On Saturday Ben and I got together with about 15 other friends from church. We drove South to Naha and hopped on a ferry to the Kerama Islands. The islands are about 20 miles from Okinawa and the ferry took a little over an hour to get there. On the way there Ben and I sat outside (there was an air conditioned section on the middle of the boat) and watched the waves and scenery. Ben went up to the third deck to see what he could see (it was completely open to the sun) and I stayed on the second deck for a bit. That is until a little boy decided to sit next to me and deposit his lunch into his little baggie. Hmmm...that was my hint to follow Ben up top. Thankfully neither of us followed his suit and got sick.
We arrived at the island amidst gorgeous scenery and beautiful weather. It was a bit hot, but otherwise a perfect day for island hopping. We took a car with us on the ferry and had to take two trips to get to the beach area that we wanted to go to. It was very expensive to take three cars (what we needed for the amount of people), so we made it work. The first trip was with all of our stuff (portable grill, kayak, cooler, food, beach gear, etc.) and the second trip was with approximately 12 people crammed into a van. Quite exciting! Thankfully the trip to the beach was only about 10 minutes or so. The following picture is from our trip back to the ferry after a day at the beach. Little Zach was exhausted and fell asleep sitting up. :)
The Keramas Island
Ethan Diamante and his son Silas enjoying the kayak
Ben relaxing in the water before going out to snorkel again
Our ferry to and from the island
The beautiful view from the ferry
Our first (maybe second) successful self-portrait
We arrived at the island amidst gorgeous scenery and beautiful weather. It was a bit hot, but otherwise a perfect day for island hopping. We took a car with us on the ferry and had to take two trips to get to the beach area that we wanted to go to. It was very expensive to take three cars (what we needed for the amount of people), so we made it work. The first trip was with all of our stuff (portable grill, kayak, cooler, food, beach gear, etc.) and the second trip was with approximately 12 people crammed into a van. Quite exciting! Thankfully the trip to the beach was only about 10 minutes or so. The following picture is from our trip back to the ferry after a day at the beach. Little Zach was exhausted and fell asleep sitting up. :)
We started off our time on the beach by grilling hotdogs and hamburgers on a portable grill. That went off without a hitch except for a stray cat sneaking a hotdog off to the jungle somewhere. Needless to say, I didn't partake in any of the other meat offerings that afternoon. After lunch the guys dove into water activities (snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, etc.) and the ladies watched over the kids and enjoyed our fellowship time. Later on the ladies got to enjoy some of the same water activities.
The water was so amazing. The colors were so varied (turquoise, deep blue, etc.) and the temperature was PERFECT. It was almost too warm for some people. :) I tried snorkeling for the first time ever. It was an okay experience. I'm not a big fan of swimming, so snorkeling was interesting. It involves putting your face in water and breathing. Of course there was a mask over my face and a breathing tube sticking out of the water. But trying to convince myself that it was okay to breathe under water took a while and ended up in Ben going off and snorkeling with his friends and me giving up. I feel proud though that I actually got the gear on, got into the water, and tried it once or twice. I then went on to enjoy the rest of the afternoon out of the water for the most part.
As we left some of us tried to stop by a bathroom on the island and were then told that it would cost 300 Yen. Hmmm...that convinced us that we could wait until the ferry. :) It was the typical tourist trap with prices out of the roof and certain things with a price tag that shouldn't have had them in the first place.
We left the island right on time (4pm when the last ferry left) and got back to Okinawa a little after 5pm. Due to traffic we didn't get back to our house until 7:15 or so that night. We were both pretty wiped out from the sun and so bedtime came early that night. We did happen to discover that the sun did more than wipe us out. We both came back with some pretty remarkable 'tan' lines. Except they were red and not tan in color. :) We are healing nicely though and I'm darker than I have ever been in my life! Well, this is a pretty long post and I apologize for that. I will leave you with some pictures of our day. Enjoy!!
Taken by a friend...my wonderful husband and I on the ferry after a day island hopping!
