Exciting Trip to Zamami Island

For Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Zamami Island, which is in the Kerama Island chain. We took a ferry boat from the Tomari Port in Naha and it took about an hour. Zamami island was a beautiful place with gorgeous waters, a charming village, and a bizarre little hotel. Our weather was not very cooperative- it rained almost the entire time! We were disappointed, but we didn't let it stop us from seeing the island and having fun at the beach. The most exciting thing that happened occured only a couple of hours after we arrived. The boys were playing around on the dock and Logan slipped in the rain and fell. He split his ear wide open! Seriously, it looked like someone had snipped his ear apart with a pair of scissors. We debated going home on the next ferry, but finally Shane decided to stitch it up himself. Luckily, he had brought a first aid kit that contained sutures, lidocaine and other necessary supplies. All went well with the stitches and we ended up having a great weekend.


These adorable shisha were sitting on a ledge in the village. They are made out of broken pieces of terracotta roof tiles and sea shells. So cute!

Here is Logan's ear after he fell and split it open.

Shane preparing to suture. As you can see in this picture, there was no furniture in our hotel room, other than a small table. For sleeping, there were a few thin mats to put on the floor. Three years ago when we first moved here, it seemed really exotic and kind of fun to sleep on the floor at various hotels. But now, it doesn't seem so fun. It just feels like a hard wood floor.

Shane pressed his friend Brady, a dentist, into service to help him suture the wound. Thus the two pairs of gloved hands. I got assigned to hold a flashlight to provide adequate light while Shane stitched. Looking pretty good! Shane did a remarkable job with the stitches! Unfortunately, having stitches meant that Logan couldn't get in the ocean for the entire weekend. Bummer.

Logan all bandaged up and ready to go out for dinner.

The boys and their friend, Denver, hanging out in Zamami village.

We ate at several quaint, yummy restaurants on the island. Above is Dylan's meal of grilled eel over rice with Miso soup.
This was the van driven by the hotel manager. He picked us up at the port and drove us to the beach and around the island. It supposedly sat eight people, but at one point we had it stuffed with over 25 people! So much for any seat belt laws....
Savannah and her friends climbing on rocks at the beach.

Girls' Trip to Hawaii!

Recently, Savannah needed to have surgery on her kidneys but the procedure she needed wasn't available here in Okinawa. So, she and I got to go to Hawaii to have the surgery done. We had the best time! The lodging facilities on the Air Force Base were full, so we got to stay in a hotel in Waikiki, just a block from the beach. It was such a wonderful and unexpected treat to be able to spend 10 days with Savannah in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Her surgery went well and we were able to spend lots of time soaking up the sun, sightseeing, shopping, and catching up with old friends. Savannah and I loved the beach in Waikiki!

When we got off the plane, my sweet friend, Amber, had fresh flower leis for both of us. Here is Savannah wearing hers.

This is Tripler Army Medical Center where Savannah's surgery was done.

This is Savannah when she is just waking up from the anesthesia. Not too happy!

She felt better quickly, though.

She recovered well, and two days later we were at the beach!

Here I am with my friend, Amber, who lives in Hawaii. She took us to Kailua beach near her house. It was so pretty!

We were able to go to Pearl Harbor and see the sights there.

Savannah got a hula skirt and was practicing her dancing on our hotel balcony.

We went to a luau one night and we loved it!

At the luau, we each got a wrist lei made for us.

At first, Savannah was a little skeptical of the luau food, but it turned out to be really delicious.

There was a cute little "keiki" at the luau that was helping the children learn to hula.

After the show, Savannah got her picture taken with Chief Tuey Manga, who was a fire dancer in the show. Check out the tribal tattoos all over his legs...

On our flight home, the flight attendant was quite taken with Savannah, and she took us both up to the upper floor of the 747 to meet the pilots and sit for a minute in the cockpit of the plane. Really cool!