local park adventures

We've been hitting up a few local parks lately and are having fun exploring them.  Below are a few signs we've encountered at some local parks.  

Times like this I wish I could read Japanese, because based on the picture this sign looks like if you bring a dog to the park you are going to get shot.

This sign was actually taken when we were in Tokyo.  It's hard to read, but the English says "Prease do not stop walking".  Notice the R in Please.  We were at a restaurant in Tokyo that offered "Sarad" on the menu instead of Salad.  

And just in case you need CPR at the beach, this billboard will show you the proper steps.


Araha Beach

Yesterday we took advantage of the nice day and grabbed a bento box lunch at a fast food place called Hotto Motto.    

Someone wake boarding at the beach

This is the playground at the beach.  It's hard to see,  but in the center is Brandon helping Reagan onto the kids Zip line.  

Here's another on of her in motion on the zip line.

Baba Park by the Sunabe seawall

We hit this park last weekend.  Next to the park is this nice beach area.  It was low tide, but there were lots of cool holes for tide pools.

Reagan had to touch the water to see if it was warm yet.  It wasn't, but it was amazingly clear. 

This is the mossy, tide pool area. 

So, this is a roller slide.  They have metal tubes that are all bunched together and you use cardboard or a sled to ride down.  We've heard lots about them, but this is our first encounter.  It was a small one in comparison to others I've seen online and it was a slow one.  To be fair, it was at a small kids park though.  Reagan didn't get much speed, even with the plastic sled type thing we bought just for these slides.  We are on a mission to find more slides and try them out.  

Brock doesn't know what to think of this swing.  Personally, I think if Brandon would have laid him down in it he might have liked it better. 

This is a typical sight in our house.  Reagan wanting hugs from Brock and him rebelling.  

Here's a nicer picture of them together. 

This was a neat in concept park attraction that failed at execution.  Each little horse had bike pedals for the kids to use.  Unfortunately, most of them had at least one pedal broken off.  So, I ended up pushing.  This was no smooth, well oiled track either.  I had to work for it. 

Civic Center Park

This slide was crazy,  I have never seen anything like it in the states, except maybe at a water park.    The top was so steep!  Reagan got to the top and decided it wasn't for her.   The Japanese kids were trying unsuccessfully to climb up it. 

We took a walk around the park and the next few pictures are of the scenery.

Thai in the sky

 After our journey to the Peace Park, we decided to try a restaurant we've heard lots about, Thai in the Sky.   We had about a 10 minute wait and felt very fortunate, as we had read that many people have waited over an hour for a table.  We were seated inside, but they did have outdoor tables.  

Brandon got "Pat tai"  I think we normally see it as Pad Thai at American Thai restaurants.  I chose pineapple fried rice.  I know, not very adventurous, but I was planning on feeding some of my meal to Brock and didn't want anything too spicy.  Reagan chose the kids meal.  We were proud of her for going out on a limb to try it, since there was no indication on the menu what was included in it.  Plus, if you know Reagan, she's not a super adventurous eater.  So, below is my Pineapple fried rice....with shrimp.  Ugh!  If you know me, you'll know that I don't eat anything from the sea.  There isn't a fish or crustacean out there that I like, so my rice was shrimpy tasting.  Brock liked it, so that was lucky.  

Below is Reagan's meal.  I'll try to identify what we think the items were.  In the bottom left corner was rice and curry, then the little bowl was a soup of some sort.  We thought the white chunks were potatoes, but they weren't and we weren't sure what they really were.  Above the soup were a few french fries with the ketchup already applied.  About that were 2 sushi roll looking things with ketchup on top.  These were strange.  The outside was yellow and fatty looking and there was something green on the inside.  Reagan wasn't having it, so Brandon tried them.  When Brandon visibly chews and has to "wash" something down, you know it's not good.  He has no idea what it was, as he couldn't identify any of the flavors except the ketchup.  There was also a deep fried shrimp nugget a small salad and the little cup, was a dessert, which she liked.  

After lunch, we went outside to check out the view.

I zoomed in all the way with the camera to check this place out.  Can you imagine being right on the sea like that?  Amazing house.  

Okinawa Peace Park

This was a long weekend since Brandon has Monday and Tuesday off for MLK day.  The weather has been beautiful, sunny and high 60's/low 70's, so we were looking for an outdoor activity.  We ended up going to the Peace Park.  It's a war memorial to the Okinawan citizens during the battle of Okinawa during WW2.

We had been warned by a friend that it was a bit graphic, we decided to chance it anyway and were glad we did.  There was only 1 room with graphic war images, and we sort of just walked right through without stopping.  Brandon and I were able to get the jist of the room without exposing Reagan to too much.  

When we got there, we checked out a few of the outdoor exhibits, then headed inside.  

We didn't take many pictures inside the memorial, but it started with a history of Japan, then went into the war and how things changed after.  This room was toward the end of the exhibit and was first hand written accounts from people at the time of their experience.  

They had a few books that were translated into English.  Brandon and I each read a few stories, they were obviously very disturbing and sad. 

This is from the observation tower.  On each of the 4 sides there were signs with the KM to different cities in the world.  We learned that Washington DC 12XXX KM away.  

This is the outside of the memorial. 

Most of the outside exhibits were entirely in Japanese, so we have no idea what they were about. 

This picture doesn't do the water justice at all.  The tide pool area below was such a vibrant teal color. 

A rare photo of all of us - Brandon set up the camera's timer and him and Brock ran to get in place.