Back to the Beach!

We took our first trip to the beach of the summer today! It's still hot, so I can still call it summer. It doesn't matter that school started! It's Labor Day! Last unofficial day of summer, right?

We decided to head over to Torii Beach. It's a spread of beach that is on one of the military bases here on Okinawa. It's a nice beach for families. It has a waterslide, a splash fountain, a scuba locker, lots of pavilions for parties, a pirate ship park, swings, cabins and a man made rock enclosure, to help keep the bad fishies out and the water babies (my kids) in. The rock enclosure is why we chose Torii today. We've found better beaches, but the last time we were at Torii, they were just starting the new wall, and we wanted to see how it turned out. Pretty cool.

It was a fun day. Three hours of fun in the sun. Our sunburned noses are proof of that! The best part was the seaweed war. There is little leaf like seaweed floating around everywhere. Usually, it's not so bad, it stays towards the shore, but today, the waves were on, well, as on as Okinawa can get them, at least that I've seen so far. So, the seaweed was everywhere, it's brown and looks kind of like eucalyptus leaves. I was out of the water when it started, but from what I understand, Micah was the instigator. Of course, Joshua, being the target, would not let that slide.

Thus starteth the Great Seaweed War.

It didn't take long before Micah was down for the count. Actually, by the time I found out about the war, he was done for. Caleb was the next out. Poor little trooper, just trying to keep his little head above water with us tall folk. He ran, well, swam, for the safety of shallow water. I was only an observer for a while, watching as Joshua would take huge clumps, sometimes by both hands, of this stuff and throw them at Ron. The clumps held together quite well, and most of the time, stuck to whatever surface it landed on; skin, rash guard, hair. It made a splat noise too!

Eventually I got involved, though, I'm not sure how. But, being a seasoned mother of three boys, it didn't gross me out as much as I thought it would just seconds prior to being hit. I took it like a boy and threw back like a girl. Sigh. I did get a few direct hits in, but I received many more than I dished out. It's all good.

Until we got home and showered.

I think we came home with more than our daily catch limit of seaweed.

Chore for tomorrow? Clean the shower drain. Hey, after such a fun time, I won't mind a bit. I may even take a picture of our catch!