Explore The North Tour

Have I got a post for you! Well if you haven't noticed, we are down to less than 5 months left on island! We are trying to get everything in before we leave. Of course we have done a lot over the last few years, but there's always more to do and try. One thing we have put off is the Explore the North Tour that the base offers here. They bus you north to Nago and bring you to the popular sites there. Stops include Nakijin Castle Ruins (we've done that before with the cherry blossom festival), a yakiniku lunch, Fruit Land, Ryukyu Glass Factory, and the Orion Beer Brewery (complete with free a sample!). Doesn't that all sound fun? So this month we made a point to sign up for the tour. Here's the recap of the tour:

But first, remember I said that we had been to Nakijin before? You might remember the Valentine's Day card from 2010... Well I remembered that I snapped a picture of Olivia by the sign back in 2010, so I quickly took a another this trip and came up with this!

Ok, back to the tour. Here's Nakijin ruins on a beautiful day! Such a pretty island.

Family photo:

This reminds me of Sound of Music... Anyone else?

She was pretty cooperative with pictures!

When we were leaving, Olivia and I took the path less traveled...

This was the original path of the castle, made rough on purpose so that if it came under attack it would be difficult to navigate. Well it was difficult to navigate with a 3 year old, so if they were being attacked by pre-schoolers they were set!

Olivia found these and thought they might be melons:

At the yakiniku lunch. We made our own food - and got to wear bibs!

After lunch, we strolled through Fruit Land - Which is what it sounds. A garden like paradise complete with plants, flowers, birds, butterflies, and fruit! We found these little guys and I thought they were so cute!

Then we visited the butterflies:

And they were very friendly and cooperative. I love these shots!

Such awesome flowers. These were hanging down from above us:

Olivia was super excited to find Nigel... Do you know what movie he is from?

Wandering through the bird park. You could feed the birds this juice water, and they would sit on your hand. Though Olivia refused the bird to land on her, she thought it was awesome he was on daddy:

Ok...Truth be told, I was a little nervous at first too:

More flowers:

Pineapples!

These pineapples were delicious! MMMMmm, so sweet, like no other pineapple I've had. Mike loved them too!

Trying to get a picture with her is always a little challenging, here she doesn't really want a picture taken, and her shoe is falling off....oh well, you get what you can:

Look at those Sly Eyes...

Olivia as a glass kimono girl:

At the glass factory we got to make our own ryukyu glass! It was a tad scary...

They let Olivia help me (that wasn't my idea, if I had may way, she wouldn't have been anywhere near the giant fiery kiln...)

Can you tell I'm nervous? Cooling off the open-maker metal tongs:

Family shot - Our glasses actually didn't turn out that bad...

Told you there was a giant firey kiln:

Olivia and Daddy enjoyed their favorite - Ice cream!

Silly Tourists:

The last stop on the tour was the Orion Beer Brewery!

This is how many cans they can make in one minute!
Complete with Free Samples at the end! It's called the Happy Park - I wonder why? :)