Working for the Weekend

Kyle just returned from his most recent deployment. He spent about a month in the Philippines, supporting a multi-national, joint force exercise called Baliktan. He was at Clark Air Base near Manila most of the time, but he did have a chance to travel to a few other areas of the PI.

He returned on Tuesday afternoon and then had a full day of work on Wednesday. On Thursday he was granted a "96" which means he gets 96 hours of liberty, or a long weekend for those of us that speak civilian and not military.

We spent Thursday morning kayaking in the East China Sea, Thursday afternoon scuba diving at Diamond Beach and Thursday evening swimming with the dogs at Sunabe Baba Park. It was a fun-filled day.

We were diving with a couple of Kyle's friends, who are very experienced divers. They found this puffer fish and then "scared" him so he would puff up. Then, we all took a minute to pose for the cool underwater photos. These are actually the first pictures I have of us underwater and they are already some of my favorites.

On Friday we had to do a few chores around the house. We returned some government issued furniture to one of the warehouses and we made a run to the PX. We got home just in time to spend a few hours at Araha Beach. Friday night we crashed a going away party for a cool guy named Brian. Brian is headed off the Kansas City, MO to recruit new Marine Corps officers in Missouri and Iowa. We ended up at a fun establishment called Seabees, where we sang karaoke for a couple of hours. Stay tuned for a detailed explanation of singing karaoke in Japan.

Saturday and Sunday were both beach days. On Sunday we took a ferry to one of the outer island with a few friends. We went to Zamami Island in the Kerama Islands. The beach was absolutely gorgeous and the snorkeling was amazing. Kyle grew up and SoCal and spent three years in Hawaii, but he swears Furuzamami Beach is the most beautiful beach he's ever seen. The water was crystal clear and the sea shells were amazing. When the tide went out we walked from one island to another. We are already planning another trip to this pristine tropical island.