Last trip down south...

Last weekend Alison and I made our last tour book day down south. It was a beautiful day and we had everything all planned out...we'd go to charlies tacos for the last time, visit a banyan tree tunnel, see some castle ruins, and make a final stop at the glass factory...Well...it didn't quite turn out the way we had planned. Let me start by saying we have not had an unsuccessful trip yet and apparently it was time to make up for our other really successful trips. Let's just say I lost count how many full circles we went in and the amount of u-turns I made...some of which I am sure were illegal. Needless to say I have developed some bad driving habits this year! Anyways, at one point while we were looking for the banyan tree tunnel I made a u turn on a small dirt turnout and Thomas, our car, made an AWFUL noise! But it wasn't just for a moment, it kept going! Alison and I were just having a conversation on the drive up about how surprised we were that our car was still alive as we were sure it wouldn't last this long, now we found ourselves laughing so hard we were crying and also praying it wouldn't be serious since we weren't even sure where we were no less trying to tell someone where to come get us! So I pulled over and shut the car off...we walked to where we thought the banyan trees were, of course we were wrong haha, came back to the car, turned it on, and everything has been fine since. Praise God! whew!

This is where we thought Thomas was going to die!

We pulled over in front of this beautiful view to stretch our legs :) and get yet another pic together!

So we continued on our journey to nowhere....When we also couldn't find the castle ruins we decided to go to a cave site from the battle of Okinawa where over 200 school girls who were made to be nurses caring for the wounded soldiers ended up committing suicide after hearing rumors of what the American soldiers would do to them if found. It was more intense than anything I can describe! They had accounts to read that were in English and I read 2 and had to walk away, they were so graphic I couldn't handle it. From the cave site we headed to the glass factory, our second home, for the last time. Let me just say how weird it is that we are coming down to the "lasts." It almost feels like yesterday that we were having our "lasts" in California getting ready to board a plane to Okinawa. What a year!! :) Anyways, I've been waiting for a lamp to "call my name" and have been searching for a few months. This time it called and now I have MY lamp to bring home. So excited! I know it sounds weird, but it's the little things! :) Glad to have had another productive glass factory trip.

This was the really tough view we had for most of our drive around the southern tip of the island

In the end I was proud of how patient I was with the entire day considering how much I don't like not knowing where I'm going while driving. :) It was really a lot of fun considering our inability to find what we wanted. It's hard to imagine not having the beautiful ocean view surrounding me wherever I am. It is just as breathtaking now as the first time I experienced it almost 10 months ago!