Playtime At Araha Beach

Last weekend, we went to Araha beach for a few hours of play. We didn't even bring swim wear, as the rain was lingering in the air, but to get out of the house, we wanted to do something. The kids have been wanting to go back to this beach/playground for awhile, as there is a big ship there to play in and a zip line, which both of the kids enjoyed!

Isabella high up on the ship!

Both of them needed some help getting on the zipline!

Ohoy!

"On August 14th 1840, The Indian Oak, an English ship owned by the East India Company, ran aground at the reef of Chatan because of typhoon. At that time, stealing hte remains of a wreck was common in Asia and Europe. However, the Chatan villagers rescued all 67 members of the crew, who lost their ship, and cared them with great hospitality for 15 days until they left the island. Besides, the villagers made an estimated 180-ton junk ship for the crew. The story above is recorded in Nautical Bulletin and Naval record that is in a possession of the British Museum. 
The investigation proved that the stranding point to be 250 meter down the reef that is located 1,050 meter west from the mouth of the Shirahi River. 
In this park, we established the playground equipment just like The Indian Oak, based on historical facts. 2000/07/21"

My beautiful girl on a beautiful beach!

American Village with the Ferris Wheel in the background.

 

It was hot and humid, even if it was cloudy, and the kids were hot and needed a lot of drink breaks!

Didn't want to be in the picture!

Soon it started to rain, and we rushed off to not get drenched. Driving away from the beach, it was lots and lots of traffic, and it took forever to reach the closest base Foster, to cut across to make it faster to go home. When we stood in line to get on base, I was going to get my ID card out of my phone case, and realized that my military ID was gone! It's a big deal, as one can't get on base without! Big drama, having to turn around and drive back in the terrible slow traffic, back to the park at the beach to try to find it. Not just my ID, but also my yearly pass to the Zoo. As it was still raining, Cassie stayed with the kids in the car and me and Chris rushed out to try to find them.

Luckily, we did! They were laying under the tree where we took shelter before running to the car. I was so relieved as it would have been pretty difficult to get on the base down south, so we would have had to drive around for a longer route to get to our base, where Chris could have gotten me signed in on base as his Marines would be working there. Still, it would have been troublesome to get a new one, and not being able to get on and off base, not being able to go shopping at the Commissary or the PX. Plus, I wouldn't want my ID out there, not knowing who would find it, who would maybe "use" it..

Comprehensive Park

Saturday was supposed to be a really great sunny day, so we had planned to finally get out and do something together. Many weekends now, it's been raining and we haven't really gone exploring at all, so I was excited to get out and see something new. Even Cassie came along as she didn't have so much homework due to Terra Nova testing this week, so it was so great to have her with us too, even if it mostly was playground time for the little kids. Normally if we only go to a playground for instance, she normally will choose stay at home, do homework, study for tests the coming weeks, or just relax and read or watch her shows on Netflix with no one else at home. 

We decided to check out a large park area not too far from us which is called Comprehensive Park. It's a huge green park with lots of walk ways, hiking trails, biking areas, several ponds, it has it's own beach, it has a large Water Park with slides and pools. There are also many different sport arenas, so there is a lot going on. We weren't really sure where too park, so we just went in and parked at one area, and ended up having to walk for awhile, passing all the sport arenas, to reach a pond.

Looking at all the colorful Koi that were swimming close to the bridge, waiting to be fed. 

 We weren't lucky enough to find a four-leaf clover. 

Maybe you have to be Irish to do so this week due to St. Patrick's Day?

We continued up and walked the stair to get to the playgrounds on the other side, and I loved the stairs, and wanted to try to get a good picture of the kids, which wasn't that easy. One was running to far up the stairs, one didn't want to look into the camera, one was talking all the time, one was complaining it took too long to get to the playground..Not easy to get some good pictures of the kids!

But if you keep taking them, you might get lucky! This one came out nice! 

Finally, after a little more walking we found one big playground. There are supposed to be many different ones spread out within this large area, but we didn't find another one. We probably should have parked around this area instead, which we will do next time. The playground was great, large with lots of  things to do, and even if it was very busy with lots of people, it didn't feel crowded.

Ben's arm strength has gotten better, and he managed to climb up with the rope with no problem! Normally it's tricky to get up as you have to pull but still use your legs to get up and it normally gets too hard and arms get tired before the kids are up.

Bella climbed up and then had to get "rescued" by her big sister!

Not everyone has got the right technique down..- yet!

Ben was so proud, and this turned out to be his favorite thing to do as he was so good at it!

All I could think of was the song "I came in like a wrecking ball.."

My cuties!

Well, can't be just cute I guess...:)

Playing Spiderman in the big net!

I LOVE how this picture turned out, I took a couple of them in a row through the net, while he jumped around, shooting imaginary spider nets on me..

Bella didn't like the net, and here we soon had to go and get her again...

After a couple of hours, we walked back to the car to get home in time to start making dinner, but first stopped at the pond to feed the Koi. They probably had been fed all day, nevertheless, they were still crazy and almost jumped out of the water for the fish food that we bought in a vendor machine. 

 Look at those fish! They would swallow your whole hand if you would reach down! 

It was a great day, not as hot and sunny as we thought it would be, but cloudy days in warm weather, are the best for playtime outside, so it was perfect! The winter has been really rainy here so we are hoping for a better spring. On the other hand, the "Rainy Season" is not supposed to start until May time, so we'll see how bad it gets. Last year, we lucked out with not so much rain, so I'm hoping that it will be the same this year!