Cape Hedo

We have lived on this island that is only like 68 miles long for over 5 years and we finally went to the most northern tip of the island!!! Jorden has been wanting to do this for awhile now, so he had his day and we did the drive. An island 68 miles long doesn’t seem very big to somebody who has NEVER driven here, but trust me, driving 68 miles here can actually take a whole day depending on the traffic! Jorden and his friend Cody actually were going to walk to the tip of the island last year, but didn’t quite make it. They got further then I thought they would. Slept on a beach and then the next day called it quits and hitch hiked down to the closest Marine base and road the Green Line or as Vicki calls it, The Looser Cruiser, back home. We went to Cape Hedo, the northern tip of the island! It was a cool drive as we were pretty much along the ocean the whole way! Beautiful!!! We got up there, parked, and began walking around. I was just like, Wow”! The cliff drops, jungle backgrounds, caves, the ocean, waves crashing along the walls, it was just breathtaking! This area is called the Okinawa Kaigan Quasi- National Park. Ty and Ryan were excited and began to follow all the paths. It was windy, so just a bit cold, but the sun kept shining so it wasn’t freezing! Jorden immediately headed over to climb the cliffs. Of course, Thing One & Thing Two were right behind him. I just kept telling them to be careful and not climb on the edges. It was a LONG drop down! They went to the very top. Ed was sore from this massive PT thing he took his class on Friday and didn’t feel like following the boys. Ha! I was in my gladiators, so I wasn’t doing too good of a job keeping up, so I just hollered over to Jorden to make sure we didn’t loose anyone over the edge. Vicki was in flip flops and wanted to climb, but sliced her feet in a few places. She was also hobbeling all day because she had banged her knee really hard the other day on the door to the jeep. It was beautiful up there looking down on the water! We headed back over to the paths. It was too funny because we finally found the rock statue thing we have been looking for for over 5 years! I have this picture of Ed hung up from when he was here on Oki in 1995. We have been trying to find where the photo was taken as Ed couldn’t remember. Well, we found it! I took a picture of Ed at the rock again. As Vicki and I were walking over there we kept feeling rain drops but when looking up at the sky, it was clear skies with fluffy white clouds. Later when we went around the corner we realized that the water was just ocean spray from the waves crashing along the sides of the cliffs…..yep, great minds think alike! This is a place that Ed and I have obviously never dived, since we have never been here before, together. We know people that have dived here and it was a place we wanted to hit eventually, but wow, after watching the water…..i’m not so sure…We were discussing various entries and how to get down with our gear. Jorden offered to throw our gear to us from the cliffs so we could hike down not being weighed down by it. Ha Ha! Ed said we could just jump in. Another haha! I kinda freak out when we jump in at Bollo, there is no way I would consider it here! Jorden took Ty and Ryan and they actually found us a path that would be easy to walk to this beach area where we could walk right in. Soooo, maybe we will hit this spot before we leave…..when we were heading back to the car we saw the Okinawa Ghost Riders motorcycle gang. There are several groups that ride their bikes up and down the island on the weekends. Ed and I are going to do it once before we leave. I talked with these guys for a few minutes and took a few pictures of them. Ed and the kids always disappear when I begin conversing with the Okinawan’s. We began the loooong drive back south to our house. An ambulance pulled onto the road about 2 km from Cape Hedo, so we had a nice fast drive to start out with….about 25 minutes later the ambulance got to go thru the red light and so we were stuck behind a slower vehicle and went back to oki pace. There were several tunnels to go thru, so we did the normal of holding our breath and of course Ed would slow down as we got near the exit! Ha! The drive was beautiful! It will be weird to be stateside and NOT driving along the ocean whenever I go somewhere…..We hit traffic as we got back down to Nago were the Cherry Blossom Festival was being held. All the statues are lit up at night along the climb up to the shrine. There was just a non stop line of cars coming up for that. Glad we were heading the opposite way! I bet it is amazing to climb those steps at night! We stopped for dinner at McDonalds. Ty and Ry played in the tunnels real quick while I was ordering everyone’s food. I set my money down on the table while I was waiting and Jorden reminded me that I need to get out of that habit before we get stateside. Here, you just never have to worry about crime. I could lay my cash right there on the table, walk away, use the restroom, and it will still be there when I get back. Ed started laughing and told Jorden how he had just had this conversation with me yesterday as I was walking around the store with some 20’s in my hand. He said I needed to start putting my money in my purse and not walking around with it just out there in my hands. UUUHHG. The States is going to be such an adjustment for me! After we ate we headed back home. Oh, a funny flashback, the McDonalds that we were at was the same one I had tp’d one of our friends van’s in. We had been heading back from camping at Okuma and had all stopped at McDonalds for dinner. We finished before one of our friends and so I was buckling kids in car seats and saw that I had a package of tp in the back of the van. I tp’d their van while they were still in there eating. The Okinawan’s that were going thru the drive thru were cracking up as I was wrapping the van in tp. Lots of photos were taken that day, not sure why I didn’t take any!!!! Ha! We made one last stop at the fruit stand. I bought some yummy tangerines and then we jumped on the expressway and made it home! Another fun adventure!