Parks and Playgrounds

Tosha had prepared a list of nearby parks and other attractions which we had not visited last year.  We concentrated on the playgrounds because I wanted to focus on things that Niki would enjoy with us and not have him tag along to more historical sites.

The first one was the Pirate Ship Park

This is Niki marching back and forth on the wooden "boat" wearing his favorite hat.  Most of my pictures of him include this banana hat.

 Cooper spent most of our playground outings in the stroller, but he was a good baby.

Sharing trail mix together (I found hats helpful in the humid hot weather of Okinawa, too.)

Next park, Nakagusuku Joseki Park:

This park is very large and contains four or five different "playgrounds" with some fun features.  The good thing about the parks is that they don't have the same safety concerns that you might see in the US...that is also the bad thing when you are following an almost 3 year old around.  However this park was new and amazing.  Definitely will go back there if I make another trip to Okinawa.

See, Cooper, I didn't just play with Niki at the park.  Sometimes I held you so your mom could go play.

 

Time for a snack break--two of the cute people in our family....

 

Then we headed up to the upper playground.....

Although the white surfaces you see above look like roofs over a play area, they are actually a very rubber playing surface.  You can jumping on them, climbing up and down and even walk sideways around.  Niki loved it especially when he found some cute other kids around to play with on it.  We really need something like this in Utah.  It was great fun.

Tosha waiting to capture a picture of Niki on the way down one of the many slides.

Next park visit was on Day four of my trip.  We headed to the Shisa Dog Park, a small little park nestled in a neighborhood.  Tosha does a great job listening to her GPS directions and then making the needed corrections (like not turning where there isn't a road.)  Tall buildings sometimes makes things a little off.....

On the other side of the park was a zip line which is a common feature in parks around here.  I held on to Niki so he could ride it down to the end......neglecting to notice the slick mud puddle at the end. Which led to a "not so graceful" slip on my part....fortunately I was holding tight to the rope and didn't completely fall flat but ended up with mud on my pants and a sore knee for a couple of days...fortunately no pictures of the actual fall.....the perils of grandparenting!!

After a short visit at this park (and the above mentioned fall), we decided to head to another park in the area.  Again the GPS took us right to the park---unfortunately there was no road into the park at that location.  We tried weaving around to find it with no luck, but the park looked great so we decided to try it again on another day after researching it more fully.

So on my last Saturday, we headed once again to Urasoe Dai Park.  It turned out to be a very fun park and even though it was filled with families enjoying a Saturday there was plenty of room to play.

The parking lot Tosha had found for the park was at the top of the hill.  Here are some views from the top of the city and the ocean in the distance.

This is the view looking down on the entire playground structure.  It was built into the hill and had three basic levels of equipment to play on.

 There were lots of steps but Niki did a great job climbing down.

 Tosha and Austen had the hard job--getting Cooper and his stroller down the many steps.

The first thing we did was ride on this "roller" slide.  Niki and Austen went first......

 

and I followed behind them.  This went down the three levels of the park.  Niki liked it so much that he and Austen climbed back up and did it again.  I thought it was fun, too, but a little hard on the backside. There were fun views of the city as you went down.

Niki loves trains (which makes him definitely a Hall-Giberson kid) so he thought it was fun to climb on this train.

 Tosha and Austen decided that Niki was having way too much fun on this slide so they gave it a try.  If you get the right speed you can be airborne for a second or two on the bump.

Tosha caught Cooper mid-yawn in this picture.

Not your typical tourist sights in Okinawa, but it was so fun to go to this playgrounds and have fun with Niki.  It was the perfect way to spend a few hours when it wasn't raining in Okinawa.  And don't worry, we did also do some tourists spots and the beach....next post for that!!