The first email I saw this morning was the email from my Japanese friend. The time it was sent was around 3:30 am in our time. She sent a quick note to us that they arrived safely back home.

I hope they already have had a good relaxing sleep in their own futon and pillow. After the trip, we always appreciate for our own bed and house.

***

During my friends’ stay, I started my own nukaduke. It is a Japanese pickles pickled in salted rice bran. It was my very first one.

Since my first day, I have stirred my nukadoko every day. Today

I tried tasting one of the vegetable. It tasted too salty. The recipe says it will take up to 2 weeks to have the salted rice bran (nukadoko) fermented enough to make the vegetables tasting sweet. It is fun to make my own flavored picked vegetables. I am excited to growing my own nukadoko.

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It was the last day of my friends’ visit. We woke up at 2:30 am and left our house at 3:30 am to the airport.

At the last moment of the airport, I tried my best on not to cry in front of them. After I hugged both of them, the corner of my eyes caught my friend’s daughter’s neck area. She was wearing the necklace that my daughter gave to her. On that moment, I could not hold my tears back any longer. I started crying.

The necklace was a memorable one for my daughter and her friend. Before they came, my daughter put her allowance money in her bag and asked my husband to take her to the mall. There was my daughter’s favorite store in the mall. She found a pretty pair of best friend necklace and bought it for them.

It was hard for all of us to leave the moment. We all cried.

***

We came back home around 6 am. My daughter and I were feeling tired from crying. We took a short nap before we started our day.

We all felt weird staying in our house without my friend and her daughter. The house made us feeling empty.

Every time when we passed by in front of the room where they stayed, we missed them a lot.

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In the morning my friend baked bread rolls for them to eat in their long flight tomorrow. The bread rolls turned out very salty. It tasted like tears. Just thinking about their departure of tomorrow, my eyes got filled up with tears. We had so much fun having them in our house during their stay.

My friend also completed an online check-in for their flights. She was lucky enough to change their international flight’s seats to the last row. Since the last row has only two seats, it is convenient for a parent and a small child to have their privacy. When my daughter and I went to Japan, I took the same seats for us.

***

In the afternoon we went to the local indoor pool. Once our car entered in their parking lot, I instantly noticed the difference from usual summer days. The parking lot was almost empty, which never happened during the summer break. I saw one small girl who was about to get in the car. She was crying.

When we entered into the reception desk of the pool, we were informed the indoor pool was closed today. They changed their open swim days to only Saturdays, starting from this week. Now that we understood why the small girl was crying. She was disappointed about the closed pool, just like we were.

Luckily, I had brought two scooters in my car trunk. Our daughters at least could enjoy riding a scooter in the big park located in front of the indoor pool building.

***

After came back from the park, in the late afternoon, my friend completed her final packing.

We went to bed at 8 pm so that we could get up in the early morning tomorrow. 

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My friend and her daughter had only two days left for sightseeing our area.

We offered two options to them. One was to have a cave tour, and the other was to have a mine tour. My friend was interested in the mine tour while her daughter was interested in the cave tour. Since we already have taken them to many different places, we all were a bit tired. We thus decided to go to the canyon trail this morning and relax in the afternoon, instead of keeping us being super busy by going here and there.

We went to the canyon trail in the morning. It was a nice satisfying nature walk.

***

In the afternoon we spent a relaxing time at home. We had many fun things to do at home, along with in our driveway and the back yard. Our daughters never got bored playing together.

In the evening we went for a walk in the neighborhood area. Our daughters rode a kids’ car or a scooter.

***

In the night while our daughters were in the bath, my friend gave me a back massage and a foot reflexology. It was a relaxing massage.

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After breakfast, I took my friend and her daughter to the local grocery store. Our local grocery stores have been greatly improved in their healthy food section. The store now has two full isles filled with healthy optioned foods. My friend was so excited to look around. She took her time and bought some items for her family. I was glad that I could help her with her shopping.

In the afternoon we went to the local outdoor pool. My family and I are used to the cold water in the pool, but it was too cold for my friend and her daughter. We stayed there just for 20 minutes and came back home.

In the late afternoon, we wove a basket with reeds. My friend and her daughter completed their art works, but my daughter and I could not finish completing. My basket will need another one more hour work and my daughter’s basket will need another half hour work. Completing these baskets is added to my to-do-list. Hopefully I will be able to finish it by the end of next month.

After dinner my husband pitched a tent in the living room for our daughters. The girls were so happy to have their own private playing area.

While our daughters were taking a long fun bath, my friend gave me the third lomi lomi massage.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We woke up in the cabin. It was a cool and comfortable morning. When I got out from the cabin, the first sight jumped in my eyes was a calm surface of the lake. I enjoyed spending the luxurious time for a while.

After we ate breakfast, we walked to the lake and swam there. By the time we got out from the lake and changed clothes, it was close to 10 am; the checking-out time.

***

After we took off the lake, we headed to the western tourist town. This town is known as Wild West history and has many attractions to entertain tourists. While we were walking on the main street, we encountered one actor dressed up like a gun man in the old western way. My husband said it was his friend. My husband knew his friend is working at one of the gun shows in this town, but he didn’t know the store’s name nor he never visited him acting at the gun show. It was a nice coincidence.

I have heard my husband talking about his friend often since before our marriage. They worked in the same unit while they were serving as an active duty in the military. I never met him in person. Today was the day when we finally saw each other in person.

The friend invited to his gun show for free of charge. It was our very first time to see a gun show.

There were three men acting at the show. My husband and daughter were laughing and participating to the show. After the show, both of them said they enjoyed the show very much. Since I could not fully understand what they were saying, I didn’t fully enjoy it. I wish I could understand their English fully. Even after 11 years living in America, I still don’t fully understand English.

