took her to daycare. Daycare was just on the other side of New River, so I rode my bike and pulled Clara in a trailer. She called daycare “Missy Pirate’s”, which her mom finally figured out was because there was a pirate cartoon playing on the tv when they visited the first time.

Clara and I ate breakfast and had tea until she was about four. Her dad got a job at Disney World in Orlando, and they moved. Soon we will be living nearby. We won’t have breakfast, but I’m looking forward to afternoon tea and swims in our pool.

Our New House

The Living Room of Our New House

We accepted the sellers’ counteroffer, and assuming the inspection doesn’t come up with a deal-breaker, we’ve bought a house in Windermere. Built in 1957, it is tiny, but the sellers raised the roof about 18” and added a room off the kitchen so it seems larger than others of its vintage. With the huge screened pool area, I think we will have the extra living space we decided our apartment doesn’t have.

Grant and I hemmed and hawed over the price, then offered $675,000 to their asking price of $725,000 and that they throw in the pontoon boat and motor. No go on the boat because it was a 40th birthday present. We agreed on $695,000, which seems crazy, but I’ve looked at enough houses in the area to know if we want to be downtown, it’s what we have to pay.  Plus the house is move-in ready on a dead end street and a canal to the Chain of Lakes. We can buy a boat and/or take the sellers up on their offer of boat rides whenever we want. They bought a house right across the street, big enough for their growing family and directly on the lake.

It is amazing that I can do all the paperwork from here in Okinawa. We’ve e-signed the contract, and I had the earnest money wired from our brokerage account. At the same time, I cannot get my eBird app to work. I can open up the map and drop a pin on my current location, yet when I try to start a new checklist, it can’t reach the server. It’s happy to do it if I use a stateside location but gives an error message for any Japanese site. The yin yang of computers.

Marine Life

Ready to Collect Nematodes 

When he learned we were visiting Okinawa, our nematologist friend Rob said the manatee at the Okinawa Churaumi* Aquarium had interesting lesions with unusual nematodes. Too bad he didn’t have a sample to look at under his microscope. All it took was a scraping of the lesion with a credit card. I could do that. How hard could that be? Turns out the difficult part would be getting permits to do so. Ah well, his Japanese colleague will have to come to the island, but I am ready if need be.

*Chura = beautiful or graceful; umi = ocean

Who Knew?

I also learned that Lost in Translation is more than a film. I have enjoyed several signs in English with odd words or misuse of tenses, but this is my favorite so far. The amazing thing is that I even bothered to read the sign. We saw often manatees from our dock on the New River, so I’ve become blasé about any manatee facts.

Ringside Viewing

The aquarium was extraordinary. In addition to the usual coral reefs and other environs, it boasts the world’s largest tank. Mary knew to get a ringside table where we could watch the fish swim by while eating taco rice balls, corn soup, and melon ice cream float. The whale sharks made the huge manta rays seem small.

Deep Sea Coral Crab

I especially liked the deep sea exhibits that are only possible because scientists have figured how to create the pressure the fish and other animals from those depths need. Giant isopods, soft corals that look like anemones on tall stalks, first ever on display Japanese large eyes (red fish with large eyes),  and other bottom dwellers are all new to me.



We finished our day in the event hall with a LEGO whale shark.

Pieces For Peace LEGO Project

Cherry Blossoms

Back to Ginowan

Today was cherry blossom day, but first we put Grant on the bus back to Ginowan because he forgot to pack his meds. Four days without them seemed just too long. With ¥5,500 in his pocket and the apartment’s location programmed into his phone, he headed south. I cross my finger

Nago Park

First stop on our itinerary was Nago Castle Park. A group of Japanese high school students oohed and aahed over Bella and Remi as we climbed the steps through the rows of cherry trees. At the observation tower, she joined older tourists for their photos. I think they were looking at cherry blossoms then writing haikus about them, if I understood the explanation one of the ladies told me.

British Tea

Lunch was at the hidden British Wine and Tea Room, tucked away down tiny almost-one-lane roads. Mary had thought “hidden” was part of its name, but it’s a description of the location. Quiche, salad, hot Earl Grey tea and a scone for dessert, sitting on a deck overlooking cherry trees. Absolutely delicious. Plus we saw a hawk of some sort. Perhaps a Eurasian kestrel. At the end of March, the tea room is having a concert by an Irish lyre player and a woman singing traditional songs from Osaka. I guess both pentatonic scales. I hope we can make it back.

Mount Yae

Up and down more curvy, narrow roads to get to Mount Yaedake Sakuranomori* Park for more cherry blossoms and the extra treat of huge fruit bats, which explained the netting over the orange trees I saw on the way in.
 
     Pink blooms against gray skies
     Cherry blossoms at their peak
     We stay far too long

Bella tired, and all of us hungry, we go home and eat pasta and meatballs prepared by Mary’s friends to help with the new baby.

* ”Cherry Blossom Woods”

Orchids

Being fourteen hours ahead of Miami, after breakfast we watched Suoerbowl LXIV on our iPad. The only glitch was it kept trying to switch to the AirBnB’s slow WiFi rather than use the unlimited data streaming we have on our new Sprint phone plans. At least the salesman said it was unlimited. After we’d watched Shakira and JLo rock the half time show and the Kansas City Chiefs best the San Francisco Forty-miners 31-20, we headed towards the Dream Center Botanical Gardens.

This is not a quick process. Remi needs a nurse about every hour which includes a diaper change. If we’re lucky we can get him into his car seat before he needs the cycle started again. At the same time, Bella needs to be diapered, dressed, shod, and snacked. We four adults can just about manage this plus make breakfast and do the dishes.

