Columbus Day weekend, Part I

I usually dread the long weekends when Tommy is away.  And, it's Columbus Day weekend... which for most people means not that much, but for us it means another long weekend with no school on Monday!  Tommy is gone again for a month or so this time on an exercise.  However, the weather finally broke a little bit (umm... okay, it's still hot and muggy, but it's just not AS hot and muggy as before) and I must have my big girl panties on this week, because I decided to go back to my "list" of Things to Do on Okinawa and go on some adventures this weekend!  Columbus would be proud!

Yesterday (Saturday) I loaded up the kiddos and headed out to Kurashiki Dam.  I found it no problem, even though it's out in the middle of nowhere, and it turned out to be the perfect spot to play in the water without having to deal with sand from the beach!  Wyatt loved the "waterfalls" and I was glad I had remembered to have him bring along his toy boats so he could sail them down it and watch them float away!  Olivia was content to watch for the better part of an hour from the safety of her stroller.  Such a good little girl!

Today's adventure was the the Cape Zanpa lighthouse.  We had gone to Zanpa Beach a few months ago, and I had seen the lighthouse from the beach and wondered about it.  Turns out you can walk all the way up to the top of it (for a small fee, of course).  We made our way to the top and back down again, then Wyatt got to stop and play on the rocks for awhile.  After that we ate a picnic lunch, had some ice cream from the ice cream bus (there is ALWAYS ice cream available on this island!  I have never seen so much ice cream!), and meandered over to take a look at what else was down the way.

We found a petting zoo, so Wyatt fed the goats for awhile...

Then we found a very large ship structure on which to play "Captain and Mate" for awhile....

Then we found this very large Shisa Dog statue.  Shisa dogs are very popular here; Long story short, there is a male and female dog and they mark the entryways of houses and businesses to protect them from evil spirits.

All in all, a great day with the kiddos.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure!