Japan: The First Days, Part 2

Back to our first weekend on the island.  We had to start things off right by trying out these way too cute eggs from Japan.  Slightly smaller, sold in packs of 10, and delicious!!! 

The yolks are so much brighter than US eggs.

The Okinawa marathon was being held on base, so we walked around cheering runners on, and exploring a little of the base by foot.

We were so excited to be able to go to a sushi-go-round within the first few days of being here.  Our sponsors wife took us out one night to one of her favorite go-to spots.

If you're not familiar with sushi go rounds, it works like this.  You sit at a table or booth that has a little conveyor belt going past it.  The sushi chefs work in the middle preparing awesome stuff, and they put it right on the conveyor belt.  The dishes are color coded based on price.  I think here the prices ran from 100 yen to 580 yen, or something like that.  What else was cool about this place was you could also order off the menu if you don't see something coming around that you want.  Here they provide you with a menu and a little slip of paper and pencil.  You have to write down what you want in Kanji and the waitress will take your slip and place your order.

*GULP*

At least I only had to copy it from the menu.  There were a few very complicated Kanji combinations that I didn't try writing, but I would really like to try those dishes, so we'll have to go back.  That won't be a problem for us. We loved this place.

Another cook thing was they had a hot water faucet at each booth.  See that little black round thing on the 'wall' of the booth?  You pressed your mug against that and steaming hot water came out.  They had a container of green tea powder there for you also.

One of my favorite! Hotate aka scallop. I had to really resist not just ordering a ton of these and nothing else.

Here were our stack of plates for 3 people.  I think it cost around $50 for all of us.  We were stuffed, but it would have been so easy to do a lot more damage.  Each plate has a 'chip' in it, and when you are done, the waitress will come over to the table and scan the stack of plates and the computer automatically calculates it!

We walked around town, checking out a little mall, our first 100 yen store (basically a dollar store on crack), and headed down to Comprehensive park where we fed the carp!  Those bastards are aggressive!!!  By the time we did that, it was dark, so I don't have any pictures, but we liked it there so I'm sure we'll be going back soon.

Here's a little shot of the arcades.  They have a shit ton of arcades and pachinko parlors!  We've been to the arcades and peeked into a pachinko parlor, but maybe one day we'll get brave enough to go partake.

And the required kitty update.  Sammy was able to stay with us the first few nights because we had a pet friendly room, but we had to kennel her after day 4 since we had to switch rooms.  She was still doing great, just tired of moving and traveling.  Here's her cuddled up with Aarons sweatshirt.  And I don't know why she looks cross eyed sometimes...it's just how she is.  But only sometimes.

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Japan: The First Days, Part I

Our first few days on the island were HECTIC!!! We decided to start things off right by waking up early that first morning and going with our friend KayCee to watch her coach youth softball.  It was nice to get outside and relax. 

We walked around a bit during the game and found our first humorous sign...Turkey Leg Dog!!!  Poor guy, first he's born with a turkey leg, and then he's not even allowed to hobble on the track! Sheesh!

We watched the game for a little longer, and headed off with Jake (KayCee's husband) to go get us cell phones.  Conveniently 2 of our best options had a kiosk/store in the Exchange1 mall, so we got to check that out, and compare plans (both companies had the same exact plan), phones, and service quality.

 We easily made up our minds when I questioned one of the sales people about their service having dead zones on base.  She shrugged and agreed that yes, there are dead zones.  Dead zones aren't cool, and if your sales person agrees with the complaints...it's time to move on, so we did just that, and moved on to the original company.  We had heard people complaining about the prices, but for 2 smart phones and comparable plans that we were use to, it wasn't much more a month than we were use to.  Having the convenience of maps, email, and apps to communicate back home with, it was definitely worth it to us.

KayCee met back up with all of us, and we all headed out to lunch.  By now we were starved.  So we all went off base to Taj Okinawa, a place none of us had been to yet!

I think we all ended up getting a lunch special, but with a different type of curry each.  This giant feast you see below cost 900yen which was about $9.89 that day.  It also came with a brothy soup with pasta and veggies in it, and a drink of your choice.  I chose lassi, which is a yogurt type beverage. It went really well with the spice level of curry I chose.  Check out that nan! It was HUGE!!!

We headed back to base where we picked up our cell phones and met some more folks from the squadron at a BBQ/kids birthday party.  We may have done some other things, but KayCee knew I'd love to check out one of the produce markets off base, so we went there next.  I loved it, and it turns out to be even more awesome because it is only a few minutes right outside the gate we live near.  I've already been shopping here a few times.

