pineapple park and the aquarium!

so saturday.. BIG day! we headed up to nago which is about a two hour drive. like i mentioned in an earlier post.. the long drive doesn't bother me since you drive right along the beach the whole time. and nago is more tropical and less crowded, so there are tons of green hills (looks like a scene out of LOST or jurassic park!) and palm trees.. absolutely gorgeous!
our first stop was pineapple park. i've been wanting to go here for a while now, but decided to wait until michelle came out. we started by getting our picture taken with a pineapple character and then climbing into a pinapple golf cart to take a tour around the pineapple fields. luckily, the "tour guide" (aka the speaker in the cart) spoke in english for us, so it was interesting learning and seeing all the different types of pineapples.in the pineapple cart!i didn't know pineapples could be pink! this makes me happy! :)LOVED all the cute scenery around the park!after the ride, we went into a room with pineapple wine!! and you get unlimited taste testing of the different kinds.. so good! my favorite was the light sweet pineapple wine.. i had to get a bottle! then you go into a HUGE room full of everything imagineable made out of pineapple.. sponge cakes, cookies, jellies, dipping sauces, pies, perfume, soaps, lotion,.. the list goes on and on!
it was a fun place and i'm so excited to take my next visitors there! :)
NEXT was the aquarium. i've been once before, but we kind of raced through it, so it was nice to take my time and see everything better. the coolest part was touching the different kinds of starfish and this weird creature that was very squishy! i can't even begin to describe how it felt.. dad, philip, and melissa.. you are in for a treat! :)
i also LOVED the dolphin show! i didn't get to see it last time, so i was happy i got to see it this time. while we were waiting, a japanese man wanted to take our picture and then take a picture with us. he was funny!i took A LOT of pictures during the dolphin show.. it was just soo cool!! i'll be nice and only post a few :)michelle was excited to get a coconut.. they cut it open right in front of you.. talk about fresh coconut juice!some pictures at the aquarium...japanese spider crab!! that's a lot of crab meat!!the shark exhibit was really cool too. there was a shark skin you could touch.. i didn't realize how rough shark skin was! there were also swatches of different kinds of sharks.. some were nice and smooth, but most were scratchy. my favorite was seeing the preserved fetuses of different breeds of sharks. one was a great white that was caught off the okinawan shores! eek! there were also baby whale sharks.. they were so cute and small!!
we took a different route home, which had an even more amazing view than going there. i can't get over how gorgeous it is here!!

then on sunday i took michelle to the airport for her long journey home. i had an amazing time with her and i'm so glad she got to come visit me!! :)