We made it to the Diason (think dollar store) to buy coffee cups and to the Aeon grocery store to pick up takeout for lunch. Remi needed another food/diaper cycle before we could leave the parking lot. Bella wants a snack, Grant sees the restroom. A slow beginning.

Okinawa International Orchid Show Entrance

The orchid-lined arch entryway to the Okinawa International Orchid Show just barely prepared us for the displays of cut flowers, growing plants, table designs, wedding bouquets, flower arrangements, and growers’ booths. In the background were the usual baskets of orchid plants in each of the green houses. Our slow start and my desire to read almost every label resulted in our being the last party through the exhibit, with smiling workers walking behind us, slowly herding us out. We didn’t get to see the plants grown by elementary school children, but I think the staff would have rebelled if we had turned to that display area. Even the parking lot attendants lost enthusiasm as we sat in the car while Mary topped of Remi.

First Impressions, First Cherry Blossoms

Mt Fuji

Back to the domestic terminal by 5:00 AM, retrieved our big suitcase and carryon from the locker, in line before the ticket counter opened. Quickly checked our bags and quickly through security with the only glitch that we both had tweezers in our carryons. Both pairs were examined and returned to us. On to Okinawa.

Tokyo seems full of energy, ready to accomplish something. Okinawa seems a little run down, less excited about life. Faded signs, weeds along the roadside, buildings without paint, yet I didn’t see any closed businesses. Perhaps looking a little seedy is a cultural thing, like their airing out futons on balconies.  Our Moroccan guide said often the Arab homes looked unfinished, yet were opulent on the inside, because they didn’t want their neighbors to feel envy. Perhaps Okinawans agree.

Remi and Bella

Mary and children were at the grocery store when Ryan brought us from the airport to their apartment, which gave us time to unpack before the whirlwind, AKA Isabella, appeared. “Grammy, Grammy, Grammy”. My heart is so filled with this little being. She runs back and forth in the apartment, helping put away groceries or bringing  me a toy, just delighted in the process and that she can do it herself. True joy. Eight-day-old Remi sleeps and eats and has his diapers changed. He is in charge of the first, Mary the second, and Ryan, on two weeks paternity leave, handles all the last.

Mary is magnificent: tandem nursing, cooking dinner, attending to Bella, shopping. I worried she is overextending, but she assures me she is paying attention to herself and her needs. What a powerful woman my daughter is. I am so very lucky to be here and see her in action. How to say I see a lot of me in her without bragging? Yet, I was a powerful women when I was her age. After an easy home birth, Mary developed breathing problems. We rushed her to the hospital, and for the next 10 days, I stood vigil at the neonatal intensive care unit while the doctors treated her symptoms. We didn’t realize she had developed problems latching on while she was there, slurping my pumped breast milk from bottles. After a week at home, she had become dehydrated, and my formerly abundant milk had dried to a trickle. With the help of knowledgeable lactation consultant Christine, and my absolute commitment, we got back on track. Two months of pumping, too much equipment, many tears, but Mary and I succeeded.

Now I am tired. This trip has exhausted me. I need a day to recover. But, wait, there’s more. We are going to see cherry blossoms, today, just as soon as we pack for spending 5 days on the Motobu Peninsula, 2 hours drive north. Mary, having given birth just 8 days ago, assures me she is good to go. So much my daughter.

Todoroki Waterfall

We head north in their 2 little cars to the AirBnB she has rented. Halfway there, we stop at the Todoroki Waterfall Park for our first cherry blossom viewing. Bella runs back and forth on the paths, I just want a bed. Grant and I try canned hot coffee from a vending machine. Even that doesn’t have the energy to jolt my ancient body into awareness. Forget cherry viewing. All I want is a bed. I doze for the rest of the drive and am a zombie through dinner. A shower and bed. Good night.

MIA -> DFW -> NRT -> HND -> OKA

So close. We almost made the trip from Key Biscayne to Okinawa without incident. But the bus from Narita airport in Tokyo to Haneda got bogged down in rush hour traffic, and we missed our last flight. When the bus finally got to the airport, we grabbed our backpacks, carryons, and big suitcase, and speed walked as fast as we could to the Japan Airlines security entrance. We had been traveling 25 hours. An hour later and after much conferring among 4 JAL employees with their computers confirmed there were no more flights to Okinawa tonight. We are booked on a 6:15 AM flight tomorrow. I only slightly wept.

As we waited for our new tickets to be issued, the domestic terminal began to close. I knew it was a bad sign when the security employees turned in their badges, bowed to their supervisor, and left. The shops closed their doors. Even the construction workers walked past on their way out. Since we could not spend the night there, we decamped to the international terminal, open 24/7 and a 10-minute shuttle bus ride away.

We have opted to spend the night here rather than trying to find a hotel and be back to the airport by 5:00 tomorrow morning. Sleeping on airport seats seem easier than trying to find a taxi at 4:00 AM.

Joining Other Airport Campers 

Now it’s 3:00 AM, and after dozing on and off on a fairly comfortable bench near the observation deck, I am buzzed with jet lag. In the background a young woman’s voice gives a continuous announcement to be careful on the escalator. Sounding like “very, very bad, very, very bad”, the recorded voice echoes throughout the terminal. Maintenance has begun vacuuming so nap time is over.

Almost everyone is wearing face masks, trying to avoid the coronavirus coming out of China. Flights and tours are cancelled. World leaders pontificating. Hospitals gearing up. Patten’s friend Jack is back in Fort Lauderdale, which I am sure makes his mother very happy. He is sending boxes of masks to his coworkers in China. We remain unmasked, relying on others not to spread disease.