My Trip to Okinawa in Pictures: Post #1

Shuri Castle in Okinawa

My trip to the other side of the planet was an adventure. Navigating airports both here in the U.S. and abroad was a trip in and of itself.  What continues to amaze me after years of flying from Mexico to Europe and around the U.S. is the commercial flight machine. I check in at Hopkins Airport, receive my boarding passes for all of the connections around the world!  The whole process in an involuntary process like breathing:  It happens yet we think nothing of it.

Its so easy to take this complex system of airports, airplanes and airlines now all connected to reservation sites like Priceline.com & expedia.com for granted. Consider that thousands of flights occurs globally each day at all hours of the night transporting tens of millions of people each day, its amazing that the air travel system with all of these various parts and people function--in most cases--with such a high level of efficiency.  But I digress...

As for jet lag, I didn't have a problem when I first got there. Once home in northern Ohio after 22 hours of flying each way with at least an hours worth of delays combined along with passport and customs checks, my body was thrown off and still is somewhat.  Since normally I am up at 1:50AM for work, adjusting back to normal time has been much easier than expected.

I took more than 400 photos while visiting Okinawa. I narrowed these 400 down to 61. Here are 16 of them focusing on nature.  Enjoy!

Tree stripped of branches from several typhoons

More stripped trees on the beach now coming back

Rock formation with erosion carved base from ocean water

230 foot cliff at Hedo Point - Northern tip of Okinawa

Hedo Point Cliff

Cave stalactites below Okinawa World

Banyon Tree

Midday overlooking a South China Sea inlet

South China Sea

Picture of resort from 1500 feet over the South China Sea

Aerial look of South China Sea coastline with shallow ocean, sediment deposits

Okinawa highlands from 1500 feet. Pacific Ocean in background

Sunset over the South China Sea

Lighthouse