Spring Break, Part I

Spring Break is here and we are having a blast! Tommy left on Sunday for about a month, so after we dropped him off at the airport and ate lunch we headed out to the Tree House Park. I blogged about this park last year when we went there, and because there are so many great parks in Okinawa we actually haven’t been back there yet! Wyatt has been asking to go, so off we went on Sunday. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous so we got out and enjoyed the afternoon.



What a difference a year makes! Last time we were here, Olivia just hung out in her baby carrier while I chased Wyatt around the park. This year I am chasing BOTH kids around the park – in different directions!! Olivia really liked the merry-go-round type thing and the swings and Wyatt just wanted to see-saw and climb the tree houses. They had a great time!

Monday was actually rainy so we drove down to Naha (the capital of Okinawa) and went to this place claiming to be a kids play area similar to one up here (Mona Kids Jungle, where we had Wyatt’s birthday party last summer). Olivia has been sick and wasn’t sleeping well, and Wyatt was just plain worn out from our recent adventures. As soon as their heads hit the car seats they were both out cold. Luckily I had brought a book so after I drove 45 minutes to the place I sat in the parking lot and read for over an hour before they woke up! It was heaven :)

The play place, however… not so much heaven. It was very small and Wyatt was really too old for the play stuff they had. He played for about 15 minutes and then we went next door and got a strawberry smoothie. It was yummy and made the trip not a total loss!

Tuesday was gorgeous, so we drove up north this time to Nago to go to Neo Park. It is supposed to be a sort of wildlife zoo. I had heard questionable things about this place from some but others seemed to really enjoy it. Let me just say that animals on Okinawa in general are not treated as well as they are in America. At all. As in, most of the animals here, whether they be stray dogs/cats or animals on display, are typically mangy looking and dirty. It's not that they are mistreated, but they just aren't all prettied up and on display.  I guess more true to what their natural habitat would be like.

This place started out cool, with tons of birds at “Flamingo Lake” for you to feed. The kids loved feeding them and it was so fun to see their faces light up when the birds came near! I just love Wyatt's face in this picture!  He thought this guy was awesome! 

Once these birds realized you had food, they were on you like butter. Soon we had our own little trail following behind us!

The lake was really cool but after that it was sort of downhill. There were some neat features but the animals were just sort of sad looking. The kids didn’t know the difference though and they had a great time. We saw llamas, small ponies, ostrich, lemurs, dogs (a whole petting zoo of them!!), some small monkeys, goats, and tons more birds.


At the end the kids played on the cheesy kiddy games and then Wyatt spotted the train… a really cool, realistic train that just happened to pull up at that exact moment that we were walking past the train station. It is so cool that it cost me as much as the admission fee to pay to ride it around Neo Park for 22 minutes! Ha.


By the end, we were all worn out. Olivia needed a nap and so did I :)  We drove home, I cooked dinner, and because Wyatt ate it ALL, we had ice cream.  With chocolate cones, whip cream AND sprinkles!!  You would have thought the kid won the lottery, he was so excited!  Then we went outside and sat in the beautiful sunny 70 degree weather and ate our ice cream.  I love my kids!

Stay tuned for more spring break adventures!!