End of Summer

At the end of summer, we went to Okinawa for our last family trip before Maggie heads off to her new life in college. It is known as Japan's Hawaii and it is only a couple hours away on a direct flight. We rented a car, skirted the city and drove up the toll road to Ocean Expo Park (part of the International Ocean Exposition in 1975), and home to the Churaumi Aquarium, famous for their three whale sharks. These awesome creatures are up to 12 meters/40 feet long - you can imagine how big the tank must be!
 
We made it just in time to take photos of the sunset before checking into Hotel Mahaina Wellness Resort. We had a lovely view of the ocean from our Western/Japanese (two bed, two futon) room. Enjoyed the onsen and pool and a couple delicious meals in the resort - of local pork, beef, seafood, and mugs of the local brew Orion. The Expo park is quite large so we only walked around the northern part where the aquarium and beach were. We drove around the rest of the peninsula after and stopped in Nago for ramen and a little shopping at Aeon Max Value.
 

There's still a big U.S. military presence there and we saw a number of them on Friday evening out to dinner with their family and friends. During one of our many stops for local ice cream, Blue Seal, we noticed the logo looked like the Foremost brand logo - a favorite of Paul's from his early days in Taiwan. On another ice cream stop, we were enlightened when we found the history of the name posted.
 
After a couple nights up north, we drove back south along the coast to the airport city of Naha, stopping for local beef burgers near the big base, Kadena, returned our rental car and rode the monorail into the city for our last couple nights. We went for a stroll along the touristy shopping street, Kokusai-dori and ate more local meat and seafood upstairs in the market with takeout sashimi from below. The next day we set out for Shuri Castle and since it's on a hilltop had to wait out a thunderstorm before walking around the grounds. We returned to our hotel for a break before venturing out for a shabu-shabu dinner at a restaurant built to resemble a treehouse.

 

Besides Taiwan, Japan has been our one of our top vacation locations! We've been to Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, and now Okinawa...

Summer Part 1

This was the first summer we stayed in Asia...

At the beginning of summer Maggie and a group of friends went to Taipei for 5 days for their own senior trip (all her photos are on FB but here's a couple of group shots I snagged).

Paul was in the States for work so as soon as Maggie returned (she was back in HK less than 12 hours) the kids and I went to Taipei to spend a few days with Susanna and Catie at the end of their time there. We had a lovely meal with some of the ladies that worked in the company's old office. We also got to spend time with cousins Henry, Chu Yin and daughter Hana.

Back to HK then it was time to work! Maggie worked for both sessions as a Program Support Assistant for the School Summer Camp and I taught 5-6 year old Stories and Drama for the first session. It was crazy at times, but fun, and some of the students have recognized me now that school has started again - so cute!

Alex went for a week-long surf camp out in Sai Kung Country Park. They did more than surf - kayaking, SUP, snorkeling, canyoning, cliff jumping, swimming (of course) and hanging out on the beach. The base is in a little village with eateries so they ate there a couple times, but the rest of the time had sandwiches, BBQ and cooked up their own pancakes, etc for breakfast. He mentioned there were bugs and stuff to deal with at night as well as the heat, but I think he had a good time. I want to go there someday myself!

Here is the link to his photos (might not work on a smart phone so click this link).

Congratulations Class of 2014!

Maggie has graduated from high school - we are so proud of her achievements! Here are a few snapshots from the commencement ceremony; she is wearing a gold tassel indicating membership in the National Honor Society.

We're glad her aunt and cousin flew in from the states to watch the ceremony - they started planning last year!

We are thankful she has been a part of a close-knit school community with support from her teachers and a wonderful group of friends. I wasn't able to capture a group shot during all the festivities, but if you look through other blog posts, you will see photos depicting the special camaraderie they share. In fact, fifteen of them will be off to Taipei soon on their own graduation trip - the whole class also had a trip together earlier in the year.

We have been privileged to watch the growth and progress of this Class of 2014 through the years - from elementary students, through adolescence, to independent young adults.

Congratulations to the graduates and many blessings to them as they head off on the next step in their lives!

Maggie's 18th

We celebrated Maggie's birthday a few days early by renting a boat and heading out on the South China Sea with a group of her classmates.

We boarded at Sai Kung and motored to Tai She Wan - a fairly protected bay, with a rocky beach and an abandoned restaurant on shore. It was so much quicker than motoring all the way around from TST so we got there early and secured a spot close to shore. 

"Big Snake Bay" was a great swimming spot; calm and peaceful for a few hours until the breeze picked up and the waters became choppy outside. Then a party boat showed up and blasted their music - glad they were tunes we knew - and other cruisers also came and dropped anchors to hang out, too. There were some beautiful boats with fancy toys (like a motorized wakeboard) to match!

The water was still chilly so not everyone chose to swim, but it was a beautiful sunny day to hang out on deck. They brought Twister, card games, books, fishing lures, and some actually did homework! We had lunch before riding the banana boat and trying wake boarding, then birthday cake in the afternoon before heading back. Even the party boat finally quieted down so everyone could enjoy that golden hour before sunset.

Blowing out the "candle"

We motored back as the sun was setting. We really enjoy our outings on the water and will have to go again soon!