We decided to take Morgan to explore Hakone last week. One important lesson learned: check the weather where you are going TO - even if it is a mere 60 miles away. :) The rain wasn't supposed to hit Yokosuka until late in the afternoon, so we thought we had time. Turns out, the rain moved into the mountains around Hakone a lot sooner than we thought. We did decide to drive to Lake Ashi anyway. It was very pretty, but without any possibility of seeing Mt Fuji and the sideways rain, wind, and a temp of only about 60 degrees, we decided not to get out of the car.
Now, this is a switch-back!! Kris had a lot of fun driving around up here. I'm sure I lost a few years off my life and a few years off the use of my ear drums (from the loud squeals of terror from the backseat).
Since Kris took the day off we didn't want to waste it, so we stopped at Enoshima Aquarium on the way home.
A note on the picture below: this is a picture close to where the kids and I usually play at the beach. Last month when we were here the beach was covered in nothing but sand. We watched the summer fireworks around the beginning of June and I did notice the next week that there were builders on the beach. I thought they were pulling down structures from the fireworks display. Turns out, they build temporary "boardwalks" (I'm not sure what to call this, growing up at Rehobeth Beach, this is the closest thing I can compare it to). There are buildings like the one below from one end of the beach to the other. And, it seems they are on every beach around here. Some were only one story, covered structures. Others had open decks with chairs and tables. And, others even had a deck on top of their structure with chairs and tables. There were food shops, dessert shops, lots of alcohol shops.
This was our first view of the big tank.
These guys were so much fun to watch!! We even arrived just in time to watch a show...a diver got in the tank and played with them.
Garytt got comfy in the curved window.
The bodies on these guys are huge!
I could have watched this window all day. But, the kids were anxious to get to the next area.
Jellyfish show. They played music and used colored lights to highlight them. It was very pretty.
The jellyfish room also had a lot of little sparkly lights all over. See speckled Mackenzie below.
He was doing his afternoon exercises.
Sea lion show
Dolphin show!! This was awesome! My camera died, so the only shots I got were with my cell.
We got to pet fish. :) Garytt wasn't afraid one bit. He went right for the little sharks. I think he would have stayed here all day. And, I think he really wanted to pick one up to hug it. :)
We tried really hard to get Mackenzie to touch, but she refused. She looked on from a safe distance
She did put her hand in to touch the starfish. And the sea grass. She was so proud of herself for doing that much.
The sea turtles loved her. All she had to do was put her hand on the window and they would come up to look at her. Garytt tried that trick, but it didn't work for him.
We didn't get to do what we planned, but we had a lot of fun anyway. And, we added another fun place to go to our list.
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