Still being my first real day in Japan, I couldn't resist buying one of my favorite Asian snacks.  Steamed buns!!!  Right in front of the market are a handful of vendors making food right there and selling it.  I got a spicy pork steamed bun.  I LOVE THESE THINGS!  I think this cost me 100 yen ($1.09) and was worth every penny/yen.

Before I show you what else I got, thought you might be interested in a receipt.  Or not.  It's the little things here that I notice and enjoy.

Another favorite snack/side is seaweed salad.  There are tons of different variations of this, and I don't know what this was called, but it was seaweed with a soy sauce based dressing and sesame seeds.  I planned on mixing it with some other veggies, like cucumbers and peppers, but we ended up just eating it like it was in our hotel room.  This was from an additional stand at the market, and I think it cost somewhere around $3-$4.

Okay, I don't know what's up with their carrots here, but they are HUGE.  That is a normal sized DINNER fork right next to it.  You could seriously damage someone with this.  I also thing you'd have to alter recipes that call for 'one carrot'.

Another favorite Japanese snack is onigiri.  I could eat this for every meal.  I'd love to blog about onigiri over at Kacey's Kitchen, but they are basically a snack made of rice and seasonings, sometimes fillings. The rice is mixed with herbs or veggies and rolled into typically a triangle shape by a salted hand.  I've never had one I didn't like, and I particularly like the salmon filled ones.

Later that evening we had dinner at KayCee & Jakes.  It was nice to help KayCee in the kitchen again (we'd often have each other over for meals while we were in Oklahoma together), and we had some time to catch up while the boys entertained the baby (their baby - not that you needed me to clarify) and catch up themselves.  The night was awesome, they had another couple over for dinner, which was awesome to be able to meet and hang out in a low-key setting.  We met so many people in 24 hours I barely remembered where we went, never mind names and faces!

Don't worry, I don't plan on writing our entire 3 years in such detail, I just really want to share our first few experiences on the island, and then I'll be more selective on what I bore you all with!

'til next time!!!

¹Exchange
I describe this as the military department store.  It's THE place to buy stuff you need.  Depending on the size of your Exchange, you can get cloths, furniture, household supplies, gifts, tvs, etc.  I think ours here is one of the largest Exchanges in the world. Don't quote me on that though.

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Getting to Japan

The big day was finally here.  FINALLY.  FINALLY!

Unfortunately we had to leave our fancy-pants suite waaaay too early in the morning, with our alarms going off at 2am.  I started to get nervous belly at this point.  Not because we were moving to Japan, but I was terrified that I forgot something.  Like I forgot our passports (nope, I checked for those consistently), I forgot to reserve space for the cat (nope, that was done and verified.  Wait! Did I verify it?), what if I'm missing paperwork for the cat (THAT was my main concern).  I have spent MONTHS and MONTHS preparing for this and making sure all our documents were in order.  The thing was, I did some of it so long ago, that I started thinking....did I do it? Or did I THINK I did it?  Too late now, I guess we'll find out.

There was so much fucking paperwork and running around for last minute vet visits for the cat (we had to make a 4 hour round trip to a military vet a few days before we left for Seattle to get one of her required visits done), I was terrified something was overlooked and I'd show up at the airport and they'd say, sorry she can't board the plane and I would be in the terminal balling my eyes out not knowing what to do with the cat who can't get on the plane that I am boarding.

Nevermind all that though, the paperwork was fine (of course), and she boarded the plane.  They even made an announcement when we were on the plane that all the pets had been loaded up! Yay!

Since we were flying a military contracted flight, our check-ins and procedures were just a little different than normal.  Our flight was scheduled to depart around 7:30am, and we had to check in as early as 1am but absolutely no later than 4am.  Since we were already guaranteed a seat, as long as we were there before 4am, we were going to be fine.  The folks flying Space-A (Space Available) need to be there ASAP because those seats are handed out on a first come first serve basis.  Little did we know that since we had the cat, we'd be bumped to the front of the line.  Sweet!  Well...sort of.  You'll see why at the end.

We grabbed 2 luggage carts.  Again...we brought way too much luggage, but in my defense, we were living out of these bags for 3 months while our stuff was already shipped to Japan.  I thought I had narrowed down our belongings, but I guess all those little things spread out over the apartment really added up.  Now I know better.  Next time, I am only allowing 1 bag each, plus Aaron's uniform/equipment bag.  Plus the cat.  Next time...

We lined the pets up, and started their check-ins, which consisted of handing over lots of paperwork, answering some questions, and paying $112 for her.  Look at her...she looks so tiny next to those dogs!  She was definitely the most calm out of the animals that we saw, she just sort of sat there and looked around, I'm sure wondering why those dogs were making so much noise.  

