We drove up to this area yesterday to go to a shrine on an island, It was built in the 5th century initially and, of course, rebuilt in the 12th century. I am sure Dad will send some pictures out on Ofoto. The kids enjoyed the deer which were freely roaming around but really weren't terribly obnoxious except for right around the deer food stand. They had little maple cakes all over filled with custard or chocolate...very good. This is about 4 hours away from David and we wanted to stay up here but the Navy Lodge was full. We looked into off base hotels but they charge for the person...like 10000 yen ($100) per person which is a little pricey when you have eight people. After we were done sightseeing, we came back to Iwakuni Marine Base and tried one more time. Dad was able to get us two rooms in the BOQ..both 2 room suites. Boy, were we relieved...especially Dave and Adina who would have had to be the drivers on the way home. This was all for a total of $80 for the night. The Lord was really blessing us!!! We are going to go and have breakfast and then go to a castle on the way back to David's. We have had some great dinners with David and Adina. On Monday, we went out to a restarant that specialized in shiskebobs...not the middle eastern variety but you ordered everything that was cooked and served on sticks and then had rice, cabbage and soybeans with it. On Tuesday, we went to a tempura place...yummy!!! They had a babysitter for both nights since neither restaurant would fit well with children.

Dad and I were talking about how much fun it would be to bring Mike and Brooke over here when the girls are old enough to leave at home with someone. I'd love Mike to show us around the Nagoya area.

By the way, Martha wrote a wonderful summary of our dinners when we were growing up with Wa-wa and Kay-kay on the superschick.blogspot.com site. The only memory that I would add is that I remember working with Kay-kay at about 5:30 to straighten up the house, and dust the piano. We had a big baby grand piano in the living room which must have accumulated dust easily because I remember dusting it daily...I also remember being so irritated at Kay-kay who insisted that nothing come to the table in its original container..no milk cartons, ketchup bottles, mayonnaise bottles, jam bottles. I remember being sent back to put whatever into a dish and being so mad about it that I tripped and spilled it on the way back. In retrospect, it contributed to always making dinner time an occasion that we all looked forward to. We didn't have regular family home evenings but those dinners every night accomplished much of the same purpose for our family.

Love this blog!!!! and all of you!!!!

Mom