Last weekend in Oki

I can't believe I am actually writing this blog right now. The summer has completely flown by.. faster than I ever thought was possible. 

This past weekend in Oki was amazing! The perfect way to end a perfect summer with great friends! Friday Shelby, Breanna, Kenzie and I went out to Gate Two Street and met up Maggie & Hailey. (Breanna and I's roommates from Ohio) We had fun just hanging out, dancing, and walking around. On Saturday we woke up and headed straight down to the beach! Made the mistake of not wearing sunscreen.. which was especially bad because the weekend before I wasn't out in the sun at all because of the typhoon. Yikes! Got burnt on the last weekend in Okinawa.. surprising! We hung out and relaxed all day at the beach house, then got ready early and headed to dinner at this place I have no idea what it's called. It was alright... Justin ordered a legit fish.. and it looked like it had just been caught out the ocean an hour earlier. My food was okay but Breanna, Shelby, and Kenzie hated theirs! Lol. After that we headed to the sea wall to a bar that Justin's friend owned. We hung out and met up with Justin's roommate Andy and his friend Pat! They are both super nice guys and we always have a lot of fun with them! We hung out and walked the sea wall going to different places to go dancing. At the end of the all 6 of us crammed into a tiny little Japanese cab..... lol. Surprisingly the cab driver let us all in. 2 in the front passenger seat.. and 4 in the back! It only went a few blocks then dropped us off at a corner with more cabs so we could go back to the beach house for the night. Me & Kenzie danced on the sea wall and were having a good time :) It was such a fun last night to spend with those girls! 

On Sunday, we woke up and went and got coffee! Then, Justin let me drive his JAPANESE car off base! It was so exciting. I didn't go very far.. cause obviously it's unsafe.. but it's still cool to say that I drove on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car! After that we headed back to the beach house, and decided we wanted to venture to the southern tip of the island and go to Peace Prayer Park since we hadn't been to any war memorials. It was super awesome and very scenic! There were lots of walls with Japanese names and American names on them.. and also lots of monuments. We couldn't read anything, but I'm sure if we could have the monuments would've been very meaningful! The park was huge.. and we literally walked a few miles to get to the other end of it.. when we got there we saw some stairs that headed very far down. Turns out it was actually over 1000 steps... and it headed straight down to the water! Exactly where we wanted to be! We were all excited.. there was tons of sea glass, shells, and rocks when we got down to the sand and it was amazing. Only problem was.... we were all exhausted with no water. Breanna was really dehydrated and it wasn't good at all. We jumped in the water to cool down a bit.. then I saw a couple bags sitting next to this rock. No one was around so I opened the bag trying to find some water. Boom! A giant water bottle. We were in luck! There was no way all of us would've made it to the top without something to drink. We found an easier way back to the top... instead of walking all those stairs again. We also found some vending machines and bought more water! It was a fun adventure. Then we stopped at McDonald's on the way home for some chicken nuggets! It was a really fun weekend! 

Right now it is Monday of the last week of camp! I come home in 5 days! So crazy! It's a very bittersweet feeling.. but more bitter than sweet because I know I am going to miss a lot about Okinawa. The people, the kids, the culture, the scenery, the food....well, maybe only a little bit of the food! ;) 

Week 9.. Action packed!

Week 9 of camp was crazy! First off, the weather was ridiculous. The island was on a severe storm watch for a few days, and then a typhoon somewhat hit the island. It didn't hit very strong, but it was severe enough to cancel work all day until 3 o' clock in the afternoon. Over the weekend we had to sit in our barracks all day Sunday because the island was under a TCOR 1 warning. During typhoon season the island is always in TCOR 4.. and then Monday morning (The day work was cancelled) the ratings dropped down to TCOR 1C which means Caution. After this warning is sent out on the island, military personnel and families living on the bases have 1 hour to return home before the base shuts down. It was kinda crazy to experience some crazy tropical storm weather because it's something that doesn't happen every day in Iowa. :P

Another crazy thing that happened was that I got so sick I had to go to the hospital. On Saturday morning we woke up before the crack of dawn (4am!!!!) and helped run a triathalon for kids and adults at the Foster pool. Afterwards I wasn't feeling very well, and hadn't had much water to drink and my head started hurting so bad. It turned into a severe migraine that hurt to open my eyes, so they took me to the hospital. After 4 stabs in my arm, they got an IV hooked up to my arm and put fluids back in my body because I was pretty dehydrated. Lesson learned.. there is no such thing as drinking too much water in Okinawa. Seriously. 

