While going through the gazillion photos I finally uploaded of the past 3 months, I stumbled across a few from our camping trip the beginning of November. We’d grabbed our packs, thrown our snorkel gear in the car, and driven an hour northeast to Ikei – a tiny place connected to Okinawa by a series of bridges and other islands.

The drive was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to sunrise the next morning. The only person on the beach, I stood by the water and felt completely in awe.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

Ikei Island Sunrise ↓

Have you ever experienced time standing still? I’ve got that a lot since moving to Okinawa only 6 months ago. Being so close to beauty of this magnitude really has a way of taking my breath away. Each moment serves as one more reminder of how blessed we are. We get to live on this gorgeous island, with fantastic friends and surrogate family (framily), and we get to use it as a home base for seeing the rest of the Pacific. Is this really my life?

Like I said – blessed. Incredibly blessed.

Even though I didn’t take many photos from our overnight adventure, I had to share the sunrise with you. I had to, and I hope you see why! Here are two more from our camping trip. ↓

Beach camping = Hawaiian shirt ↓

The obligatory campfire photo ↓

Check out my next (real!) post to see some more pictures from Thailand! Now that I have access to my photos, you can expect more updates. (It’s about time, too!)