Revolving Around the Sun

Being on a tropical island, there are a few things that are given.

The most important is that in the summer, it's sunny and HOT, all the time--- morning, afternoon, and night.  

So with that in mind, we started off  the week by going to check out a new pool that just opened on base.  There are several pools on Kadena, but this one has a shaded splash pad for the kiddos.  Nothing says summer fun like running through sprinklers with your buddies!

You will notice that there is a much older girl also present in this photo.  Grayson, with his wingman in tow, was in LOVE with her and chased her all over.  Just a taste of things to come I'm sure.

Then on Wednesday morning at about 11 am, the most amazing thing happened.  We had a solar eclipse!  This is not the best picture, but it basically looked like the sun with a huge dark circle around it.  It was still light outside and warm, but you didn't have all the intense rays cooking you.  Kind of like a surreal daylight or some engineered set for a movie. From start to finish the whole eclipse lasted less than an hour, but very cool to witness.

Summer on Okinawa also means festival season.  This weekend, Grayson and I went to the Chatan Seaside Festival on Sunset Beach.

There was swimming, a live Japanese punk band which was interesting to say the least, and all the food and games that come with festivals right on the beach.

Grayson and I had some delicious noodles and gyoza (dumplings) and enjoyed people watching.

I've noticed that every Japanese beach is equipped with one of these.  Their very own ice cream shop with Blue Seal ice cream.  Very tempting.

It's been a while since we've posted a video so here is Grayson staying cool this summer.  Hope everyone else can find a way to beat the summer heat.