On Wednesday of this week the weather had finally cleared up! We had our end of the summer Foster Day Camp party at a little outdoor shelter house nearby the barracks. I volunteered to grill the hot dogs haha.. and we exchanged gifts from our secret counselors. I was kinda clueless to who had me, but I had my roommate Hailey, and she had no idea :P I'm so sneaky! I bought Hailey a really cute lacey tshirt from this Japanese mall, a picture frame with 3 pictures of us, a ring, bracelet, and a cute pair of heart earrings. She loved it all! Breanna had been sneaking behind my back for a few weeks trying to get her present for me ready. She told me she stayed up til 2am some nights with Shelby finishing it. It was a  huge scrapbook with pictures from our entire trip in it! Seriously the cutest thing EVER. I love it so much! Also, she left she cute little notes throughout the week.. the first one was a little card that said "Goodnight" in Kanji Japanese symbols. I had a counselor named Tess translate for me :) Also, a pair of chopsticks with a holder, and even flowers the day before the party! It was so awesome! After gifts we played a few party games and hung out and enjoyed the night. It was an awesome way to spend time as a whole group. 

On Friday it was Dessertfest! Basically what us counselors.. (and kids) had been waiting for all summer long! It's a huge gathering of parents, campers, staff, and counselors where we show the parents what CAMP A is all about! Each small group got a turn to go up and present a song or dance they had made or practiced. My group .. Group 8, did a Dance to Cotton Eye Joe! .. In honor of the Gold Miners theme that we had that week. Everyone loved it, and the kids even decked out in western clothing to really set the stage. It was a lot of fun. Us Camp A counselors also revealed our real names. All summer long the kids had only known us by our "Camp Names." Mine was Miss Toad because it was Mario Kart characters. I performed the song "Camp A, Say what?" and I sang "My name is Taylor... they call me Toad." and the kids all got excited as each of the counselors revealed their real names. After the performances each group was dismissed to go get desserts. The dessert table consisted of Ice cream, fudge bars, brownies, cookies, lemon cake, cookie cake, cupcakes, white cake, oreas, fruit, and even sprinkles for the ice cream! It was crazzzzzyyyy. The kids were obviously lovin' it, and probably on a sugar high because they never get any "unhealthy" foods for snack. We also got the opportunity to get pictures with some kids. We had to ask permission from their parents first though! :) It was a great start to our last weekend in Okinawa! 

Only 3 weeks left :(

This past week was a lot of fun! First off, I got killed in the Assassins game. I haven't blogged about this yet, so I should probably explain what it is. Basically, everyone in Camp A building 484 is assigned a person.. and that person has to be a secret. Well, in order to "Kill" your person, you place your Camp nametag lanyard around their neck. The game has been going on for a little over a week, and I made it past the halfway point. There was 18 killed, and 14 still alive.. so that's sorta impressive. I never got the chance to kill my person.. but my friend Sarah killed me very sneakily. :) It's a fun game, and there are only a few people left in the competition.


On Thursday, we had a camp wide activity planned called Tropic Thunder. All of the Day Camp and Aquatics counselors and life guards were placed on to four seperate teams and we performed challenges and team building activities. Our team name was the Howler Monkeys. Ha Ha. We were the blue team, so on Thursday we all decked out in blue, and painted our faces to look fierce. There was an obstacle course, an army crawl through the mud, a 10-legged foot race, dodge ball tournament, banana races, water balloon tosses, and of course the sharing of our team chant. The teams got very creative with this and it was super hilarious. My team ended up finishing first in the first obstacle course challenge and then second in the dodge ball tournament and banana races. It was a friendly competition, but a lot of people took it very seriously even thought I was just there for fun. :)


This weekend was super fun! We hung out with a few new marines friends we met who live on Foster. We hung at their place Friday night and they grilled out.. then we headed to Gate Two Street which is a lot of bars and dance clubs. Us girls had a lot of fun there! :)


On Saturday, we had a tour booked with MCCS that started at 10 am. We ended up staying at the beach house on Friday night, so we had to get up pretty early to get back to Foster for the tour.  It was a fun tour! We explored the west coast of the island, of course. The tour bus took us to Cape Manza Mo which was super pretty and scenic. There was also some shops there that were very cheap and I picked up a few souveniers for friends and family. Then the tour took us to the Okinawa Beer Garden for a buffet lunch which was super delicious! It was partially American food so that was yummy! After that, it took us to the Okinawa Sweets Factory which was also yummy! We got to try a lot of the Okinawan candies, and also try seaweed which was disgusting and tasted like salt water. Blek! That night we decided to just hang out in the beach house and relax and watch movies. I ended up passing out at 9, so it was an early night for me.


