I was blessed to receive a tax return large enough to allow me to visit Spencer and family in Okinawa. I love to walk around at sunset on the boardwalk. Such a sight...and to have two of my grandchildren share this with me is incredible. I am so blessed.
Notice the sea wall and how far it extends. This is great typhoon and tsunami protection.
This is a 5 minute drive from Spencer's home. We drove to the sea wall because it was really hot and wanted to stay till the sun went down.
Sydney, Shawn, Suzy and Spencer threw rocks in the ocean for a while.
Suzy has quite the collection of sea glass in a variety of rare colors....blue, green, brown, and white. It is amazing to find it in the sand after a storm. Its really quite beautiful. Shawn helps her find it.
Sydney and I on the wall.
I love this photo of Syd looking in to the sunset.
I love to go to the Japanese grocery store and see all the different vegetables. These are weird. Wonder what they taste like?
Shawn loved Tory Beach where we actually found a beautiful blue starfish.... I would post the photo but I don't want a photo of me in my bathing suit....sorry!
One day we went to the Peace Memorial which is dedicated to all the men from several countries who lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa. This is Spencer's family at the entrance... can you see Sydney's little Japanese shoes?.... She just had to wear them and they are not easy to walk in.
Beautiful view of the grounds.
This is the huge Peace Shrine in the visitors center.
This lady was gracious to allow me, a tourist, to get a photo of her in her traditional costume.
Spencer and family at the bell that tolls.
I will need to do some genealogy to see if I am related to this man Gilbert Weiss... my maiden name.
The restaurants were so good. You really get a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs in your food.... and a big portion
This was one of my favorite restaurants. They grow their own vegetables and herbs and it overlooks the ocean; so the view from the restaurant is amazing. The food was amazing! The next photo is outside the restaurant.
Shawn was a trooper but was missing his nap so he was tired.
It started to rain.. you can see a few drops on the photo.
My favorite spot and place to go....Okuma Beach. The military has a resort that families can rent housing and stay. It has boat and kayak rentals, BBQ pits, beautiful scenery, warm,clear oceans, bike rentals, hiking... a reastaurant.... all the works. The most beautiful water I have seen or swam in. I got sun burnt because I stayed in the water for a few hours with the kids.
Shawn had a great time with digging in the sand.
Children know no language barriers. This Japanese girl played for a hour with Sydney and Shawn. No words were needed. They were so sweet together.
We had a race with Spencer in these cars... Suzy and I drove a 4 person bike with the two kids in the front. It was fun!
One of our hikes to the top of one of the small mountains.
Beautiful scenery and floral gardens on the resort. Shawn is so sweet and I am glad I got to bond with him. He would say... where's grandma when I would leave the room! I have a relationship with Sydney but Shawn was only crawling the last time I was in Japan so I was thrilled he liked me. He is so fun!
Now that is some gorgeous water! See what I mean!
One of the boat rentals..... I stayed on shore to photograph.
This is the small mountain we hiked to the top off. So beautiful . Wish you could all go for a visit to Okinawa!
So the zoos are so different in Okinawa. The animals are right in the area with you. These birds flew from across the water to us when we entered the zoo. It was, at times, a bit scary as they came right up to us.
They had an area where you could hold small animals and dogs.
Can you believe they let us feed the turtles and even sit on them for pictures. Of course Spencer and I tried to keep most of our weight off the turtle.... Spencer looks like a teenage mutant ninja turtle... Rafael.
So I took this photo of Suzy feeding these weird looking animals.... what ever they are; but I swear they look like the rodents of unusual size in The Princess Bride. I want to thank Suzy and Spencer for all their love and sharing many of the islands activites with me. I love them so much.
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