10 Year Anniversary

April 15th was our 10 year wedding anniversary. Just saying that sounds absolutely crazy to me. I can't really believe that I've been married for 10 years. I mean, really, I've only been out of high school 10 years! Wow, the time sure has gone by. Seeing that this was a big occasion, Tim took it upon himself to make a night to remember. He got us reservations at the Renaissance Hotel here in Okinawa. The Andersons were absolutely wonderful being willing to take our children overnight so we could go and just relax and celebrate, so thank you thank you thank you thank you MaryAnn and Ed!

We checked in and WOW, they sure are ritzy, there was a valet, and a bellhop that wouldn't let us touch our bags. There were beautiful birds perched around, and a magnificent car right in front of the entrance (you'll see the car later). We checked in, and because it was our anniversary, and my birthday (tomorrow) we got special coupons for cake and drinks during dinner. Yummy!

We got to our room, and the first thing we noticed were the twin beds. Yes that's right, twin. You see they charge you by the person here, not by room, so when you have two people, unless you are willing to spend an arm and a leg, you get separate beds. Also they were ROCK HARD. Seriously, it was like sleeping on the floor the mattresses were so hard. Oh well, the room itself was nice. AND there was this super cool toilet. I'm telling you, the Japanese do it right. Not only is it just the right height, it had a HEATED seat. If you've never sat on a heated toilet seat, you are missing out. That's enough about that.....

Tim surprised me with a beautiful set of black pearl earrings, and then......With a gorgeous black pearl necklace. Yes they are real. Okinawa is known for it's black pearls. I'd never heard of them before coming here, and since being here I really wanted a set, but never went out and got one, so Tim did it for me. Thanks honey!

This is the view from our room, there was a small balcony, and you could sit and stare at the ocean. Beautiful.

Here is the restaurant where we had our Anniversary dinner.

Our food, it was delicious. On the plate is roast beef, a roasted tomato with herbs, a mini quiche, bacon wrapped Goya (bitter melon) and squash, and a small chunk of purple sweet potato. We took the picture after eating the sweet potato and veggies, oops.

After realizing we didn't drink Alcohol (they offered us champagne) they brought us some specialty water. This is VOSS water, on the jar, it says "Artesion drinking water from Norway"

After finishing dinner, they asked us to go on the veranda to watch the sunset and have desert. Oh it was so beautiful.

This was the dessert that came with the meal, it was very good.

This is the birthday cake they brought for me, Tim also got one. It wasn't so good. It tasted like cake that had no sweetener in it. The fruit on top was very delish.

After dinner we retired to our room, and realized we had nothing to do, so we ordered and in room massage. Yup, first time massagees here. It was really cool. Those rock hard beds are good for something after all. They used those as the tables, and it was very nice. Slightly painful, but mostly nice.

I told you it was a ritzy joint, they supply pajamas! Seriously! What fun!In the states, you get a bible in your hotel drawer, here you get a Japanese bible (the blue one, and yes, that is the front cover, remember in Japan the books are read opposite the way we read books!) A copy of the New Testament, and a book on Buddhist beliefs.

We had an AMAZING breakfast, and then went for a walk around the grounds. These were some fun shisa dogs.

While we were walking, we noticed the little chapel, and a couple getting married, how sweet.

Here is the happy couple, in the car parked at the hotel entrance, pretty sweet!

We thought this was cute, getting their wedding photos done on the beach, how fun. We didn't know them, but somehow ended up with tons of pictures of them. Go figure!

They had several areas of the ocean partitioned off with nets, in one area we saw these.


They also had dolphins. Now they have several programs where you can swim with the dolphins, it's VERY expensive, so we didn't opt for that, but we did walk along a boardwalk type thing, and watch as other people swam with them. It was just as good as paying for a show. We saw them jump and swim around, it was great. So here's one of them jumping.

And here's one that was just swimming around by where we were standing. They were so beautiful.
After a wonderful evening and very pleasant morning, it was time to check out. Here's one of the birds waiting around in the lobby. Beautiful isn't he?