***

After the western tourist town, we visited a small historical ghost town. There, they had some old school buildings for visitors to take a look. They also had a short trail. It was a nice walk.

***

In the night, we built a campfire at our backyard. We roasted a huge marshmallow with the fire. My Japanese friends were surprised at the gigantic size of marshmallow.

I wish they will remember all of our experiences together during this trip. We enjoyed having each other as a company and doing many fun things together.

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It was a real busy day. I woke up at 5 am and left for the grocery store at 5:30 am. I like going to the grocery store in the early morning, so that I can enjoy shopping in a quiet less-customer environment.

After breakfast, my friend and I started cooking meals for our camping. We baked bread and made onigiri (rice balls) along with some snacks for the road trip.

At 9:20 am, we left for the local library. My daughter had participated their summer reading program, and today was the last day of the program. All the participating students submitted their reading log during the summer. Based on the reading log, they gave away the prizes. My daughter won the 2nd prize. According to their newsletter, the first winner read 2,680 minutes. My daughter read 1,480 minutes. The third winner read 560 minutes, and the fourth winner read 480 minutes. The prize for the first winner was a new ipad. The second prize was a picture book. I don’t know about the prizes for the third and the fourth winners.

***

We had a cabin reservation at the lake camping site for tonight. My husband took a half day off from work and came back home before noon. We left our house around noon.

On the way to the State park, we stopped by at the creek trail. There, we enjoyed the nature hiking for about an hour.

We arrived at the state park around 2:30 pm. The cabin’s checking-in time was 3 pm, but the park ranger was nice enough to let us enter the cabin before the checking-in time. Their cabins were just built in last August. It looked still brand new. We liked the cabin.

After unpacked our stuff, we headed to the lake. We swam in the lake and took a nice trail walk around the lake.

For dinner, we cooked our food with a charcoal grill. Everything tasted so good.

Our cabin had three rooms. The first room was a living room equipped with a counter table with 4 chairs, a refrigerator, and a microwave. The second room was equipped with two bunk beds. The third room was equipped with a queen sized bed. Maximum of six people can sleep in this cabin. We decided to give the queen sized bed to our little daughters. My husband, my friend, and I slept in a bank bed.

Today we walked a lot. According to my husband’s cell phone’s pedometer, we walked at least 8.6 miles (13.8 km). We were so exhausted that we fall asleep right away in our beds.

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This morning I took my friends to the canyon trail. Their parking lot is extremely small and easily gets full, so we left our house early in the morning.

The canyon trail was one of my favorite places to visit. We encountered many wild animals such as deer and turkeys. We also encountered woodpeckers and hummingbirds. My family and I usually stay in the trail for one hour. My friends, on the other hand, were so excited to explore the trail that we ended up staying for more than two hours. I am so glad my friends liked there very much.

After the trail, I took them to the mall to browse around the stores. We let our daughters to play in the trampoline park for one hour.

Our final destination of today’s tour was an ice cream store. After the good exercise, the ice cream tasted so good.

***

After we came back home, I let our daughters to play a water-play in the back yard. They changed into a swimsuit and enjoyed playing with water. They started playing with water balloons. After we were out of water balloons, they started playing with a bucketful hot water. I joined them playing. By the time we were done playing, we all were soaking wet.

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Today my husband went to work as usual.

I took our friends to the river trail. This trail is described as one of the hidden gems among Arizona trails. Most of the trails were still left untouched by humans so that the wild animals could live comfortably. My family and I have encountered a deer and a mountain lion in this trail. We all enjoyed listening birds’ singings and the sound of winds. We also enjoyed the water body of the river. We were healed by crispy colored of greens from tree leaves and moistened breeze from the river water.

After the trail, I took them to the grocery store. My friend was amazed about the organic produce section. I agree with her. Our local grocery stores have been improved to have many organic produces and other healthy food selections such as gluten-free, non-GMO, and non-toxic products.

I also took them to two other hobby stores. My friend happily purchased some cross stitch kits. It was one of her to-do-list during their stay. I was glad I could help her.

***

In the night I received a 90-minute lomi lomi massage session again. Today we started little bit earlier than yesterday, so that we all could have a longer hours’ sleep than last night.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My friend and her 8-year-old daughter woke up and came out to the kitchen before 7 am. They seemed to have well-adjusted themselves to this land’s energy and this country’s time.

My husband took one day off from work so that we could take our friends to a sightseeing tour together.

Our first destination was the orchard. There, we picked peaches from the trees. This orchard has apple and pear trees, but they will be available to pick in later months.

Our second destination was the vegetable farm. We picked variety types of peas, squashes, okra, and cucumbers from the farm. We also purchased a watermelon.

After we came back from the orchard and the farm, we unloaded our produces at home.

***

Our tour still continued.

Then, we headed to the different direction. Our next destination was to south. We showed our friends to the river trail. It was one of my favorite power spots where you can feel the high vibration from the land.

Our last destination was the small town. This town is famous for its mine. It is also known as a new-age people’s town. This town reminds me of my hometown. They both have up-and-down hills.

We walked a lot today. I was amazed my friend’s small daughter could join us walking for such a long distance. She said she likes walking.

***

In the night my friend gave me a 90-minute lomi lomi massage session. My friend and I agreed to have a massage session at least three times during their stay. We also agreed I would pay her the appropriate amount of fee. I didn’t want to take advantage from her. Besides, when it comes to a healing session, it is always good to have an appropriate energy exchange, instead of giving/receiving for free of charge.

We were hoping our daughters would sleep, but they were so happy to have each other to play with. They were awake and playing while they were waiting for our massage session to end. It was past 11 pm when we finally went to bed.   

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