Okinawa

We arrived late at night. A taxi took us to the main part of the hotel, unloaded our bags and left. Only then did we find out that our room was in a different building half a mile away. Argh! With his vague directions, we ended up lost. A woman out walking her dog, took pity upon the family hoofing it down the sidewalk with bags and carseats in tow. She gave us directions and then graciously sent her husband out to drive us to our hotel. Another example of the military family looking out for each other. We settled into our room that included a kitchen with a refrigerator! A big deal after going a month without one!

The first day we took a taxi to explore the ruins of Katsuren Castle. There doesn't seem to be much known about this castle that was built in the 13th century. Built on a high point overlooking the ocean, the views are impressive.

Asher likes to learn about something and then repeat it back to us. 

Here they are both explaining what they learned about the castle and cave. 

A Blue Rock Thrush I spotted at the ruins site.

We just happened to drive by the base movie theatre and noticed that we had 5 minutes before Zootopia began, so we hopped out of the taxi and into the theatre. The kids loved the entertainment and I loved that it was a story about breaking stereotypes and not limiting your potential. 

The commissary was conveniently located across the street from our hotel, 

so we bought a few items including some delicious toaster pastries. 

We spent our last day in Japan at the marina beach. The water was so unbelievably clear. We could see fish clearly, even their colors and patterns from the surface. The island had some interesting rock stairs on them.

Asher found a tiny crab in a shell.

We enjoyed dinner outside at a restaurant over the water. We then headed back to the hotel to pack up for the final time. The next morning we arrived at the terminal for 0730 roll call. Once they called our name, they led us to the front of the line to check our bags since we had to run to immigration to get stamped out before the flight. That was a stressful task as it was about a 20 minute drive, but we arrived back at the terminal just as the final passengers went thru security. It would now be 41 hours before we would arrive home. We spent 18 hours in the air on 3 different flights landing in Guam and Hawaii before California. The kids were real troopers and made friends all along the way.

After two weeks in Hawaii and two weeks in Japan, we had a ton of amazing experiences, but now we were ready to be back home and sleep for awhile.