On Sunday, we were gonna go to a few beaches. We had all heard that White Beach was really pretty, so we wanted to check it out. When we got there no one was swimming... but it was beautiful! We found out that there was a jelly fish warning in the water, and swimming was banned until further notice. I was pretty bummed because there was a lot of small little islands not too far off the coast that would've been some awesome snorkeling! We ended up walking on the beach, and around the corner and found some awesome caves and some really pretty rocks and stuff. Shelby had her camera and took tons of pics. It was so hot though, we wanted to go somewhere where we could swim. Justin drove us to Kadena Marina and it was fun! A few of our Marine friends met us there and we played a few games of Sand volleyball. Breanna's legs got all cut up from diving in the sand. :/ But, otherwise it was all fun and games. We beat the boys the first game, then we kinda gave up! It was hot so we all went swimming, and there was an island that people were swimming out to. We then saw people jumping off of this cliff way up high. It was so fun! The water felt great! We left around 5 and then went to dinner at this amazing restuarant.. (probably my new favorite) called the Garlic House. I want to go back it was delicious!




ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT. THE TIME HAS FLOWN BY! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. IT'S BITTERSWEET, I AM DEFINITELY NOT READY TO LEAVE. :(

Weekend Camping on the Kerama Islands

I had so much fun this past weekend! Once again, the best weekend yet! On Friday night, we got off work and immediately packed our back packs and got on the green line at 7:20. The green line is a bus system that goes from base to base as free transportation. It's very helpful except there are no military bases near the two big cities of Nago and Naha, which sucks because that is usually where we always want to go. We got on the green line, and headed south to Kinser Marine Base. Then we had some random skater boys call us a cab, because we didn't know what we were doing. The cab arrived at this nearby gas station in about 5 mins, so props to those boys for helping us out! We got in the cab, and told the driver we were headed to the Shell House hostel in Naha. Kinser Base is right outside Naha, but no matter where you are going in Okinawa it takes forever because the roads are so busy and the speed limit is 30 basically everywhere. And, on the expressway.. which is like an interstate in the states.. it's about 45 mph. Which is so slow compared to back home! Once we got to Naha, our cab driver didn't know where to go. Since he hardly spoke any English, I just called the hostel number on my phone and gave my phone to the cab driver. After he talked to the hostel owner, he knew exactly where to go! When we got there.... it was a little different than we expected. I guess us girls just didn't know what a hostel was. The beds were hardly made.. and it was just a giant room of bunk beds. It did have a full bathroom though, which was a plus! We rented the hostel for 8 people, and there was only 4 of us there so we knew that others wouldn't be sleeping in the main room.. but later on that night a Japanese couple did walk in and sleep on one of the bunks. Awkward! After we got to the hostel we quickly changed in like 10 mins, and headed back downstairs. We started walking down the streets of Naha, hoping to find Kokusai street. Which is the most popular street in Naha full of shops, restaurants, clubs, and bars! We couldn't find it by ourselves, so I waved a cab down and he took us right there. When we got there we were in shock. It was amazing! So lit up and packed with tons of people! Exactly what I expected when I thought of Japan. We immediately started walking around going into every shop and just looking around. It was about 8pm by this time, and we were all hungry so we stopped at this Japanese Pub and ordered food. I ordered a Margarita pizza.. which was soo delicious! Afterwards, we walked around some more, and I had a random Japanese street artist draw me. It was straight up cartoon-style paintings from Adventureland. So awesome for only 500 yen. 


Afterwards we wanted to find somewhere to go dancing and hang out. We came upon this club and the bouncers let us in since we were American. :) We danced a little and met some new friends. One of the marines we met happened to be from Council Bluffs, Iowa. How crazy! We hadn't met anyone from Iowa yet, so that was really cool. After that, we took a cab and headed back to the hostel for the night. I had a little conversation with the cab driver using the very little Japanese i know. My favorite thing to say is "Hai, Hai, Hai," which is pronounced "Hi" in English. It means Yes in Japanese hahaha. It was pretty late, and we had an early day the next day. When we got home we called home and talked to friends and family since the hostel had wifi. Me & Breanna cuddled up on one of the bottom bunks, and Shelby & Kenzie cuddled up on the one across from us. We were all scared to sleep in our own beds because it was so sketchy. 

