Trips with Kids, an Adventure

Daddy Boy and I planned a birthday weekend with the kids. Originally we thought about going to the YYY resort on Ie Shima (a nearby island). It is very expensive. The Birthday "deal" package for the five of us, one night, -meals included- would have cost around $1000. This does not include activities, like day excursions, boat rentals, etc. We still considered it for several reasons, one of which was that he really wanted us to have the full Ferry experience. I did research online and with ITT (information, tickets and tours).

I still would like to stay at the resort, but it's a lot of money, and with kids five and under the plethora of unpredictable negative scenarios blooming in my imagination gave me pause. So, we looked into staying at the military affiliated on island resort. At a tenth the cost it was well under budget, freeing up funds for more activities (should we choose) or just saving us the money. All this planning was done with us apart, emailing, skyping [love love love Skype] and calling each other to discuss the pros and cons and other options. I made reservations for Okuma by phone. We decided that we would ride the ferry to Ie Island before heading to Okuma, as, simply, A Family Adventure (My husband is a big planner, calling, occasionally for what we have called "Mandatory Family Fun".). While there we could take a walk around the YYY resort, and decide if getting a day pass ($12 or so each) or staying there at a future date would be worthwhile for us.

On Friday we left home, took the expressway all the way north to Nago and followed the signs to Motobu Port. Jesse got our van a spot on the Ferry -even though we did not call ahead and reserve a spot for it. (If we couldn't take our van we'd planned to take the Ferry anyway, and just walk around the Port Station.) Isabel was terrified of the Ferry. She wanted to be carried. I did not really want to carry her. (See how it might be scary to a little person? And hard to carry such a little person...)

We settled on a compromise. I stayed inside with Izzy sitting on padded seats and watching Japanese TV, while the everyone else roamed about on deck. Then J came and relieved me, so I could take pictures, then he went down to the hold to get in the van and we all met by the station.

First we drove to the resort. It was lovely. We went by their Marina and saw that the type of services we were interested in were terribly expensive. We did not go to their beach, because we'd have to tear the kids away and we were headed toward one anyhow.

We walk around a bit more. We checked out the gift shop, which was full of typical Okinawan souvenirs. I bought Ie Soda at the gift shop, since I had never seen it before and was terribly thirsty. We drove around trying to find a restaurant J remembered having eaten at. We did not find it, instead we found these things:

The Ernie Pyle Memorial.

that WWII era anti aircraft gun

We made a mad dash to catch the Ferry back to our Island, and then Okuma. We cought a quick lunch/snack at the Station. On the way back I slept in the van (and felt much less motion sickness this way) and Izzy was brave with Daddy....