 

If you're curious how we handled her eating/drinking/bathroom situations, I'll briefly go over it.  Vets will tell you to freeze water in their bowls, so it'll defrost over the length of the flight.  That wasn't going to work for us. She was put into the kennel a 2:45ish am, and wasn't even going to be put on the plane until 7am.  Our total travel time from hotel to hotel was going to be around 26 hours.  A small ice bowl wasn't going to cut it, and I thought she would be worse off if she was soaking wet for the whole trip.  Some folks suggested using a hamster/rabbit style water bottle, which was a great idea, but we tried getting her to use it the weekend before we left, and she wasn't having it.  I didn't want her dehydrated BEFORE our flights, so I let her eat and drink up to the night before.  When I went to bed, I took her food away and when we woke up before the flights, we took her water away.  We also make her use the litter box by picking her up and putting her in it over and over and over again until she gets the idea.  This works every time (if she has to go) and takes anywhere from 1-15 minutes.  But it works.  We lined her travel kennel with animal training pads, and put her bed and her favorite toys in with her.  We were able to see her during both stops in Japan, so we gave her a little food soaked with water, although it didn't surprise us that she didn't eat it until after we picked her up at our destination.

It's a hard call what to do with animals being transported that long, because other people have very strong opinions on what you should be doing.  I believe (and I'm obviously no expert here) that if you talk to your vet, and your pet is healthy, you'll know what the best situation is for him/her.  I've traveled a lot with Sammy, and I've used these procedures every time, and she's been fine every time.  I knew she would be okay without food and water for 1 day, and if for some reason we got 'stuck' somewhere, there was food taped to the top of her kennel and she had food and water bowls attached.  She did amazing.  She held her bladder the entire time, and when we got to the hotel room in Japan, she ran out of her kennel and right up to her litter box.  Yay Sammy!

Okay...back to our flight.  After dropping off the kitty, we headed up to the USO for someplace comfy to sit.  It was crowded, but not too bad, and we were able to grab some juice and relax for a few.  Around the time they were going to take Sammy to the plane, we headed down to check on her one last time, then headed through security and to our gate.  We boarded around 6:45am.

I was actually surprised that the plane wasn't nicer with more modern amenities, but then I remembered I didn't have to pay for it and it's a contracted flight to shuttle people back and forth across the world as efficiently as possible.  But just because the actual plane wasn't all spiffed up, doesn't mean the service wasn't awesome.  The flight attendants were super awesome and friendly for the entire trip.

Hot towels before every meal and snack? Yes please.  Hot towels before meals are very common here in Japan and I LOVE IT.  It's so hot that at first you feel like your skin is going to melt off, but then you just realize it's just the germs melting off.  I've also been to a restaurant here that has a sink & soap in the entry way.  How nice!

After a couple of hours in the air, we were served a hot breakfast.  By now I think most of us were starving so whatever they wanted to give us was fine.  I think we had the option of an omelet or pancakes.  Both came with a ton of food though...Sausage, hashbrown, bagel, fruit cup, and yogurt (which I noticed was non-dairy.....can someone explain how that works?).

After breakfast, everyone started to wind down and get comfy.  They played movies and tv shows throughout the entire flight.  It was our goal NOT to sleep through the flight.  We agreed that taking a small nap here or there would be okay, especially since we had been awake so early, but the more we stayed awake, the easier we would be able to deal with the time difference.  This was especially difficult for me since I just pass out whenever I sit in a plane.  Maybe it's habit to make the time go faster, I don't know, but I can sleep on a plane like no ones business.  My head might feel like it's going to snap off and I might drool all over the person next to me, but I'm asleep!

It was probably around this time that I realized we were sitting within a few rows of THE EXORCIST CHILD.  Aaron's probably not going to appreciate me talking about this here because THE EXORCISTS parents might stumble upon my blog one day...but seriously....your kid was a fucking nightmare and you know it.  Let's be honest here.  Most of you know I feel about kids.  But I REALLY hate kids in confined spaces.  When I board a plane and watch a child come in I am filled with emotion.  Hatred is one of them, but so is disappointment,  panic, and sorrow.  I'm that person on the plane that sits down and watches you struggle with your 10 carry-on bags (because you feel like it's your right to ignore the rules since you have proven to the world you are capable of reproducing).  I don't offer to help, not because you have kids, I don't help because you brought 10 bags and your husband is right next to you and not helping because he already told you not to bring 10 bags.  You don't need 10 bags to entertain a 1 year old.  You need 10 bags to piss everyone else off.  I'm the person on the plane that hated you and your family before you've even boarded.  I don't think it's cute when you let your kid run up and down the aisle tripping people and then screaming when the beverage cart runs her over.  I don't think it's cute or funny that you are brilliant at ignoring your child as he/she screams for 7 out of 9 hours of the.first.leg of an international flight. 

