Aunt Tracy visits!

When Aunt Tracy came to visit in May, we took a lot of pictures. It's just not that easy to upload pictures on Blogger, and I knew this post would be difficult, so I put it off. And sure enough, when I sat down to do it, I had problem after problem, and I put it off again. Finally, nine months later, I'm ready to post, though I chose fewer pictures to share.

Aunt Tracy came to visit us for a week in May. We were so excited to have our first visitor come. We had a lot of fun showing her around the island, and we discovered some new things. Here are some of the pictures from our week.

This is the bell at Shuri Castle. They still use it during some of their ceremonies, including New Years' Eve.

Aunt Tracy in front of Shuri Castle.

Tracy and the kids in front of the King's throne.

Tracy had done a little online research and read about a garden down near Shuri-jo Castle park. After finishing at the castle, we went to find it. I was so excited when we got there. Fukushen Garden had beautiful Japanese-style architecture and gardens. I wish I could post more of the pictures that I took.

Later in the week, we headed down to Zanpa point to see the light house and the ocean view. Zanpa is near our house. It still amazes me that I live by the ocean.

Tracy and the girls went up to the top of the lighthouse to see the view.

Zanpa point coastline.

Sunday after church we headed up to the "cabins" at Camp Schwab for a couple of nights. Camp Schwab is said to have one of the nicest beaches on the island. It is located in the northern area of Okinawa, and on the East side of the island. We live on the West side of the island, and while the island is really not that wide, traffic is so awful that we rarely travel to the other side. We were excited to go enjoy the beach and do some sightseeing up North. We arrived on Sunday, and the kids had just a few minutes to play...

(the play ground was right next to our cabin.) while Jason made dinner. And before he was done, it started to rain. And for two days, Tracy got to experience how wet it can get in Okinawa.

Our cabin had a beautiful view of the coast, but this was the closest we got to the beach. It was such a downpour, we didn't even want to go to the aquarium, because we knew we'd be soaked between the car and the aquarium. I felt really bad for the Marines that had to PT in it Monday morning. We mostly hung around the cabin. But that's when we discovered that there isn't really anywhere to eat on Camp Scwhab during the week- except Subway. Wish I'd known that, I would have brought more meals. Still, we had a good time relaxing and visiting.

On our way home from Schwab on Tuesday, we decided to drive around the tip of the island and see the views. Here are just a few of the tons of pictures that I took.

Hedo Point: (the Northern tip of the island)

Ocean Views from the highway on the way back: