iE Island Trip

Joe and I ventured out to a small island up north called iE Island (pronounced E-A). We took a 30-minute ferry ride over to the island and we stayed at a place called the YYY Resort. It was small and cozy and we went during the off-season which was nice because there weren't a lot of other people there!

The beach during low tide!

Just taking it all in.

The weather was amazing. It's mid-September and still sunny and in the 90's. On our first day we got there around lunch time. We settled into our room and went out to walk along the beach and check out the resort. We decided to go play tennis, but we quickly realized it was far TOO hot to play! We paid for an hour's worth and played maybe 20 minutes. We walked back to the hotel along this really neat trail that reminded me of LOST.

The meals at the resort were HUGE. Our first night we got the BBQ meal where we got a huge platter of different meats, fish and veggies to grill up. There was so much food and it all tasted great! We ventured out and tried all the different meals they offered (Japanese, Western and BBQ). Well, I should say Joe was the brave one. He tried the Japanese meal for both dinner and breakfast and to say the least, it was very interesting! He didn't know what a lot of it was, but he ate all of it.

One of the days we rented bikes and rode around the island. I tried to think back to the last time I'd actually been on a bike, and I think it must have been back in middle school?! I was a bit wobbly at first, but got the hang of it pretty quickly. However, I got the old-school bike with a big basket and no gears (so I could lug around our drinks and camera) and Joe got the spiffy mountain bike with the gears. We rode around for 2-hours and I think we traveled 6 miles or so. We made it to this cave where the myth is there is a sacred rock and when a woman lifts it, she will soon get pregnant! Guess we'll see what happens...

Most of the time we spent relaxing in the pool or walking along the beach collecting seashells. It was so nice just to unwind from our everyday busy lives. We missed the pups (we had someone watching them) but I will admit, it was nice not to have to take them out every few hours! We didn't get any phone calls and didn't have any computer access. It was just so nice to enjoy nature, eachother and to be able to relax.

Here's Joe playing lawn-golf!

We're back home, but Joe still has a few more days of leave left. We'll probably spend some more time doing finishing touches around the house (I'll post pics soon, I promise) and working on getting his JCI done (Japanese car inspection that has to be done every 2 years) which is a bit of a hassle. He also on a whim decided to run a 1/2 marathon this morning! He ran in 2-hours and 18-minutes, a little slower than his last one, but still impressive for not having trained for it! He hasn't ran in a few weeks and didn't plan on running it until his friends told him about it last night. Of course I opted to sleep in (5:30am is much too early to wake-up on a Saturday!).

I've been staying busy tutoring kids after school for a few hours each day. It's been fun and rewarding working with elementary aged kids again. I plan to submit my substitute application (finally!) sometime next week. I'm sure once they start calling me, I'll be so busy that I'll wish I had more free time on my hands. Oh well, there's always that love/hate relationship with jobs.

The weather is beginning to cool down (still in the 80's but low 70's at night which is very COOL here!) and I'm looking forward to the fall and winter holidays! I think it's my favorite time of year! I'm summered out! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the cool weather.