Back to the EXORCIST. I hate when your EXORCIST child pukes all over the fucking place and I hate it when I overhear you telling EVERYONE that she's has gotten motion sick since she was born, and no, you didn't bring a change of cloths on board.  Because that wouldn't make any sense, would it.

I should say that there were a TON of kids and babies on our flight, and not ALL of them were bad.  There were actually a few that I had no idea were sitting right around us.  Awesome!  And thank you to those parents who actually acknowledged they had a kid with them and took care of them!!!  But...for those evil children, most of the time it wasn't the kids fault.  Even I will acknowledge that.  The parents let them run wild and didn't do a thing to calm them or comfort them. Nothing.  And trust me...I watched you all with an evil eye. I really felt like the mentality of a lot of these families was, "I'm military and it's oh-so-gosh-darn hard to move across the world with a child, we are exempt from acting like civilized human beings."

That gets a big thumbs down from me.  And a bitching rant on my blog.

Also...while we have a 2 hour layover somewhere...please please PLEASE wake your kid up and make them run around like crazy, so when we board the plane again you can just strap them down and let them sleep.  Because 35,000 feet is not where I want your kid bouncing off walls.

I'm sure I have no more readers with children at this point, they've either stopped reading, unsubscribed, or probably have some mean and nasty things to say to me.  That's fine.  It's not going to make me like your evil child any more.

Not all was bad.  MAJOR props to my friend Jenni who provided us with earplugs before our flight.  Yes, I had all those strong feelings above while wearing earplugs the entire time.  I don't know how people handled it without them...although I did see a few guys who were close to breaking down.  The earplugs saved our sanity, incredibly.  Thank you Jenni!

Okay. Phew. I got that outta my system.  AND I've had 2 weeks to chill out about it.  It's a good thing I held off writing this post.

Moving on....

The ice was really pretty. I had never flown north enough before to see the ocean frozen over...

A few movies later (I lost all sense of time during this flight), we received a hot lunch.  I chose the chicken.

Aaron chose the Pot Roast.  Both were edible and appreciated.  Enough said.

I'm not really sure what I did the whole flight to entertain myself.  I read almost an entire book, watched some movies, and stared out the window whenever we had a view.  Once we got into the Japan area, there were some great views of the outlying islands.  It sort of reminded me of Hawaii.

This was us coming into our first stop, Yokota AB (outside of Tokyo).  I'm not sure if they refueled here, but we needed to drop some folks off and pick others up.  We all got off the plane and corralled into a room to wait, and those of us with pets got to go outside on the runway and check on them and walk them.  We took Sammy out of her cage and just carried her around, just to give her a different view.  There was one couple who took there cat out and just let him walk around. It was really amazing.  This cat just followed his owners around as they walked, not going anywhere else.  After the second stop, we learned that the cat was blind!  The lesson I learned from that was in order to have a loyal cat, you must blind it.

So they re-boarded everyone onto the same plane and headed off to our next stop of Iwakuni AB, about 1.5 hours away on the main island of Japan.  The same procedures took place, de-board, check on Sammy cat, re-board, and another 1.5ish hour flight to Kadena AB on Okinawa!!! Yay!!!

The sun had set and it started to rain by the time we were able to see Okinawa, but we were able to check out the coastline and the city lights!  It seemed like FOREVER before we landed.

We flew right into base, where they have a small terminal for baggage and customs.  We got off our plane and took a bus to the terminal and waited in line for someone to check our passports and orders, then went downstairs to gather our bags.

This is where it did NOT pay off to be the first ones in Seattle.  First bags on, last ones off.  We were able to get Sammy right away, but waited probably close to 45 minutes for all of our bags.  After all of our traveling, and seeing our friends beyond the exit doors waiting to welcome us....it seemed like HOURS.  The Kadena USO was there handing out water and pet treats!!!  How awesome is that!  While waiting, we were also greeted by someone from the Vets office to hand us a packet of paperwork and tell us what procedures we needed to follow with the cat in the next 72 hours.

We finally got our bags, went through customs, and some guy with a microphone asked if anyone was here to great us.  Being that we were one of only a handful of travelers left in the building, it was easy to find our welcoming group.  Plus, there were about 10 of them standing right at the door waiting for us with a big 'Welcome Aaron & Kacey' sign.  That was pretty awesome considering we only knew 2 people (and a baby) here, and didn't think our sponsor would be there.  There were a bunch of folks from the squadron including the commander of the squadron.  I thought that was pretty cool, because I'm sure the last thing the commander of the squadron wants to do after a week of commanding the squadron is stand around at the on-base terminal waiting around to say 'hi' for 2 minutes to a couple who just spent 26 hours traveling and isn't going to remember a thing about the introduction.

