Wednesday, July 18, 2012... I awoke at 5:00AM and saw that Kristi was awake already. "I guess I should probably get up," I thought. About 5:20 I was out of bed and packing my things. Tiffy and Kristi were downstairs packing the rest of the food and drinks. Soon I was finished gathering my stuff and was able to help them. We prepared the cooler with drinks and small containers of yogurt, packed the two larger coolers with plenty of food and drinks for lunch, and filled the last bags with the remaining odds and ends that hadn't been packed yet. Carrying everything outside, Kristi neatly put the coolers, food, and personal items in the back of the car. We kept all the breakfast stuff in the middle seat so that it would be easily accessible. By 6:30AM, the seven of us were in our eight-person van, the extra seat and the back were full of stuff. Thus we began the four-hour drive.
We were on our way to the Japan Sea! During the drive we played a few games on my iPod, did several MadLibs, ate breakfast, and enjoyed the beautiful view as we drove literally across Japan. There were beautiful hills and mountains, picturesque rice-fields and old-fashioned Japanese houses, gorgeous clouds, and delightful rivers. It was a scenic drive.
We got our first glimpses of the Japan Sea about ten o'clock. It was so beautiful! I was getting a pretty excited! The sun was already hot and it felt like a perfect day to be at the beach. By 10:30 we had arrived at our usual part of the beach. Quickly we hopped out of the van to stretch our legs.
standing in front of the car looking at our distorted reflections
Then we got in our swimsuits, put on sunscreen, and began unloading the car. Dad brought the first load down to the beach with the canopy and began setting it up. Soon we were all taking loads of stuff down: coolers, bags of food, snacks, drinks, goggles, floaters, picnic sheets, towels, and beach chairs.
Jenny hauling water for washing our sandy feet before stepping onto the picnic sheet
By the time we were finished setting up, we were all hot and ready to get in the water. The ocean was so gorgeous! The water lapped against sand making the melodious sound of waves that I love. It was clean clear water with soft sand under foot. Japan Sea! We were here! The rocks, the caves, the water, the sand... All so beautiful!
Sorry for the beginning of the video, the sand was super hot and was burning my feet so I had to run to the wet sand. But the sound of the waves is so nice and the view is really pretty.
After several hours of swimming, exploring, looking for cool rocks and shells, watching the few fish, running and walking along the beach, and playing in the waves I got pretty hungry and could already feel my skin burning from the hot sun. I decided to take a quick lunch break and put on some more sunscreen.
After lunch I went out into the ocean with Jenny. We looked for fish and she practiced swimming in deeper water. Then we wanted to see if she could stand up on my shoulders. She climbed onto my shoulders, then carefully stood up, and balanced. We did it! We thought it was pretty fun so we did it more than ten times in a row.
It was quite windy so we had tied strings from the canopy to several rocks to keep it from flying away. But about this time Dad was putting on his wetsuit underneath the canopy and we were swimming in the ocean, when the wind caused the string to snap and the canopy flew up over Dad's head and landed on the sand upside-down behind him.
After we set up the canopy again and tied it down more firmly, I went exploring with Dad. We swam out to the farthest cave of the three caves. But there weren't very many fish so it wasn't as cool as it has been in past years. Also there were quite a few small jellyfish which made the water seem much more creepy, so we didn't stay out there very long. Thankfully neither of us got stung. We came back and I had a snack and put on sunscreen again. Jenny and Mom went on a walk down the beach, while Dad went back part-way to the caves to see if he could bring home some of the rope that had washed up on the rocks.
The coolest cave, also the nearest one
Inside the cave
View from the cave
After a while Dad, Mom, and Jenny came back, so we cut up the watermelon we had brought. Watermelon is such a wonderful fruit, especially on a hot day at the beach.
Once we finish eating watermelon we kids went out in the water again. We had a lot of fun stealing each others' floaters. It was one of the funnest parts of the day! =)
We were trying to pose, but we kept falling over. =P
While Kristi, Tiffy, Jenny, and I were acting out part of a movie, there was a couple taking wedding pictures on the beach between us and our camp. It was kind of cool to see.
About 5:00 we started to pack up. Then we all took showers at the nice little beach facility. We finished packing the car and then piled in for the drive home. We all were pretty sunburned - some more than others, when we started driving home about 6:45 PM.
Goodbye Japan Sea!
About two hours later we made it to McDonalds for some dinner. Then we were off again for another one and a half hours of driving. On the way we listened to the beginning of Focus on the Family's audio version of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. I love that series! And it was interesting to be able to compare the audio version to the movie since we just watched it a week or two ago.
We got home at 10:30 tired and ready for bed. So after putting some of the food stuff away, we hurried off to bed.
It was such a fun day! Going to the Japan Sea has always been a highlight of the summer for me! It was nice that it was such good weather! We had a really great time!
