Whales and sunflowers

Saturday was a FULL day packed with fun and excitement...we had an amazing time and crashed hard when we got home last night!

I've been wanting to go whale watching for awhile now and we missed our chance to go last year with my uncle because we had something else going on, so when I realized that this is the time when the humpback whales are moving through the Okinawa waters. We signed up for a tour with our neighbors Ali and Kyle, and headed down to Naha Port in the morning.

It was a Japanese run tour and we didn't have a lot of info other than where and when to show up, so we planned to bring Rowan's life jacket, just in case they didn't have one for him, but in the rush of leaving, we totally forgot. But don't worry, they still had one for him, haha...It was pink and huge! We ended up just putting a life jacket on ourselves and strapped him in the Bjorn. Luckily the waters were calm and we were all safe.

Ready to head out...looking for whales!

There were 3 American families (and we thought we were going to be the only ones on the big boat because we were on it earlier than everyone else), and then the bus of tourists (mostly Chinese) pulled in. It worked out great still, there was plenty of room for everyone to be able to see!

We went out in the East China Sea between Naha Port and the Kerama Islands. It was so fun just to be out on the water on this gorgeous day. I had such a hard time deciding what to wear because I think of whale watching of a frigid winter sport, but we had 70 degree temps and a mix of sun and clouds. We "chased" whales all around and saw several! Unfortunately, we didn't really get any good shots...we wanted to enjoy the experience and the whales are gone so quickly that unless you are continuously looking through the camera, you pretty much miss it, so this tiny bit of the tail is the only photo we snapped. However, the experience was awesome and in our memories! This picture does at least show how close we got! (and this one wasn't even the closest we saw).

I was a little worried I would get sick, because I hadn't really been out on a boat in the ocean in a really long time (and Grant threw up more than a dozen times on his last fishing trip :) but luckily both of us were totally fine. There were some people around us who weren't so lucky though (including the poor little kid near us who threw up his rice and fish breakfast all over his black pants)

Rowan LOVED the wind and waves...he was so happy the entire time. I can't wait to go again when he can actually get excited to look for whales.

A couple hours later, we headed back to port. Such a fun experience...here we are with Kyle and Ali.

Whale watching family photo.

Kyle and Ali hadn't been to the outlets yet, so we headed there next for some lunch and shopping. We went to a random weird place for lunch and Rowan enjoyed some fried squid legs :) I was a little grossed out by the fact that he was eating these, but he had fun with it! Normal calamari doesn't gross me out, but you could see the tentacles on these ones, which took it to another level.

Then we did some shopping...Grant insisted that I get a cute rain coat at Helly Hansen and we got Rowan some cute church pants at Gap on clearance!

Slobbery kisses :)

Hanging out with the shisa dog :) I love these outlets...they are clean, fun and somewhat American feeling which is always kind of nice.

We worked up an appetite shopping (and hadn't eaten a very big lunch) so went to Blue Seal for some more food afterwards...This was a fun little sundae that we shared.

And finally, we decided to check out the sunflower festival in Nakagusuku. It was awesome! The flowers were gorgeous and there were several fields FULL of them.

Head cutout photo op.

Sunflower fields

Just like this sunflower...we were very happy by the end of this awesome day!