The Carmel Haven : I'm Back! And a Random Castle

I've really missed blogging these past couple of months. When I don't, I feel like so many memories are just going to slip by me. Plus, the pictures on my computer (if they even make it off of my phone and camera) just build and build and are completely unorganized. I'm really really going to try and manage my time better so I can keep up with this! Steve HAS been gone since January (43 more days until he gets back...yah!) and I do still have the kids with me all day every day with no breaks, but let's be honest...I do waste a lot of time doing very unproductive things sometimes. Let's just say the internet is not my friend when I"m trying to be productive.;) So many interesting things to read in the social media and blogging world! Not to mention online shopping ... could it be that it's more time consuming and addictive than regular shopping? You don't even want to know how many swimsuits I've ordered (and how many I've returned) trying to find a few that I feel comfortable LIVING in this summer (unless we're inside in the AC, we are at the pool or the beach). That is a hard thing to do no matter what, but especially when you can't try them on first.

We have been doing well. I have TONS of pictures, but I'm only going to pick and choose a few to share. I'm not going to lump them all together because that would be quite the long post and pretty disorganized, so I'll split it up and try and do it quickly so I can write in "real time" (pretty sure that's been my goal all along...I can always hope! Noah will be in preschool next year...maybe I'll have more time).

First up...back in February we were heading to church and this was blocking our way there (by the way, every one of these pictures was taken with my Iphone - pretty much the only camera I use these days):

The Okinawa Marathon was going on!

(side note...I did get a little jealous seeing all these runners. I'm always reminded of the hundreds of races I've run and how even with the off ones there's such a runners high and sense of satisfaction you get from it all. I really really miss running cross country. Running by myself as a now 30 something I just don't think would give me the same feeling. I could be wrong.)

I even tried turning around via back roads to go a different way, but we still got blocked by the race. Then we got to a point where we couldn't turn around because of the runners on the other side, so I had to just keep going straight for a long long time. I was scared to turn for fear of getting lost. Besides, the only way to turn was left which would have taken us straight to the ocean. So we drove for about 20 minutes, and by then the running traffic was dying down so I was able to turn right on a road that sounded familiar (which is completely an invalid reason to turn, given that the same street name is handed out by the dozen here. Also, streets change names...a lot. Anyway, to our left we see something so amazing....the ruins of an old castle. Now we've been to a few here, but I have to say I gave myself a pat on the back for "exploring" and finding this place myself (even if the plan was to go to church that morning) because Steve is always the one finding new things (he had not found this yet). And it was only 20 min. from our house.