The next day, we woke up around 7.. and got all packed and ready to get on the ferry. We wanted to catch the 9am ferry.. but that definitely didn't happen. Our ride, Justin.. who would also be joining us for the weekend had trouble finding the hostel.. so he also had to talk to the hostel owner and get directions. Luckily this japanese guy knew English otherwise we would've missed the 10am ferry also! When we got to the ferry port we dropped off Kenzie & Breanna so they could go buy tickets and Justin, Shelby, and I drove around trying to find a spot to park the car. Which took FOREVER. It was awful. We were all starting to panic because we didn't think that we were going to be able to find parking and the 3,500 yen round trips tickets that we had bought would go to waste. We finally found a spot after we sweet talked the parking garage guy. Don't know what exactly we said to him, but it worked! With 20 mins left before the ferry left.. Shelby, Justin, and I carried a ton of stuff to the ferry. Justin was carrying basically a 50 pound cooler, and I was carrying a 50 pound tent. And it was SO HOT. I was basically dying of heat. Once we got on the ferry we headed up to the third floor deck of the boat and once the boat started moving it was so breezy, and felt amazing! It was about a 70 min boat ride, and I took some Dramamine because I started to feel sea sick. The waves were pretty big and the boat was rocking a lot from the wind. 


Once we got there, we asked around a bit and found the shuttle that took us to the camp ground. We kinda just went with it.. not knowing where exactly it would take us. We arrived at this campsite. It was 800 yen to camp out, which was pretty cheap and it was super close by the beach so we were pumped! We found a shady spot for the tent and then immediately headed down to the beach because it was so hot. Walking down to the beach we were all freaking out at the view. The water was so blue it was unreal. Looked like a postcard.. literally. And the beach was such soft sand it felt like flour. Which kinda sucked at times cause it always stuck to your skin. But, it was absolutely beautiful. Prettiest place we've been yet! We immediately jumped in the water and went about 30 yards into the water and saw some awesome fish! Then, we went a little farther and were now swimming through schools of fish that were bigger than my hand. It was so awesome I was lovin' it! They were so close I could reach my hand down and touch them. After that we hung out on the beach a bit more, and Breanna & Shelby booked a yellow submarine ride for 1:30. We walked around and explored a bit, then got on a bus to go to the Tokashiki Island marina where we got on the yellow submarine. It was pretty cool.. except that I slept through the entire ride.. 45 mins long. and 45$ worth to ride it. Yup, stupid dramamine knocked me out. After that, we went back to the beach and layed out and got superrrrr tan! Hah. That night, we went to dinner at Octopus Grill. It was interesting .. I ordered a caesar salad and a weird pizza. .. it was pretty good though! Then we celebrated Kenzie's birthday (Which was the next day on Sunday.) Nearby someone was setting off small fireworks so that was fun! The stars on this island were so amazing. Triple the amount of stars you could see back home! No joke.. it was so legit. We decided to move the tent down to the beach because saw a huge banana spider on the tent and it freaked us all out. Instead of taking the tent apart we just decided to pick the tent up with everything inside it.. and carry it awhile ways down to the beach. HAHAHA. It was so hilarious.. one of the funniest things ever.. I couldn't stop laughing the entire time we were carrying it. Once we got down to the beach we got it all set up, and then just relaxed on the beach. We ended up falling asleep on the beach... and when I woke up I went inside the tent. Shelby & Breanna were still outside and I woke up to Shelby saying she had gotten bitten by something outside the tent.. so I went out to check on Breanna who was still passed out on the beach by herself! So funny. I woke her up so she could move inside.. but then I couldn't fall back asleep it was dumb. I hardly slept that night.. but I finally did.. when...

