To celebrate my birthday, last Saturday morning instead of doing our long morning run, we headed out for an adventure on IE Island. Upon arriving at the port we bought two tickets for the 30-minute ferry boat ride to the island. At the island most people took buses to the Lily Festival and other sites on the island, but we decided to walk. We are glad we walked because we saw so many interesting things along the way. I kept stopping to take photos of some of the unique flowers and Jake found tortoises. In the middle of the island is a rock structure that looks like a volcano and from afar we saw people standing on top of it. We managed to find our way there and hiked to the top of the mountain, where there is a 360 degree view of the island and you can see back to Okinawa as well. The best part of the view was that it reminded us of home. IE island is known for its agriculture and looking down at the land, you could see the different crop fields. We walked through the farm fields to the Lily Festival. It had started to rain, but we got some great pictures and had fun taking in the sites and smells of all the flowers. Luckily, we were able to catch a bus back to the port and promptly both fell asleep on the ferry ride back to the island. Later that evening friends of ours hosted a birthday party for me and another neighbor. It was so much fun to relax with friends, enjoy good food and we even went on a ghost hunt with the kids!
On Monday, my actual birthday, Jake surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and took me to dinner. It was getting close to sunset when we arrived, so we headed down to the seawall to watch the sunset first. The restaurant was on top of a hotel and had glass walls that open up like windows. It was such a beautiful, romantic setting. Dinner was delicious and we both agreed it was the best Japanese food we have eaten since arriving on the island. After dinner Jake gave me my gifts including a plaque he had made with a photo of our wedding bands and our wedding vows inscribed around it.
Being away from home on special occasions and holidays can be tough, but so many of you went out of your way to make my birthday special from half way around the world. We are truly blessed with great family and friends. A big thank you to everyone who emailed birthday wishes, sent cards and packages to make my day extra special.
This weekend I participated in a three day vendor event benefiting the USO. I set up a booth for the Rodan and Fields products that I sell. It was a great networking opportunity to spread the word about the products and to meet so many new people on the island. Feel free to check out my website: https://natashafackler.myrandf.com/
Until next week...
Natasha and Jake
No comments:
Post a Comment