Making New Memories

(Olympia, WA) Thirty years may have passed but Izumi and I picked up right where we left off those many years ago. I will cherish these past few days for the rest of my life.

Since I can't do all that much, we mostly stayed home and talked. But we did manage a couple activities.

My dad is in charge of building a new Rotary Park in Olympia. So we went down to check it out. It is going to be so nice....the city will be lucky to have such a nice park right on the water with a beautiful view of the capital.

Weyerhaeuser was really busy across the way as a huge ship was on its way.

Boogie was such a good boy for Izumi as we walked around the park.

In this picture of me taking the above picture, you can actually see more of the park.

A couple things I notice in this picture. It's the end of May and we all look like we're dressed for winter. Seattle is stuck in winter this year. Yuk. And what is it the dogs are all looking at...whatever it is, it is in all different directions.

I happened to mention to Izumi that one of my favorite meals when I lived in Japan with her was Shabu Shabu. So one evening, Izumi surprised me by making Shabu Shabu for dinner. You put all the food in boiling water...only takes seconds....even for the meat as it is sliced paper thin.

And then you reach in with your chopsticks, choose your item, then dip it in one of the two sauces.

This meal took me back to my days in Japan. Oh I'd love to go back....but I have a lot more recovering to go if that is ever going to be a reality. Guess I'll just dream.

We don't have a dishwasher in the RV but after six years Sparkie still remembers that her favorite job is helping with the dishes. I guess you'd call this the pre-wash cycle.

Once a week is sailing club night. Luckily for them, it was about the only time all week it wasn't raining. This was taken from my parent's "rain room". Most parts of the country would call it a sun room....

One day we took a walk around the Beaver Pond. We used to see so much wildlife activity there. But today all the critters must have been on vacation. All we saw was a lazy, and hungry, newt....

....a snail...(exciting huh?!).....

....and one lone pretty duck.

We spent some time playing my parent's Wii game. Most of our time was spent either playing tennis or bowling as that's what Izumi and I did together those many years ago...except for real.

One time, Dad accidentally chose Mike as the player. Mike is left handed...Dad is not. But he decided to try it left handed.

Izumi and I have the same natural style....huge curve.

And what a game! Izumi bowled her highest score and was feeling pretty good....until she saw Dad's score. I'm sure this record will stand for quite some time. And as you may guess, Dad has decided he is indeed left handed.

We wanted to get pictures of everyone before Izumi left. So here is what we got. (And no matter what I do I can't get these pictures to format correctly. Sorry about the mess.)

As you can probably tell, we were having a great time. We took a bunch of pictures so Izumi could share them with her husband, Shusaku, and Okaasan - both of whom we miss very much.

Left to right: Izumi, Deb, Mike

Left to right: Izumi, Deb, Mom, Dad

I sure hope it's not another 30 years until we get to see each other again.

Debbie

5/24-29/10