So we shook hands with everyone, their names went straight through my brain, we were handed some welcoming gifts of beer and wine, and everyone help load our bags into our sponsors wifes car, who then brought us to our lodging (on base).  She was awesome enough to have filled our room an fridge with food, so we wouldn't have to worry about the essentials right off.

There were a few Japanese treats thrown into the mix! Yay!

Oh! And our friends KayCee and Jake here gave us the best welcome gift ever.  Nice shampoos, soaps, lotions, and poofs.  I definitely have to remember this when we become sponsors. It was so nice to be able to shower that first night without having to dig through our bags for our stuff.  And this stuff was WAAAY better than the hotel soap.

And more food and Japanese snacks.  Very much appreciated!!!

We postponed going out to eat with our sponsor since we were so freaking tired.  That's what you get for not sleeping the whole flight! It worked out well, because by the time we actually got our bags into the room, it was probably around 9:30/10.  Sammy was relieved (in more than one way) to be let out of her kennel, and finally got to stretch her little legs, and then we crashed and we crashed hard, but we woke up at a decent hour to start our first day on the island.

Next up I'll actually share with you guys what you've actually been waiting to see.  Photos of Japan!!!! Yay!!!  Now that we've been in our house for a week, I've had some time to do cooking, so I plan on updating Kacey's Kitchen here soon also!  I apologize for not updating sooner, it's been really hard to sit in front of the computer when I just want to be out exploring and setting up our house!

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Sending Mail to an APO

I've recently sent my friends and family our mailing address here and thought it would be useful to post some information about sending things to an APO.  I had to look up most of this information when I got our new address, so I'm sure it's bound to help someone!

Congrats on your PO address!  But wait, I want to mail you guys amazing things from back home.  How do I do that?

It's easy!  If you are mailing an envelope that weighs less than 1lb, is less than 3/4" thick, and only contains paper...you just slap a stamp on that sucker and throw it in the mail.  If you want to mail a package, you'll need to fill out a customs form, and which one depends on how much your package weighs.  If it's under 4lbs, you'll fill out 'CN-22 PS Form 2976', if it's over 4lbs, you'll fill out 'CP-72 PS Form 2976A'.  That one is a bit longer, but not impossible.  You can fill this out either at the post office or online and print it out.  Hopefully your postmaster isn't a grump and is willing to help you.  Oh, and you'll still need a separate address label with the address and the return address. More information (and online forms) can be found at https://www.usps.com/ship/apo-fpo-guidelines.htm

Yay! That doesn't seem too hard. Since you are in another country, how much is it going to cost me to send you amazing things from back home?

You'll love this answer. Because it's an APO address (Army & Air Force Post Office), it's going to cost you the same as sending something to California!!!  When you send something to us, it goes to a military mail center in San Francisco, where the military & state department handle getting it to us.  The "AP" in our address stands for Armed Forces Pacific.  It might be smart to add insurance since it's going to me man-handled so much (usually about 1% of package value).

How long will it take?

Your postmaster probably won't tell you this...because they aren't handling it to it's final destination.  The typical times are as follows:

Parcel Post (Normal Mail = Cheapest) 30-45 days.  It's sent by boat.

Priority 7-12 days, sent by plane.

Express Mail (Um...don't send us express mail, that will cost way tooo much) 2 days.  Sent by an important fast plane.

Are there anythings I CAN'T send you?

Asides from the normal things you can't mail anyway: alcohol, drugs, weapons, paints, matches, etc...you also cannot mail us any type of porn or seminude articles.  Not even as a joke, sorry guys.  I would hope you wouldn't send that stuff anyway, but it really wouldn't be cool at all to send that to another country and to a military base.  And yes, they can check by x-rays and opening the packages if something suspicious is in there.  You also cannot mail money to us. I know, you guys were running to the post office to do that.  Well, I think technically you can, but then you have to declare it and I don't think you want to write on the outside of the package that you have $1,000 cash inside.  So, if you wanted to send us $1,000, you'll just have to wire it.

Do I have to mail you things in a special box?

Nope! Just do what you do when sending things back home.  I would recommend you use those flat rate priority mail boxes, even if half of it is just shoved with packing paper.  If you are sending something with any sort of weight to it, you'll definitely want to use these boxes.  I think they can hold up to 70lbs or something ridiculous like that, not to mention it will only take about a week to reach us, unlike a month or two sending it slow boat.  Because it's traveling around the world, I would definitely take extra time to make sure the box is tightly packed and taped up really well, more so than back home.  These boxes take a lot of abuse, and I've seen tons here that are practically ripped to shreds or looked like it was run over.  The ones that were packed well look like they are brand new.

