More Okinawa

I wish I'd blogged about the entire trip all at once.  It already feels like a distant memory now that we are home and back to the daily grind...
Day 3 We went to church (even though it was General Conference weekend) and it was fun to see a few familiar faces of people that are still there.  The building has been updated, thankfully.  Now it has better air conditioning and doesn't stink! Did you know that the Church members in Asia don't watch General Conference until the week after the broadcast? The time change makes it impossible for the members there to watch it live unless they were to stay up all night and skip work on Monday morning.

This is the back of the church.  It's just one long hallway with classrooms on one side and a gym and chapel on the other, with a little annex on the left for the youth classes.  I have so many memories of sprinting through this parking lot with little boys trying to get to church on time.

After church we went to a cool shrine that we'd never been to before, even though we drove past it every time we went to church, which was a lot!  We washed our hands in the sacred water and took a few pictures and it basically felt like a good thing to do on the Sabbath Day.

Then we we drove up north to do a short hike to a waterfall.  I envisioned beautiful, serene jungle and a waterfall to wade in at the end of our little walk.  Instead we ended up walking mostly through the water to get to the waterfall and none of my kids wore appropriate shoes.  There were also a lot of young Marines (think teenagers covered in tattoos, listening to music, and smoking) hiking along with us which ruined the peacefulness of the experience but helped Randy and I feel good about our decision to get out of the Navy :)  Good thing too, because every other part of this trip made us wish we had stayed in!  But we had a great time on the hike and the boys loved jumping off the rocks and wading through the water.  It felt very Swiss Family Robinson.

Always posing and flexing...

Marcus hiking barefoot which made the two podiatrists we were with verrrrry nervous

Randy

Marcus

That water pelting onto their sunburned shoulders was painful but the picture was worth it

Even Landon worked up the courage to swing

2 podiatrists, Darby, and an audiologist

Day 4 We went to the Forest Adventure Zip Line park where I melted in the sun and humidity and Landon surprised us all by being fearless while soaring high above the jungle.  The boys loved the whole experience and I kept wishing for a way to get through the course that involved a shady umbrella.  The views overlooking the ocean were breathtaking.

Before the sweat fest began

Oh, how I've missed you,  hibiscus flower! 

So fun to laugh at Japanese translations

Landon zipping along and yelling "I love Cheez-its!"

Ethan and Marcus chose to morbidly zip along

I love their little trucks!  If only I could get one for Marcus some day

We made a quick trip to Maeda Flats, the beach where we spent most of our time when the boys were little, and where they first learned to snorkel.  If only we had time to let Marcus and Ethan swim through the Cave of Death!

Then it was off to lunch at a cool little place full of traditional Okinawa festival food.  We ordered a few plates of taco rice and some other random things, then topped off our meal with shaved ice covered in fruit and sweetened condensed milk.  It was the perfect thing to eat after a hot and sweaty morning.

After lunch we drove up to the aquarium.  We spent a ton of time looking at all the fish and pointing to the ones we recently saw on our snorkeling adventures.  The whale sharks were just as impressive as we remembered them, but definitely showing their age.  We watched a dolphin show overlooking views of the ocean and Ie Island where Randy and I both ran half marathons years ago.

The 3rd largest aquarium in the world, or something like that

Such drama!

Landon and Weston became great buds

We drove back to American Village which is a touristy place we used to go to all the time.  It has changed and been added to a ton so we didn't even recognize it but felt right at home eating tiny hamburgers that are the Japanese version of American burgers.  They're pretty gross!  That night Randy and I collapsed into bed before 10pm.  I didn't even check if the boys ever made it to bed.  We were exhausted!

Day 5 We took a ferry to the tiny island of Kudaka.  It was a short ride and I'm happy to report that the waters were smooth so no one got sick.  We rented bikes that were probably 100 years old and rode down the little roads to a quiet beach where we ate ice cream called Coolish.  Yummy!  It's like those fruit pouches that you suck on but instead of apple sauce inside, it was cold vanilla ice cream.  I've got to figure out how to get those in the States.  I'd make a killing!

Happy to be on a ferry ride that didn't make him sick

this was the first thing we saw of the island when we arrived. 

We rode our bikes around the tiny island and yes, we burst into song several times singing tunes from The Sound of Music.  It just felt right.  We had a picnic lunch overlooking the ocean and basked in the beauty of our surroundings.  

Our first stop was a beach for ice cream

Coolish!

wishing he could cool off with a swim in the ocean

lilies growing wild along the bike path and Crista was the best tour guide

Can't think of a better picnic spot

Landon's face reminds me of Chunk on Goonies

We love the Frank's!

Doesn't that ferry boat look happy

everybody loves Darby

After we returned on the ferry we went to a park so the kids could play and experience the huge cement slide and roller slide. We spent hours at this park back in the day.  This time all the adults happily watched the kids play as they were all old enough to not need our help to prevent them from dying on all the dangerous equipment.

The boys flew down this big slide

We had our first really good Japanese dinner at a place called Sushi Gen and boy was the sushi good!  Landon's only request for our trip was to eat sushi and finally his wish was granted!  Ethan became a quick pro at eating with chopsticks while Marcus just pounded everything down using his hands.

It was our last night in Oki so we had to go back to Camp Lester and see our old house.  The hospital where Randy used to work and where Landon was born is no longer being used to it looks like a creepy haunted house but other than that, not much had changed.  Marcus couldn't believe how small everything looked and was overwhelmed by all the memories that came flooding back of house spent playing with the neighbor boys and running around our little cul-de-sac.

Behind the fence is Killin Elementary School where Marcus went to kindergarten.  We didn't want to take the trouble to go on base to get a better shot so try to look past the fence.

6234-D was our home for 3 years and the yard looked a lot better when we lived there

The view from our house.  All those buildings to the right of the ferris wheel weren't there before

Pirate Ship Park!

Marcus bought ice cream from the vending machine and was disappointed to discover beans inside.  He ate it anyway.

We went to Pirate Ship Park for a bit and then watched the sun set at Sunset Beach with our good friends while we ate ice cream from the vending machines.  It was the perfect ending to our trip. 

We sure love these people

Last trip to Family Mart before boarding the plane.  Had to get one more Coolish and CC Lemon drink

Okinawa truly was a special time in our lives.  When we left nine years ago we never thought we'd go back.  Going back and seeing all our favorite places with some of our favorite people was a joy I will never forget.  Our friendships we made there were probably the best part of living there and Okinawa will always have a piece of my heart.