Dave Koz

Sunday, August 17

We had our good friends Brad and Gail in from Massachusetts by way of Palm Desert. We spent the afternoon at Thorton Winery at a Dave Koz concert.

It was great!!

kayaking on Lake Skinner

With Steve Haerr and a beautiful day.....

Happy Birthday Cindy!!

Need I say more??............
Great job Lauren.......

Finally restful days at home??!!

For the Daisen exchange, we once again hosted the teacher. This time it was Yasushi Ogura, who is the science teacher at Nakayama Jr. High School. During our exchange there, we met him and I spent time with him and his students in their Science Club.

The first night we relaxed and spent time talking and reminiscing.......

An annual exchange activity is Halloween in August. They don't celebrate Halloween in Japan, so its always an interesting activity for them.

Another traditional activity is cooking for the host family. Yasushi cooked Okonomiyaki, which is a type of pork and vegetable pancake. It was really delicious and Carol's cooked it with success since then.

We had our dinner on the patio; we spent many evenings in the open air.

For our partial family day, we went to Diamond Valley Lake.........

and Wilson Creek Winery for a little tasting.............

And finally to our "Aloha Party" at the Matleys'. They have such a beautiful house, grounds and pool. We can't thank them enough for their support of the exchange programs!

The next day we spent our time touring Balboa Park in San Diego. Ami joined us for lunch at the Hotel Del Coronado.
After looking up from the Hotel Del to Point Loma, we went up to Point Loma and looked back down at the Hotel Del- (plus all the rest of San Diego). Its always a beautiful sight!
We also stopped at Torry Pines and watched the para gliders soar over the Pacific.

Dinner was again on the patio.
What a great exchange and visit! We certainly hope that Yasan will return in the future for a personal visit.