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Seattle

On February 1st, Aaron got one of his favorite birthday presents ever.

WE WERE LEAVING OKLAHOMA.  

I should say that Oklahoma really wasn't horrible.  It wasn't even really bad.  It just wasn't for us.  We stayed busy while we were there and did as much as we could do in the year and a half living there.  We traveled around the middle of the country, we saw lots of flat land and cows, we ate lots of fried onion burgers.  We checked out the sites (yup, there are 'sites' in Oklahoma), learned about the land rush, and realized that Oklahoma isn't as windy as you might have heard.  But it is in the middle of nowhere, and we did our time and were ready to leave.  And trust me, we were ready to leave.

So from the 1st to the 11th, we drove back "home" (the northeast) and spent time with family and friends before we headed to Japan.  There was lots of driving.  Sammy spent lots of time in her kennel in the back.  She had to explore hotel room after hotel room on a regular basis.  I think she should be earning her own hotel and airline points  by now.

Super early in the morning on the 12th, we lugged our bags (you'll see all of them in the next post) to the airport and flew off to Seattle for a day and a half before going to Japan.  I highly recommend taking an extra day before traveling overseas like we did.  It was so relaxing and it was nice to do something just for ourselves.  The past month we had been staying with numerous family members and driving and driving and driving until our arms fell off (no, not really), and it was nice to deplane and sit in a jacuzzi tub for a few hours (literally).   

For those of you who are reading this that are military moving overseas....The military will pay up to $150 for one night stay in a hotel.  They do NOT have to book the room for you.  You can book it yourself anywhere you want.  If they book it, your going to stay at an express hotel across from the airport.  Why not stay at a boutique hotel downtown?  They'll reimburse your taxi to and from the hotel also.

Day 1

My cousin recommended the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle, which was AMAZING.  We wanted something within walking distance of restaurants and shops, unique and cat friendly.  The Alexis met our requirements! Oh - and they have a GREAT military rate (your per diem rate).

We were able to get an early check in, which was great since we had the cat.  And that would have been pretty annoying to carry her in the rain everywhere we wanted to go.  The first mission was to find food.  I was starved, and starting to get Hangry, so we headed out to the public market just a few blocks north.  Perfect, because I love farmers markets, I love food, and farmers markets have food.  Bam!

Doing a little chowhounding, we found out about Jack's Fish Spot and the delicious chowder and COD fish and chips.  So that's what we got, and it was delicious!  I also threw in a fish taco which was pretty awesome too.  Just some food that you really can't get in Oklahoma...and if you can get it, you don't want it. It was really tasty and we enjoyed the on-the-go vibe grabbing a stool at the fish counter (watching them scale and filet some).  We loved how normal it was to sit out in the rain in the middle of winter eating some delicious food.

Next up, Beecher's Cheese, where you can watch them make it from the street.  We popped inside where I ate too many cheese curd samples and got stressed out trying to make a decision of which cheese to buy to eat in our room later.  TOO MANY CHOICES!!! And they let us sample as many as we wanted.  Aaron explained that we are probably going to like anything so we shouldn't try anymore, and we opted to blindly choose a soft goat cheese and homemade crackers.

See what I mean? And this was only half the counter.  On the other side, they also had a little deli counter where you could get cheesy sandwiches/paninis made!

With a number of breweries in town, we chose The Pike Brewing Company out of pure convenience.  I got one of their flights and think the Kilt Lifter was my favorite.  Surprise, surprise! HA!

It was a really cute city, and although we only strolled through a couple of the neighborhoods, we really liked the vibe here.  We'll definitely be back.

The flower selection in and out of the market was amazing!

After walking around for a couple of house, we headed back to the hotel for some R&R.  Knowing how much we traveled the past month and the fact that we were moving to the other side of the world in less than 2 days, we didn't want to go crazy.

Dinner was a hard one to narrow down, but I knew that I wanted to check out one of Tom Douglas's places.  I had heard about Tom Douglas a while ago, and it seemed like ever since we knew we were going to Seattle, his name has been popping up everywhere.  Randomly stumbling on blogs about his restaurant  reading a local Oklahoma magazine featuring him, and missing a Tom Douglas cooking demo by just a few hours in Oklahoma.  After surveying up the menu's, we went with Palace Kitchen.

