The new adventures of CTK moms

It seems that lately my friend Crystal and I see each other more than we see our husbands.  Thank you Air Force!  And because of this we don't want to sit around at home so, we've been taking our boys out and exploring Okinawa!

Our last adventure was the zoo... this time White Beach and Ikei Island!

White beach was planned.  Crystal read that White Beach was a great place to get Sea Glass!  Turns out it was better for sea shells on this day.

We packed up Crystal's car with a picnic and everything the boys might need at the beach.  Shovels, buckets, trucks...etc.  I guess it took us about 30 minutes to get here.  White Beach is on a navy installation.  

White Beach is very large.  It has a camp ground where you can rent a camper (RV), grills, picnic tables, and a great playground.  There were also signs telling us to beware of jellyfish... swim at your own risk.  We did not swim here.  The boys loved the playground!  Crystal and I found tons of colorful seashells, which was exciting considering we usually find white ones and broken ones.  We walked the beach and ate lunch here and then decided that it was too hot not to swim.

On to our second adventure of the day... Ikei Island.  pronounced Ekai

We didn't have directions for this one.  My neighbor had told me about this place, but all she said was it was straight over the bridge.  Ok where's the bridge?  Signs in this country are far and few between.  We had to turn around a few times.  The boys had no idea what was going on.  Us girls on the other hand were dying laughing.  Finally, a bridge... is it the right one.  Turns out it was... we saw a sign!

So over 2 bridges and through 2 "tunnels".  We made it!!!  Parked the car and entered the beach.  Boys were free and Crystal paid 400 yen each.  Beautiful place.  Water was pretty chilly but extremely clear.  We definitely want to go back.  They had grills, jet skis, water trikes... all kinds of activities.

I wish this wasn't blurry... would've been super cute

tired out!

I wonder where we'll end up this week?  

Pineapples and Pizza in the Sky

Nago Pineapple Park

A family adventure.  We took the ExpressWay (toll road) to the much awaited Pineapple Park.  Aiden slept in the car.  After turning around only once we found ourselves facing some giant pineapple people.  The japanese love cartoon characters!!

We paid for our admission and entered the Park.  First, we boarded a pineapple golf cart.  It was fully electric and drove itself through the park.  There was no track... we guessing it was like a remote controlled car.

The park was beautiful! 

We listened to a recording about the park (in English) during our ride.  The pineapple car stopped as we exited we got to eat some fresh pineapple!  Yum!!! It was delicious (my favorite fruit).  Then the path lead us to sort of a sea shell museum.  There were lots of beautiful shells in here.  Sadly though, no translations and you weren't allowed to take pictures in here.

Once out of there, the path lead to a restaurant or down a "cobble" path.   Some displays with the history of pineapple farming (I'm guessing).  The only disappointment: No Translations!

This then led us to the tasting room!  Pineapple Wine... Sadly due to some unfortunate circumstances Active duty is not allowed to drink off base.  More wine for me!  Aiden and Daniel did however enjoy the pure pineapple juice, cakes, cookies, basically anything you could imagine pineapple flavored.  Huge tourist trap!  A fresh market and all things Okinawan.  Let's just say we need to go back!  Left here with pineapple juice and pineapple wine!  Oh, and sea grapes... Daniel's choice.

Pizza in the Sky

This ended up being a late lunch/ early dinner.  From the pineapple park we went through all of these winding roads up a mountain.  Let me just say, this place was not marked well.  We almost past it because it looked like someone's home.  We got a family sized salad and pizza.  Salad was great!  Pizza... how do I describe it.... different.  Crust great... toppings... we were told pepperoni, bacon, peppers, onions, corn, and cheese.  We exnayed the onions and peppers.  Let's just say corn on pizza... kinda strange, but not bad.  Pepperoni... not pepperoni, but hot dogs... not so good.  The view is beautiful and that and the salad made the meal worth it.