The pictures

While I don't have it perfected, I have posted a few pictures on the next few posts. I hope you enjoy them. There are so many more where they came from, it was very hard to choose. 

Walking the beach in Okinawa

Another fabulous ocean view

Dinner at Jam in Okinawa

Oops! sideways view in Pineapple Park

A few more

Sitting on the hot seats

The passing scenery

Geothermal activity

Shopping on Kokosai street in Okinawa

More pictures

Heading into the gorge.

Sydney Opera House and the bridge.

A rainbow in New Zealand.

The majesty of Milford Sound.

Finally, the pictures

It is 4:30 am on Monday and it seems that body clocks don't re-set very quickly, even with the help of a sleeping pill so I thought I would post some of the pictures from our grand adventure. I'm happy to tell you that the mystery of my missing pictures was solved. They reappeared when I downloaded them all onto my computer. What a relief. I hope you enjoy the ones I'm sharing. It was hard to pick since there must be well over a thousand pictures to choose from. 

The first is one of the many photos taken at the Great Barrier Reef. There were so many different fish.

The koala was in the rain forest in Kuranda. And the last was as we walked into the gorge in the Ayers Rock area.

I will attempt to add a few more. It seems there is a limit to the number you can add. 

Enjoy.

Home at Last - well almost!

Watching the sun rise on the horizon as we headed east to Philadelphia was certainly a thrill after a 24 hour journey which started in Okinawa at 7:30 pm on Saturday night. We were very sad to leave Lucky but it was nice to know we were headed home. It was an indication of how far we have been traveling when we went through security and the agent asked me if there were coins in my purse. Once I started to remove them I wasn't finished until I had 5 coin purses/wallets laying on the tray. He just smiled and kept putting them through the x-ray machine. After we got through security we used up our last change to buy one more souvenir.

We had good flights through Taipei and San Francisco and breezed through customs to make our last connecting flight to Philadelphia. We were surprised to be able to buy "Kirkland" water (from Costco?) in Taipei. A man in the concessions area pointed that out to us. It turns out he was from Phoenix whose mother lived in Erie, PA. Another example of our small world. He was traveling from Malaysia and gave each of us a Malaysian dollar to add to our currency collection. 

Our seats were not together on that flight and Felicity felt like she was sitting next to Will Farrell's brother who proceeded to spill hot coffee on her and also ran through the airport like Will Farrell. In my row there was a woman from Vietnam who couldn't tell the flight attendants her address in San Francisco and only had a resident alien card. If it weren't for the sleeping pills we each had taken we might have stayed awake to watch the human drama around us. There is always something to see. 

We arrived without incident in Philadelphia. Laura picked us up and delivered us safely to my house. Dan and Carol came down from Harrisburg to take Felicity part of the way home. Now we begin our recovery from jet lag and taking care of all at home. 

Once I have things organized I will post a few of the best pictures on this blog. Hopefully by tomorrow.  Thanks to all for all your good wishes while we were away. We loved sharing our adventures with you and look forward to sharing pictures on this blog and in person. 

Take care and enjoy any travels you may take.

On the Beach

No, this is not the Nevil Shute novel. This is on the beach in Okinawa. We got up this morning, our last day, and took a ride to the beach, not far from Lucky's house. We stopped at a new Starbucks, just opened,

and bought coffee and tea and muffins to take down to the beach. We sat and enjoyed the view while we ate our breakfast. Out in the water there were volcanic rock formations, one which looked like it could topple over any minute.

After breakfast we walked up the beach, searching for sea glass. The sand is mostly pulverized coral and some areas looked a bit like bones. In one area we saw a whole mess of hermit crabs in the sand. They were scurrying to get under the rocks and away from the crazy Americans. There was also a man who was riding a horse and then training him in the water. We asked and he told us the horse's name was Ben!

We're back at Lucky's now and taking a little rest before showers and lunch. We plan to go back to the restaurant where we ate on the first day. Looking out on the East China Sea.

In about 30+ hours we'll be back in PA. Get ready for the stories.

This is the Felicity in the nancyandfelicity blog. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nancy for this wonderful blog.

Our last (full) day on the island

It is hard to believe that we have come to the final full day of our fabulous adventure. It seems like only yesterday... But actually right now Australia and New Zealand seem very far away. We have been having such a wonderful time here visiting Lucky and getting to know her neighborhood and some of her friends. Tonight we are heading out to a very closeby restaurant (Gordie's) for the best hamburgers on the island with a few of her friends.

We started our day with a trip to the post office on base to mail home some packages. The score was 3 for Felicity and 3 for Nancy. I quickly added to that number after a stop at the Officer's Wives Gift Shop. What great bargains and unique items. I felt it was the least I could do to help their worthy causes. One more box (yes, I was responsible for the additional box) with items from that visit was just dispatched this afternoon.

We made a few other stops around the local area. One to an ichebana shop to look at items to use at home for flower arranging. We were so impressed by the beautiful arrangements that Lucky has around her apartment. Another to an Asian Antique shop. They had some really unusual items, including shoes that were worn by Chinese women with bound feet. Very pretty but hard to look at since they are so very tiny. We also stopped for our first meal of soba noodles and pork. You would all be impressed how well we handle eating with chopsticks.

We leave tomorrow on China Air at 7:25 pm for Taipei - thankfully only a 3 hour layover and we're out of there by 11:30 pm. No overnight for us. That flight will take us to San Francisco - American soil here we come. Then another overnight flight to Philadelphia arriving about 6:45 am. If US Air handles our luggage okay we should be out of the airport by 8:00 am and on the way to my house. Keep your fingers crossed for the baggage handlers in PHL.

This has been an absolutely wonderful experience and we look forward to sharing more adventures and pictures with you when we get home. I will try to post a few pictures on this blog as soon as I get home.

Take care and we really will see you soon!