Happy 235th Birthday Marines!

Ok folks, here is your mini-history lesson for the day. Yes you read right, I (Andrea) am actually going to talk about history. My history-buff husband is apparently rubbing off on me! As many of you know, the United States Marine Corps was formed in 1775. In 1921 the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. John A. Lejeune issued an order to all Marines that on November 10 each year they would honor the founding of the Marine Corps. Soon, some Marine commands began to not only honor the birthday, but celebrate it.

Last night we celebrated the 235th birthday of the Marine Corps. Here are a few photos from our great night!

Here is John in the center with his Marines

The officers in our unit

And their wives...

With our friends Matt and Laura

Happy birthday Marines!

Tadake Falls

Last weekend we drove up north with some friends to hike through a river to get to a beautiful waterfall. I have never done anything like this so I was a little worried about walking on rocks in the water, especially given my recent history with creatures that live in the water! Fortunately there are no jellyfish in rivers!

It was a fun hike and a pretty good workout!

Boys will be boys!

Someone wasn't thrilled that he wound up in waist deep water and his shirt got wet!

We made it after 45 minutes or so. The falls were more powerful than I imagined!

John and Matt decided to swim across and walk behind the waterfall. Of course they had to do their typical "battle" photo!

Then he and Matt decided to hike even further up the steep hill to check out the top while Laura and I had a snack and saved our leg muscles from being sore the next day!

After our hike back to the car we were ready to eat!

There is a popular blog here on Okinawa where people post about restaurants and things to do on the island. We read about a place called Beach Rock Village that got good reviews, so we went to check it out. It was interesting to say the least.

It was sort of a hippy campsite in the middle of nowhere, but they had food that you could order. They only had pizza left (apparently they only make a few things and once they are out, they're out!). We ordered food and climbed up into the tree house to eat.

By now, the most random things don't really seem to phase us anymore! Having to eat in a tree sounds normal after you have lived in Japan a while! Ha ha!

The food and drinks were put on a pulley system to make getting it into the tree a little easier!

The pizza was pretty good but I don't think we will make a special trip an hour north just to eat at this odd place!

All in all it was a great day with great friends! One activity to check off the list of things we should do before we leave the island!