The Northern Adventure

We had our first "96'er" this weekend, meaning we had 4 days off. I guess this happens quite often here with the Marine bases around government holidays. We decided to head to the northern part of the island. It was only 50 kilometers, but due to the roads, traffic and stoplights, it took 2 hours to drive there. The time went by fast because we drove along the ocean the whole way.

We stopped at Ocean Expo Park and Aquarium. Grant thought the dolphin show was amazing. He also enjoyed the sweet potato ice cream.


















From there we headed to Camp Schwab, a Marine Corps Base on the Pacific Ocean. They have cabins that can be rented by active duty military members. The view from our deck was beautiful. We spent two days enjoying the beach swimming, making sand castles, and collecting shells and hermit crabs. We had the whole beach to ourselves!




























On the way back home we stopped at Pineapple Park. They have lots of free samples of pineapple products including juice, wine, cookies, cakes and off course fresh pineapple. Grant had his fill of free samples!




We also had an interesting canned beverage made of goya. Goya is a member of the gourd family. Here is a description from a website: "Goya is an indispensable vegetable in semi-tropical Okinawa. Until quite recently, when summer came you could see the bumpy green Goya gourds hanging from trellises in the yards of houses everywhere. The bitter taste of Goya is very refreshing in the heat of summer." I don't think we have acquired the taste of the bitter goya yet, but it was interesting.

Finally, we have noticed that several of the stores have dead snakes for sale in jars filled with some sort of alcohol. Don't know much about it, but it looks very intimidating.