Okinawa From Above

So for Valentine's day, Craig told me he made plans for us and to be ready on Friday at 12:30. Wear a jacket. Ok - that last part there squelched any ideas I'd had about a spa day. Hm.

Well it was almost as cool as a spa day. A 45 minute flight over Okinawa in a Cessna! It was amazing. And since we were allowed to take the kid, we grabbed her from school and went for it! Here are a few.

Looking toward the back seat at my sweeties (Valentines!) Ok - now see the head-sets? Well this was Mia's first experience with a head-set and it basically induced verbal diarrhea. Hearing herself on that thing was the best thing EVER so all we heard was running dialog; "Daddy. Daddy? Mommy. This is the BEST airplane trip ever. Mommy. Mommy. Mama. I love this airplane. Daddy. I think I see a dolphin. And it is going to eat the little people. A dolphin, Daddy. Daddy? This is the best airplane trip. Ever. Daddy. Daddy? Mama... I love you. Look there's the bridge we went on. Remember Mama? Daddy? The bridge - look there, the bridge we went on. Daddy. Daddy?" And on and on ad nauseum.:

Here's the view after we took off as we headed toward the sea wall. You can see our home in this picture!

Shuri Castle from above.

A cool island east of Okinawa:

Let me bust in here to say - not to toot my own horn - or really, my camera equipment's horn, (TOOT - sorry, beans for lunch) but these pictures were taken from a 1967 or so Cessna window which had probably not been replaced ever. There were reflections, but the quality is not so bad, huh?

Good heavens, the SUN came out while we were up there! For the first time in WEEKS - seriously - I'm starting to get SAD.

Very cool bridge to Ikei Island - from above. I have no idea why there seems to be a narrow ravine-like area going under there, but it's super cool and made me want to go diving again. The whole trip made me want to go diving again in Okinawa's incredibly clear sapphire waters.
I put some gems on my flickr site (including one that has para-surfers in it from above!), the whole batch can be found here. Today was still pretty grey - I might put up a shot or two from our lame trip to Nago - but more likely I'll have some cool shots after a trip south to Kokusai & Shuri Castle tomorrow if the clouds can leave us alone already. JEEZ.