OH! I gotta tell you this part. So prior to dinner we went down to the lobby "wine hour" at our hotel to partake in some complimentary drinks.  On a cold and dreary Seattle evening, we chose hot toddys before we walked on.  We stood in the lobby shooting the shit with the managers (our lobby bartenders) about this being our first time in Seattle, first time at a Kimpton hotel.  Where have we been, where are we going to eat tonight, where we should go for breakfast. We have a cat, we are going to Japan.  Oh! You're moving to Japan!?! Woah! (I know!).  So this cool dude manager Mike says, "I've got a surprise for you!" Um.....Aaron and I just looked at each other...Okay.... He runs up to the front desk and comes back a few minutes later and says, "Well, the executive spa suite isn't available but I've upgraded you guys to another suite for tomorrow night.  You really should stay someplace special for your last night in the states.  Is that okay?"

Is that okay?  Really Mike? Is it okay that after speaking to us for 3 minutes you upgraded us and the cat to a suite?  Um, yeah, I think it will be okay.

Woah.  Right?  That was freaking awesome!!!!  So after many thanks and some more chatting, we left for dinner.  Aaron and I high five as soon as we are out the door.

Okay...so back to Palace Kitchen:
I'm sorry to say I don't have any pictures. The lighting was waaaaay too dark, and I made the decision to forgo fighting with the lighting and just order and enjoy eating my food.  I can tell you what we ordered and that it was all really REALLY good.

We both ordered one of their classic cocktails (Of course, now I can't remember what they were).  For an entree I decided to go with 2 appetizers, which in my experience is usually a wise choice.  This time did not disappoint.  I went with the Puget Sound Black Mussels (with leek, taragon, white wine, and meyer lemon) and the Crispy Fried Pig Tail (celery root, honey mustard, horseradish, chervil).  I really enjoyed this dish.  Mussels are one of my favorite dishes, and I'm not sure if I've ever had Puget Sound mussels before.  These dudes were HUGE! They packed tons of flavor and the leek/taragon/lemon/wine sauce was perfect with them.  The bread they served with the dish was AWESOME, it was charred over an open flame and it was perfect.  I could have just eaten the bread for dinner and would have been happy.  The pork tail was really fun. I had never had it before, and was really happy I ordered it.  Let's see how to describe it.  Each little joint broke apart, so you could get all the meat and fat from between them.  The outside was chewy and crispy...sort of like the tip of a chicken wing, but the meat was tender and fatty.  It was a great combination and fun to eat with your hands (really, the only way to do it).  The horseradish mustard sauce was an awesome addition to it.  Aaron was going back and forth with a few different options here as well, but decided on the meat and sausage plate (actual name unknown by us).  I know he really enjoyed it, but I was so wrapped up into my dish, I don't even remember trying his.  He's asleep right now otherwise I'd ask him to describe it for you.  We were STUFFED, so skipped on dessert and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2
Breakfast.  One of my most favorite things in the world!  Once again, I had done some Yelping and Chowhounding to find something suitable for us.  After grabbing some coffee we walked up to Lower Queen Anne, about a 40 minute trek.  Toulouse Petit was supposed to open at 8am, but had a little trouble getting started, so we strolled through this amazingly cute market just up the street, and then to grab some more coffee next door.  We weren't in a rush, and I was glad Aaron didn't mind waiting, because I really REALLY wanted to eat here.
It was really hard to decide what to get, but eventually we figured it out.  Aaron started with a Creole Bloody Mary, which is always YUM! and I couldn't pass up the Cured Pork Cheeks Confit Hash which had been featured on Food Network's 'Best Thing I Ever Ate'.  Aaron settled for the Oyster and Bacon Benedict.

The verdict?  Bloody Mary - Yum! A great way to start off a great meal.  Enough booze and enough spice to satisfy us!

Pork Cheek Hash? Mega yum.  The veggies included some greens, asparagus, and apple.  Whatever the herbs they used on it were great.  The pork cheek was amazing.  So tender and such a different flavor then other cuts of pork I've had.  And really, 2 sunny side up eggs??? That could make any breakfast dreamy!!!

Although I would definitely recommend the Pork Cheek Hash over and over again. The real winner this day was the Oyster and Bacon Benedict.  A homemade english muffin with wonderfully thick slices of bacon (and very nicely crisped I might add), with HUGE, and I mean HUGE and juicy and tasty and crunchy fried oysters.  They were so huge, I wish I got a picture of one next to my face.  On top of those, 2 perfectly poached eggs and a homemade hollandaise.  No sides forgotten about, these crispy potatoes were some of the best crispy potatoes I've ever had.  I may have snuck one two 30459 off of Aaron's plate when he was too busy savoring the benedict.  It was just an all over perfect combination.  And I want it again!!!!

