Movin' and Shakin'

The movers are here today. They were here yesterday also, and they are supposed to be done today. It is hard to have the movers because you are not supposed to do anything. So, all we can do is sit and watch and check in every once in a while. This whole process is not so good for my nerves; hence the shakin' part of the title.

So, I know I promised pictures from Japan, and I am trying to get to that. We spend the weekend getting ready for the movers. We have too much stuff. We desperately need to down size, but we don't want to get rid of our stuff.. I can't imagine that we will have a house nearly as big as this one in DC; actually, there is no way we will have a house like this in DC.

Anyway, just updating you on the status of the promised Japan trip post. It will happen soon, but right now, despite the fact that I can not do anything, I am too distracted to sift through the pictures and actually do the post.

arg.

Home Again

We are home from Japan.  We had a great time in Kyoto and Koyasan.  I highly recommend Kyoto to anyone traveling to Japan.  

We arrived home Tues night, and went to work yesterday and today.  Mon and Tues of next week we have our packout and send all of our stuff across the oceans. 

I will put more pictures up this weekend, but for now, i will leave you with this funny shot of Tom and I we took using the convex mirror on the street...

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow!  What a week!  Tom and I have both been very busy with work all week, it felt like the train just would not stop.  For me it was a two day major typhoon exercise; for Tom it was getting the ship ready and then participating in a major training evaluation.  

We finished the long work week, and started our vacation week with a yoga workshop this weekend.  We spent all day Saturday and Sunday at a beautiful waterfront inn practicing yoga for five hours each day.  

So now we feel refreshed and ready to start our explorations of the Kansai Peninsula in Japan.  We will be visiting Mount Koya, Kyoto and Hiroshima.  Pictures to come!

Tom is Home!

Tom is home again, back from his last scheduled trip. Hurray!

He got home on Sunday morning and we had a pretty busy couple of days until we both went back to work on Wednesday. We hiked to the same underground cave pool I went to a few weekends ago - I took my camera this time, but it was so humid in there, that the lens and mirror in the camera would not unfog, so still no pictures.

We have another week until our vacation in Japan. I will keep you updated on our adventures.

One more Cocos Picture

This is a shot of all of the Coasties and Coast Guard related swimmers!

The Distance... Completed!!!

We had a great swim today! I am so proud of myself, Amy and Traci for completing the Cocos Crossing. 2.5 miles of ocean swimming fun!

I finished in 1hr 24min; Amy finished in 1hr 37min; Traci finished in just under 2hrs. It was harder than I thought it would be. Trying to swim straight is challenging when there is nothing to guide you. In any case, I am so happy about my time and really proud of all three of us who committed to training and did it.

Here are some more pics after the finish of me and Amy. More to come in a few days...



And finally, a prerace shot of Amy, Traci and I:

The Distance

Amy and I drove down to Merizo yesterday to look at the distance for our swim next weekend. We know that is supposedly 2.5 mi (although I think it is a little less), but we just wanted to see it. Our farthest swim so far was 2.2 mi; we are doing that one again today for time.


So, here it is. We will be swimming from the island back to the spot where this picture is taken from.



While we were down south, we took a little walk to the Priest's Pools. I have been wanting to go there, but it is very short little walk, and hardly seemed worth the drive down just to see the pools (yes, the drive is about 30 min-40 min, I know, I have lived on an island too long already!).


When the water is higher, the pools are nice for swimming, but it has been so dry here that the water was sort of stagnant in the pools, so we just looked.

I am leaving for Hawaii on Monday morning (for work), and will be back on Friday evening. Hopefully I will get some swimming in over the course of the week since the race is next Sunday.

I am pretty excited about the race - it should be fun! My goal is to finish in an hour and fort five minutes - we'll see!

Just a flower.