>Freedom

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In the two years since he was born though, we haven’t even had an overnight to ourselves.  Not because our families didn’t offer (multiple times) before we moved here but because it wasn’t practical; he was still nursing and I couldn’t have gone that long without feeding him, if not for his sake then at least for mine.

So when my mom bought her ticket to come here for a two-week visit, Tony and I immediately began making plans to go somewhere for a couple of those days.  If anyone understands the importance of “couple-only” time, it’s my mom.  Plus she hadn’t seen The Critters in fifteen months and desperately wanted a chance to get them to herself.

The original plan had been to go up to Okuma; to rent the cabin specifically reserved for couples and spend the time exploring the upper half of the island on our own.  When we learned that we’d waited too long to stay there we looked into our other options, which turned out to be the cabins at Oura Wan beach on a secluded Marine base north of where we live.

It was the best $50 a night hotel I can imagine.  Gorgeous tiled floors; a (nearly) full kitchen and gas grill; living room and separate bedroom.  Private, quiet, and only 45 minutes from home but worlds away.  We brought with us steaks and chicken breasts, ready-to-bake potatoes, baked beans and green beans… plus two bottles of wine.

We’d forgotten to pack our wine opener, instead grabbing a $2 plastic version at the wine store.  Tony has since made me pinkie swear that we will never again buy or use such an atrocity ever again as long as we are married.  That was the low point of the trip.

The high point was Forest Adventure Park: zip lines galore and the “Tarzan course”.

The high point of this for me was the big jump into a net, requiring a two second free fall from a fifty foot tower.  We did the entire course twice; both times I had to steel myself for a good ten seconds before making the leap.  But I did it.

So did Tony… and here’s the video proof.  If you’d like to hear a grown man squeal turn up your speakers.  He says it was because of the “squishing of his favorite parts”; I’d just like to know if he makes that noise when he’s jumping out of helicopters and airplanes.

There was also our trip to Hiji Falls, which I will forever be grateful that we didn’t attempt with The Critters.  Everything I’ve read has improperly called this a “hike”, but with the endless sets of stairs going both up and down it more than made up for the fact that I hadn’t been working out with my Boot Camp.  By the time we reached the falls themselves, Tony and I looked as though we’d gone swimming, sweat-soaked as we were.  And then we had to go back.

 

I’ve never been so glad that we don’t have an HD camera, because then you’d be able to see the sweat dripping from every inch of our skin.  We passed families going there and back, none of whom looked as though they’d fallen in the river like we did.  I can only say it must have been because we were moving at  a rapid pace… for the exercise aspect of it all, of course.

Tony also got to see his first movie in a theater since we arrived on island, The Final Destination.  Save yourself the time and money and don’t even put it in your NetFlix queue; unlike its predecessors there was no actual storyline to this sequel.  Only beheadings and blood and gratuitous sex scenes that were an obvious delight to the Marines in the theater with us, but which served no real purpose to the movie itself.

Despite the hiccups – plastic corkscrew, getting lost repeatedly, dud of a movie – this was a much needed and much appreciated break for the two of us.  As for my mom… well, she didn’t mind having The Critters to herself for a bit.  Not at all.

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