Our First Visitors

The past two weeks have been quite a whirlwind. Great, stressful, crazy and even a tad scary.
The first few days I spent enjoying time saying see you later to a good friend from work, and the next day celebrating a promotion for another friend. Later that night my parents and our family friend arrived! I can't tell you how exciting it was to finally have them here. 
We spent their time here in Okinawa running around like crazy people. I loved every second of it and I like to think that they enjoyed it too.
Day1: Brandon got called into work, but before he left he made us crepes! When he left for work, I took everyone else to some of my favorite shops in Okinawa. We picked up Brandon later and went to our version of Home Depot.
Day 2: We went down to Peace Prayer Park and the glass factory. (The glass factory was a favorite of my mom). At the glass factory they got to try one of our favorite treats, Okinawa salt cookie ice cream, from Blue Seal. On our way back to home we went to the Former Japanese Naval Underground. 

Peace Prayer Park

 

 

Waiting to make their glasses

View from the tunnels

Day 3: The day started at the SE Botanical Gardens, where we saw the most amazing lily pond. With everyone feeling brave when we left, we took them to one of our favorite places to eat, Coco's Curry. My dad was even brave enough to try Japanese curry. We pit stopped on Kadena, the place Pam lived when she was here. After lunch, we ventured to Cape Zanpa to see the light house and one giant shisa. 

Day 4: We went to Brandon's favorite place in Okinawa, the aquarium. We decided to stay for lunch and try the taco rice and enjoy the beautiful view. On the way back we stopped at American Village. Here we wandered around, looked in the shops. After American Village, we stopped at Gen to try some Okinawan food for dinner.

Day 5: We had a lazy day and went to Torii Station and hung out on the beach. After we were decently fried, we headed home to grill and just enjoy hanging out.

Day 6: For their last full day, we headed to Shuri Castle and the Pottery Village. After the Pottery Village we went to McDonalds for lunch and headed home to clean up for dinner. We went to Sam's Anchor Inn for some teppanyaki. 

The next few days we spent in Beijing, China, while Brandon stayed home to weather the storm. 
We started our China adventure going to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We headed to a shopping mall to try some Chinese food. After lunch we just wandered around. The following day we headed to the Great Wall, then had dinner at our hotel.

Tuesday I was supposed to start my trek home, but got stuck in Shanghai, due to the typhoon. I made a friend and we ventured around the city. I went to my first tea ceremony, which was quite delicious