I was woken up by raindrops hitting my face inside the tent! AWESOME. I woke everyone up cause I was freaking out apparently because I didn't want our stuff to get soaked. Justin ran up and just grabbed the rain tent while all us girls freaked out and grabbed all our stuff. He put the rain cover on and we were just waiting wondering where he went.... after about 20 mins we went back to the tent and he was already passed out HAHA. And by that time it had stopped raining lol! Yay. After that none of us could really go back to sleep. We all woke up at 7 and headed out to the beach. I jumped in the water cause I was covered in sand all over! Yuck! I basically slept in a pile of sand cause we didn't have blankets or pillows in the tent! We just hung out on the beach all day and snorkeled and explored the island and walked around checking out the scenery. Shelby, Justin, and I snorkeled through a cave it was so awesome! Then later on we all went and found this pier that overlooked everything it was beautiful. The beach and ocean looked so pretty from up there. We got on the ferry at 4pm.. and it was a quick ride back because I fell asleep for most of it haha. I always fall asleep darn it! Then Justin took us home and dropped us off at our barracks. It was a super fun weekend, and I would definitely want to go back if it wasn't so expensive! It's crazy there are only 4 weekends left in Okinawa! We definitely gotta make it count, cause there is so much left that I still want to do while I'm here. 

4th of July in Japan!

Last week was the 4th of July week, and we didn't have to work on Wednesday! Our curfew on Tuesday night was changed to 1pm.. since we didn't have work the next morning. We met up with a few of our Marine friends, and went to dinner. Then we went to Kadena, an air force base, and watched an awesome firework show! There were thousands of people gathered there, and the show was really awesome! The entire show seemed like a finale, I was amazed. After the fireworks, the boys wanted to take us to a Japanese karaoke place. Well, it was definitely an experience. Basically you rent a room for however many people you are with and get unlimited songs, drinks, and food. It was really fun! Us girls aren't scared to sing and we had a good ol' time singing for the boys. It was so much fun. The next day, on the 4th.. we had a full day of adoptions planned. Adoptions in Camp Adventure are where staff or parents ask to take certain Camp A staff to go and do activities or cook them dinner, etc. We got adopted by a little girl named Addison. The lunch her parents cooked for all of us was so delicious, and then we went snorkeling. The tide was very long, so it was kinda dangerous. I sliced my heal open on some coral, and a few of the girls got stabbed by a sea urchen. Breanna got a piece of urchen stuck in her finger, and so did Addison's mom. Scary! It was still fun, and we saw a lot of fish. After that, we went back to Addison's house and her mom has baked a homemade cake and even had homemade vanilla ice cream. It was the best. thing. ever. After that, we headed to Miss Tammy's house. Miss Tammy is a tech at the children's center, and she is kinda in charge of everything. They were having a soul food style bbq grillout. There was chicken, ribs, mac n cheese and a lot more. It was so good.. definitely a huge difference from the Japanese food we had been eating for weeks before that. 

This past weekend was a pretty chill one. We had a lot planned, but ended up just hanging out and beachin' it up. Which was totally okay with me! Breanna, Shelby, Kenzie and I stayed all weekend at Andy and Justin's beach house because we love it there so much. Me and Breanna shared the comfortable guest bed.. which was so much better than the beds in the barracks! :) On Saturday, we went snorkeling and saw some really awesome fish. I also started collecting sea glass. Back in the states, sea glass isn't very common.. but basically it is glass .. such as bottles or jars .. that has been broken down in the ocean and worn down so much that it is small and smooth like a colorful rock. Sea glass can most commonly be found in white, brown, light blue, green but I even found 1 dark blue piece, and 1 red piece. It was pretty awesome, and it's also pretty easy to find because it is very pretty colors! We visited a few other beaches and went out to dinner at a few places. I sent my first package home to Mom & Dad and it contains a lot of really cool stuff from Okinawa! I hope they like it! Tomorrow is Friday, and the last day of the 4th week of camp! Crazy to think that I am now halfway done with my trip.. and it's very bittersweet because the time is definitely flying by. We only have 5 weekends left to do and see everything that we want to do.. which isn't very long at all! 

This weekend we are staying in a Hostel in Naha (The biggest Okinawan city) on Friday the 13th.. creepy. Then we will be shopping around, and checking out the city since it's supposed to be pretty awesome. Apparently Kokosai street has a lot of fun shops and good restaurant so that will be really exciting to explore! Then, on Saturday morning.. if the weather is nice.. we are taking a 2 hour ferry ride to the Karama Islands. We will be staying in Tokoshiki and camping out on the beach which I am very excited about. I'm sure it will be VERY hot, and also lots of bugs but it's gonna be totally worth it! I will make sure to post a blog about everything that happens. 

Livin' the good life

This past weekend was one of the greatest so far! But, I feel that I am going to say that about every weekend.. because they are all so fun and amazing. I am loving Okinawa more and more every day! 


