IE island

Just off the coast of Nago is IE island. It's famous for being shaped like a hat and as the place Ernie Pyle died during WWII. We took a quick one night trip to the island a few weekends ago. The island is tiny, it made Okinawa seem huge. We took the ferry across to the island and paid extra to take our car. Our first stop was a cool park we happened to pass. Gabriella made a few new friends and we spent almost an hour letting her play while we fed the twins. Our next stop was the hat shaped mountain. Mount Gusuku is not big close up and Greg and Gabriella were able to scale it, via the stairs, very quickly. While they were climbing to the summit the girls and I perused the gift shop and found some delicious peanuts. IE is famous for it's brown sugared and miso flavored peanuts. After mountain climbing we headed to the Children's Hibiscus garden for a picnic lunch. The flowers were beautiful and before long it was time to check into the hotel. The YYY resort is a well maintained and cozy resort on the coast of IE. We rented a cottage for a night and loved the relaxed pace of this trip after the frazzling trip to mainland we'd taken a few days before. Gabriella loved the heated spa, the pool was a little chilly for her taste. We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing in the room or at the pool. For dinner we grilled our own food Yakiniku style at the hotel's restaurant. The little girls actually slept a fair amount that night and Greg and I were able to catch up on some sleep. The next morning we enjoyed the hotel's breakfast buffet before heading back out to the spa. We wheeled the sleeping twins right next to the spa and all three of us got in to relax. After checking out of the hotel we drove around the island, looking at the lighthouse and the lily fields. We took the ferry back to Okinawa and arrived home more relaxed than when we left.