Hiji Falls!

Despite some issues, we did manage to make it ti Hiji Falls before we headed home on Saturday.

It was fantastic!

The kids had a pretty positive attitude (except for one) and they were (mostly) thrilled to enjoy the glorious beauty.

It was just about a mile hike to the Falls, but I did not tell them.   It was a gorgeous hike.  Lots of different terrain.

You could hike through the water if you wanted.  It was too cold for that and we did not want to.

But where the water trail and land trail met up, we did spend a bit of time rock hopping and playing.

They had a great time.

Much fun was had climbing all over the rocks and running around.

Dan enjoyed the antics.

Callie was in the thick of it.

Even Josh enjoyed himself!

And he posed for some photos.

The trail went up and down and the bridges were cool.

Callie wanted a picture.

I got a selfie with the kids on the suspension bridge.  That was a nifty bridge!

Did I mention the up and down?!!!  It was some serious up and down.

They made it!  Hooray!

Okay, the Falls themself may not be the most amazing thing ever.

But the hike to see it was absolutely worth it!

The hike back was even fun.  Well, fun for all but one.

 

And check it out!  The girls snagged a salamander on the hike back!  It was a fast mover, but Marian was faster. (Don't worry, he was released unharmed.)

Fun at Okuma

 Okuma is a little beach resort.  They have almost all the usual stuff.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to play golf, miniature golf or put-put golf. Well, I did, but it was too windy and gross to go do it. There were go carts and a great fitness trail.  We could not find the go carts, but we did walk part of the trail. The weather on Friday was just ugly and drizzly though.

The girls realized that the outside seating at the restaurant had these hammocks.  So they enjoyed them. 

 And they all thought it hysterically funny to stand here and wait to see if a wave would blast the side hard enough to get them wet. 

 Callie and Marian may have gotten a little saturated. But the water did not cooperate when I had the camera out!

 Delaney wanted you to know just how windy it was!

 So here she is, blowing away with Rylee!

Delaney thought it was hysterical that this cupboard was big enough to climb into.

Rylee had to try it as well.

Later I came by and thought they were done playing in it. Nope, someone was sitting in there reading on their kindle!

Hedo Point, the northernmost tip of the Island

One of my goals was to go to Hedo Point, which is the northernmost part of the island.  The kids were not thrilled, but they were content to go.  It was about 20 minutes from Okuma, so it was the coldest we were going to be to go.

It was a gorgeous drive down the shore.

This chicken statue made the trip worth it to the kids!

So yay, here we are, at the northernmost point of Okinawa!

A selfie with all the kids! Hooray!

My "I was there" selfie.

And then there was this rocky outcropping that went a bit further.  Therefore, it must be traversed.

Except it was all this awful jagged rock.  Rylee made it about this far. Delaney wisely refused to try. But you can See Callie all the way behind Rylee!

Yep. Callie and Marian went as far out as they could.  I may have been a little worried they might fall to their deaths. But I let them be strong independent women, and they successfully explored and did not die.

Josh made it out there too and here he is, posing with Marian.  Such silly kids.  But I was still a little scared.

Look how far it is, and the rocks were jagged and sharp and rough. But I let them go try hard things and I'm glad no one fell.

The other side of the Point. Such a pretty beach!

There was a giant chicken sculpture that you could see, and my GPS made it look like it was less than a mile away.  So off we went to find it. We ended up driving down this road.

And we went up another mountain and couldn't get to the chicken. And we came back down this road.

This road almost got us there, but at the end, we had to back out a bit to turn around.  We never got to the chicken.

But I did make the kids get out of the van on the way home so they could pose by the glorious water!

How windy was it?!

Delaney brought her hammock to Okuma and by golly, she wanted to use it!  Despite the wind, she was determined to get some use out of her hammock.  So off she went to do so.  

If it hadn't been tied down, it would have sailed away like a kite!

She did manage to beat it into submission. 

She made it into the hammock! 

 And snuggled in to stay warm and out of the wind!  Success!

Welcome to Okuma!

 Okuma is the military owned and run beach resort on the northern end of the island.  It is kind of THE thing to do, and it books up pretty quickly.  Way back when Josh and Dan wanted to go camping, this was the only place that they could go.  While up there, Dan checked on openings and made reservations for the week after Christmas.  It seemed like a great idea.... back on October!

Suddenly, it was Christmas, and the idea of going to a beach resort the day after Christmas was a lot less appealing.  Plus, Dan couldn't take the time off work to go with us.   So it may not have been such a great idea.  Still.  For $65 a night for a nice suite, we decided to go.

I took the kids and we left shortly after returning home from ice skating.  It was about a 90 minute drive in the rain, which was stinky, but not terrible. The rain was pretty awful though!  And it was pouring and windy when we arrived, so that was no fun.  But we got settled in and the kids enjoyed watching tv and staying up late somewhere other than home.

Thursday morning I got up and went for a lovely walk on the beach.  It was glorious!  The water is SO pretty!  The picture really do not do it justice.

Literally, this is the view from the room. Worth the trip, yes?!

The tide was out and it was lovely.

I saw this awesome dead fish on the shore and was impressed. 

Sigh.  So pretty! 

Kind of pretty, but much less desirable!

 The shore was littered with these dead jellyfish.  So I guess it was good that it was too cold to swim. 

 But it sure was gorgeous!

Unfortunately, it was also windy.  And I mean WINDY! Once I got up from the beach, where the sand was not damp from the sea, the wind just picked up the sand and pelted you with it.  It was not fun.  It hurt.  And it got everywhere and into everything.