Visit to Ie Island Lily Festival

Sunday John and I took a ferry ride to Ie Island to the Lily Festival. It was about a 30 minute ferry ride. After departing the ferry, we looked aroud the shops a little, then headed off walking towards Mt. Gusuku, where we climbed to the top. There were stairs most of the way.........but LOTS of them!!

After we got finished at Mt. Gusuku, we headed off in the direction we assumed was the Lily Festival. We walked along some main roads, and some dirt roads through farmland. We had to backtrack a bit, but finally made it to the festival site where we looked at the Lilies, the beautiful ocean, and ate some Okinawan "festival food." The food was a bit different than the standard festival fare on mainland Okinawa, always an interesting and tasty experience. We picked a few things that looked good. One dish in particular looked really good-----John started eating it and told me I had to try it before he told me what i was. NOPE-------I didn't fall for that!! I thought it looked like beef chunks with veggies in a brown sauce. Well, that's not exactly what it was! It was Tripe(Yes,stomach) .......ewwwwwwwwww........he said it was really pretty good but I couldn't take a bite!! We listened to some local entertainment and music for a while, walked among the lilies, and then caught the bus back to the port for our return ferry to Okinawa. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for such an outing.

Pics are as follows: 1. Ie Island view from the ferry, Mt. Gusuku
2. Steps up the mountain
3. John and I at the top of Mt. Gusuku
4. Tree on the trail up the mountain
5. Gwen at the Lily Fields.

Check out my Slide Show!

New Scrappy Pages

I have been trying to scrap a few pics of Stephi and I's trip to Tokyo. It seems the only ones I have completed have pics of Stephanie in them. She has always hated to have her picture taken and refuses to pose for pics. She was leaving to go to Florida the week after we got home, so I wanted some nice pics of her before she left. It's amazing what a teenage girl will do when she wants a $60+ pair of shoes!! Made her a deal after a few days in Tokyo that if she posed for pics (with smiles) the rest of the trip, I would buy her the pair of shoes! Of course, she went back to the shop in Tokyo where the shoes were and they didn't have a pair big enough to fit her big American feet----but she came home with a $60 skirt she said I bought her instead!!! Anyway, I am loving having pics of Steph to scrapbook!! So here are a couple. These were both made with supplies from the Dixie Pieces Dixie Design kits. The link for Dixie Pieces is on my blog. They have amazing kits, you should check them out.

Finally, some Tokyo pics--Asakusa

Yes, finally getting some time to post some pics and write about my Tokyo trip! These pics are from a small town called Asakusa. It was a very charming little town, complete with a beautiful temple, and some bazaar style shopping. DD and I took a rickshaw ride here. It was soooo much fun. This is one of the areas I enjoyed most from our trip.

Yep, I'm a Grandma!!

Connor Grayson Rich was born on 29th March 2008 to James Rich, and my dd Angela Anderson. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Here are a few photos. I included one of my daughters and the baby. The one holding the baby is not the Mother.