A Day of Near-Misses

On Thursday last week I took a tour of the botanical gardens, some castle ruins, a Shinto shrine, and a traditional Japanese farmhouse with an MCCS tour group from base. It was wonderful! I had the opportunity to see some parts of the island I had never been to before, and now I am eager to go back and explore more in depth.

I took my camera with me to capture all of the sights. And I did... at the botanical gardens. But then we stopped in American Village for lunch. I went to the "Sushi go 'round" for my lunch, then popped into Baskin Robbins for a kid's cone dessert. I sat on a bench and worked on my scuba homework. Then I went into a store to piddle away the rest of my time. I began to make my way back to the meeting spot and realized... I no longer had my camera.

I was fairly certain that I had left it on the bench in front of Baskin Robbins, so I retraced my steps, only to find that it was no longer there. I went into the store and tried to communicate to the non-English speaking ice cream girl that I had lost my camera. She indicated that no one had turned it in, and directed me to the Police Station across the street. Filing the lost object report there was quite an experience, as no one there spoke English either! But I got the form all filled out and the Police were very nice.

So, the tour went on. Not as much fun as the morning, because I was brooding over the loss of my camera. But, I enjoyed seeing all of the sights and learning more about the history and culture of Okinawa. As the tour wound down and we made our way back to base, I began to wonder if, perhaps, I had had my camera with me when I left Baskin Robbins and laid it down in the store when I was piddling around. As soon as I got back to my car, I acted on my hunch and went back to the store in American Village just to see if... perhaps... and I was right! My camera was there, behind the checkout counter where an employee had placed it after I left it! Hooray!! That was near-miss number one.

The second came later that evening when I went to the Sunabe Seawall to meet some friends for drinks. Before I continue, you need to know that I'm not great at parallel parking. Like my Mom, if I nudge the curb, it's not a bad thing... it let's me know that I'm parked! That said, I lined up Burr's van to park in between two cars on the seawall. I eased back into the spot and checked to make sure that I was lined up correctly with the other two cars. I kept turning the wheel towards the curb and backing up. Before I knew it, I was perfectly aligned with the cars in front of and behind me, having never bumbed the curb.

As I congratulated myself on this small miracle of parallel parking very well, without hitting the curb, I got out of the car and gasped. I was about a foot away from not a curb, but a DITCH!! And a concrete one at that! Near-miss number two: that I didn't drive Burr's van into the concrete ditch. Whew!