On Saturday morning we left the barracks around 10.. and our Marine friend's named Andy & Cody escorted us to Forest Adventure Park about a half hour away from home in a town called Onna. We got there around 11, and the earliest we could book the ziplining excusion was 12:30, so we decided to go explore the beach nearby.. which happened to be right accross the road. The beach was really awesome! Me & Shelby hunted around for shells for awhile, and found some that were really pretty and a few bigger ones too. I could walk on the beach all day searching for the coolest shells.. When the time came, we headed back to the park and got shuttled to where the ziplining took place.. up in these woods that overlooked the ocean. It was sooo sweet. We took a mini learning course, so we were able to hook up our harnesses and clamps the right way.. (So, we wouldn't die) Then, the trainer just let us free. No tour guide or anything. It was kinda cool to be on our own doing something so scary. Ha Ha. The course was probably about 15 lines total.. and a free fall jump.. and an obstacle course. It took us 3 hours to complete!!!! Well worth the 3,500 yen that we paid. It was a lot of fun, but very very HOT. We were all dying of thirst and hunger by the end of the course. Andy knew of a great authentic fresh-every-day sushi restaurant. It was .. well, an experience to say the least. Definitely not American  sushi. We also tried raw fish eggs, and Breanna said she felt like she was eating pop rocks. LOL. Yep, totally the same thing! After dinner, we were going to go explore the falls, but we were all pretty tired, and wanted to head to Andy's beach house and relax on the beach. 


When we walked into the beach house it was sooooooo amazing. Modern style furniture, and a huge wall length window overlooking the ocean from the balcony. Basically a panoramic view. It definitely didn't get much better than that. We changed into our suits and headed down to the beach.. it was so close! We all wanted to live in this house.. no joke. We walked around, found some shells, cooled off in the water, and then headed back upstairs to shower. AND.. we got to shower with hot water and good water pressure.... my first good shower since back home. Sad.. our showers in the barracks are completely awful. I will be lucky to get luke warm water once a week... Seriously. I feel bad for some of the Marines having to deal with that for years. I can hardly deal with it a week. We got dressed, and Sarah and Hailey showed up to join us. We danced, hung out, and the boys grilled steaks and chicken on the balcony. Yummy! After that, we went down to the beach and they had started a bonfire. It was hot hot hot. Too hot for a bonfire when it was probably over 80 degrees already. We all just kinda chilled, and then all 6 of us crashed in the living room. 3 on the couch... That was me.. and the rest on the floor. Then, 5 am rolled around and we were all waken up by the sun shining straight in the huge window. Literally, we felt like we were all getting burnt through the glass. And, we couldn't really go back to sleep after that. We got home cooked breakfast and Starbucks and then went down to the beach to lay out. Me & Shelby decided we wanted to go snorkeling so Justin & Cody let us borrow their gear and they took us out a ways into the ocean. We saw lots of fish, starfish, and swam through a school of jellyfish! It was scary.. but very cool at the same time. The biggest one was about the size of my hand, but still.. scary! After that, we went upstairs and packed up our stuff and headed to Tadaki Falls. It was in the middle of nowhere basically, but there were hundreds of other people there in the falls also. It was about a mile walk through the rapids and rocks.. which was so much fun! We finally reached the giant fall and it was probably fourty feet high! Lots of people were climbng under it, and swimming in the little pool at the bottom. It was about 8 feet deep at some places, and it was really refreshing since it was fresh water. We walked up under the waterfall, and it was pouring down so hard it felt like needles on my back. Ouch! Then, everyone wanted to climb to the top.. which was veryyyy steep. I got blisters on my hands from the little ropes that people had tied to trees to make it easier to hike to the top. It literally seemed straight up at some places. But, the view from above was very worth it! I loved it! I can't wait to hike more waterfalls, especially since it was free! Afterwards, we got Blue Seal (The best icecream EVER) and headed home! 


Tonight, Breanna and I were cleaning out the huge bag of shells and wondered what smelled so bad.... we found two dead crabs.. YUCK! I washed them with soap, and I'm probably going to send them home this week a long with a few other gifts I've gotten for my family. Only one more day of work, and then we have a day off! So excited.


On Wednesday.. the 4th of July.. all of us Foster girls got invited to Addison's house for a beach day/cookout since we don't have work. Addison is an 8-year-old girl from the center and her parents invited us all over. How nice! I'm super excited. There is also a festival, carnival, and tons and tons of fireworks that I am looking forward to! It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait! 

 

View from the Beach House! 

Tadaki Falls