One thing that is pretty awesome about this place is that they serve breakfast all day, but from 8am-11am  Monday - Friday is breakfast happy hour!  $7.50 drinks and $8 entrees.  There are a few select dishes that aren't $8, but are still heavily discounted.  Mine was $8 (Normally $14) and Aaron's was $11 (Normally $16), and we would have been happy paying the full prices, but it was even better that we didn't!  There are so many yummy things here, that even if you can't get to Seattle for breakfast, I still recommend checking out their menu to drool over.  It was by far the best breakfast we have ever eaten.

I need to stop looking at those pictures because I'm getting SOOO hungry!

How about we talk about music and zombies next? Okay, here we go.

Brendan recommended the EMP Museum to us, and it was only 8 or so blocks away from breakfast.  So after we got there, realized I left my camera at the restaurant, went back to get it, and walked back, we bought our tickets and headed inside.  It's a pretty neat pop culture museum with exhibitions such as Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Science Fiction, Horror Films, Guitars, Black Leather Jackets, and The Art of Video Games which was opening a few days later.  It was pretty neat, and they had a hands on room where you could learn to play guitars, drums, keyboards, etc...

After a few house at the EMP, we headed back to the Alexis just in time to switch rooms into our suite.  It was pretty fucking awesome.  Check it out:

You better believe I took advantage of that huge bathtub.  I was so pruney I thought my fingers were going to fall off.  I couldn't help it though, I could practically swim laps in that thing!

It was so nice to have such a big space, since our main goal after walking around all day was to relax.  After all, we had to wake up a 2am the next morning to head off to Japan.  Lounging on the couch(es) in our leopard print robes, we broke into our snacks from the market.  Russian Piroshkies (the smoked salmon pate one was amazing!), Beecher's cheese and crackers, and the rest of our free wine (from the hotel!).

So not only did our manager friend Mike hook us up with the ballin' room, he gave us a call that night to see how we were doing.  "Hey, this is Mike from last night, not sure if you remember."  Really, that's what he said.  And seeing it out of context now sounds like we were up to some pretty shady dealings I wouldn't want to be blogging about.  But I was thinking...Mike!!! Of course we remember, we got this bitching room thanks to you!....I said something sort of similar.  Well, Mike just wanted to make sure our room and service were up to par (I should have requested bubble bath), and he wanted to see when we were leaving the next day because he wanted to have coffee with us and chat.  Just like that.  Maybe we sounded interesting or something.  Maybe it was the whole, getting drunk for free in the lobby and moving to Japan with our cat made us sound really cool or something.  I'll think that for now, it works.  Anyway, Mike wasn't digging the whole wake up at 2am thing, so he hooked us up with some free drink passes for the hotel bar/restaurant.  Sweet!  So to sum it up, our stay in Seattle and at the Alexis was great regardless of our upgrade, but that totally raised our experience up quite a bit.

I'll be blogging about Japan soon, so please stay in tune.  We've been here for about 12 days now, and it's been really interesting!  We've recently moved into a house, trying to get settled and meet new people, so it's been crazy busy...but I'd really like to carve out some me time for blogging and cleaning up the office.

See you soon!

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MilSpouse First Friday Fill-In (February)

Wifey of Wife of a Sailor came up with this 5 question monthly series to get to know our fellow bloggers better!  Once you post your answers on your own blog, you will submit your link on her site, where all the contributors are listed! Check it, Check it!

Here's my questions and answers for February!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?  There isn't much that I could have changed, but it would have been nicer to have a smaller gap between finishing up our TDY and starting in Japan.  Let me say this though, I have absolutely no place complaining about Aaron having tons of free time.  We had over a month of just hanging around couch and hotel hopping, which was nice to have a bit of time for relaxing, but it was so much time just WAITING to move to another country.  We are very ready to get started on that part of our lives.  It was nice to find new things to stay busy with and to get to know our family better.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in January? Spending a relaxing, fattening and drunkening New Years with Aaron, my sister, her boyfriend, and her kitties.

3. What are you looking forward to in February? Moving to Japan, duh!!!!

4. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? Flying to Japan motherfuckers!!!!

5. What is your best advice for a MilSpouse whose spouse is deployed for Valentine’s Day? I really can't be giving advice to any part of this because Aaron and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  Annnnd, he has yet to be deployed.  If I HAD to give advice, I would say start now and admit to yourself that V-Day is just another day on the calendar, cause it is.  And if you can't do that, then buy yourself a container (or two) of Ben & Jerry's (and non of that fat-free shit either), a bottle (or two) of wine, and brag about your night.  Make people jealous you're going to eat and drink and be merry sitting in your underwear on the couch watching lots of reruns of Law and Order or Glee or whatever it is that floats your alone time boat.

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to follow 'Where in the World is Kacey?', please subscribe here so you don't miss anything! Also, be sure to check out Kacey's Kitchen for my food blog!

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