Fourth of July Parade

We enjoyed a day out in downtown Boone, watching the annual Fourth of July Parade.

Naritasan Temple

I visited Naritasan Shinshoji Temple again this week, ahead of our study abroad to Indonesia and Japan this summer. Narita Temple is quite close to the Tokyo International Airport, and allows overnight transit tourists to experience an interesting Japanese temple without the need to travel into Tokyo itself.

The neighborhood around Naritasan Shinshoji Temple is famous for unagi, fresh water eel. While not my favorite dish, it is interesting to see the restaurants in the street leading up to the temple preparing unagi at lunchtime.

North Carolina Zoo

This past weekend we visited the North Carolina Zoological Park, in a beautiful location in the middle of the state near the city of Asheboro. With the warm spring weather, the crowds were out and it seems half the state were at the zoo that day. We had fun, and boys enjoyed the lion and baboon exhibits most.

Spring is coming

A cold winter that lasted through March is finally moving into spring. We're looking forward to more warm days here and seeing the trees bloom here in April.

A nice spring day on the beach

Spring break we enjoyed a few days in Virginia Beach, and with nice weather we had fun on the beach. The water was cold, but that didn't stop the boys from trying the water :)

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Don't forget to smell the flowers.

Snowman

A warm day following the big snow. With better snow for building today, Yukari and the boys built a huge snowman (American style, with 3 snowballs) on the front lawn.

Igloo

We had our first big snow of the year this week, as many did along the eastern half of the US. The boys couldn't wait to go outside and dig an igloo in the snow bank.

Wilmington, NC

I had a presentation at the PACE service-learning conference at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington this week. Yukari and the boys joined me, and we spent a couple of days visiting Mom and Dad in Virginia after the conference finished. On our way out of Wilmington, we stopped to tour the USS North Carolina Battleship.

The Greenway

Since we moved out of town, we haven't visited the park lately with Luke and Ian. After our first good snow of the year, we spend a warmer Saturday afternoon at the Greenway park in Boone.