HSV Day at Oaklawn Racetrack in Hot Springs

Sunday, 22-FEB, was Hot Springs Village Day at the Oaklawn Racetrack in Hot Springs. We got free parking, free admission and free reserved seats. We also won $2.00 based on the ticket we got in the mail; maybe that paid for our gas. The track was nice. We had a chance to see the horses up close and enjoyed watching them race from either indoors (from our reserved seats) or outside on the rail of the track. As expected there is a statue of a horse and jockey at the entrance. Just inside there is a horse statue at the information booth. We just had to get a shot by the "helpful horse" (thanks Pat!).

Before each race, the horses are prepped inside. They're walked around this prep area until it's time to go. Then the trumpet sounds, the jockeys get on their mounts and it's off to the track. Note: we thought number 5 looked good and strong. So we picked him to win the 3rd race. He started strong but ran out of gas. He finished near the back of the pack. Glad we didn't place a real bet!Next is what we call the "parade of horses." The horses are slowly walked over to the starting gate.Here they come - "down the stretch" towards the finish line.Here's a 7 second video of the finish of the 3rd race of the day. Lots of yelling and excitement in the background.

After each race the tractors go around the track to get it smooth for the next race; the racetrack version of ice hockey's Zamboni.

We didn't place any bets, so we didn't loose any money. Good thing too. It seems like every horse we picked didn't do that well. Maybe we were a bad luck charm. We did get to try one of the track's famous Ruben sandwiches; they were good. We had a fun day at the races. We'll go back next year for HSV day.

Daffodil Days at Garvan Gardens, Hot Springs, AR

On Wednesday, 18-FEB, Rosie, Bob and Sam went to Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs to see the daffodils which were just starting to bloom. Rosie and Sam look really cute in a field of daffodils.The camellia were still in bloom. Some had dropped their petals to form a carpet on the ground around the plant - just lovely.We also saw one early blooming cherry tree. Sam and Bob are enjoying the sunshine and the natural beauty.Rosie also got a photo of a white flowering quince. This one seems a bit protected so it bloomed early - we think.Finally, the view under the Japanese arched bridge was really nice - an excellent frame for the small pond and flowering cherry tree. The daffodils have just started to bloom; more will be "popping out" soon. We plan to return to Garvan Gardens next week when Karen and Logan make a brief visit to HSV for Rosie's birthday.

Blue is BACK!

Blue - the name we give to our resident bluebird - is back for the year. Here are some shots of Blue around the back yard and on the bluebird house.

We knew Blue was back when we heard the thumping on the deck windows. Here's a short video of Blue banging against the windows.


Needless to say, he's persistent; this goes on all day long. Bluebirds are very territorial. We assume he sees his reflection in the window and is trying to drive "the other bird" away. Silly bird! I guess this it's like shadowboxing. Well, at least he gets lots of good exercise. Perhaps we should get him a little helmet.

We hope Mr. and Mrs. Blue will start building their nest in the bluebird box soon. We checked to make sure it was clean and it's ready to go. The next step is theirs!

With the return of Blue, the weather is also getting nicer. So, we have the return of the golfers. Well - not actually the return - since the golfers never really left. Golfers have played all winter long; even on very cold days. However, with the nicer weather, they're out in mass.

Trip to Japan - Sites in Tokyo

We spent all day Thursday touring parts of Tokyo - a very interesting city. As we left the hotel, we saw a school group going on a field trip. As usual, they have on their identical hats so they stand out as a group. There were 10 children about Adam's age (2 1/2 years) with three adults. Do you think our kids would be so subdued?

Next we went to the Meji Shrine - a large shrine in Tokyo. The tori gates at the entrance are very impressive.Since the new year's celebration was just completed, we saw many sites left over from the celebration. Sake anyone? The sake is donated by those wishing special "blessings" and is used in various ceremonies.This is an uma (horse) board on which specific wishes are written. Back in the day, real horses were brought to the shrine and left in exchange for "blessings". This particular board has two of the symbols of the emperor, wisteria and chrysanthemum. These board require less care than horses!

We really enjoyed some of the ornate doors in the shrine.
The picture shows Adam and Lottie enjoying the shrine. In the background is a rope with rope tassels and folded paper signifying that the trees are sacred.

We also went down a street that had a lot of cute (i.e. "stupid") stuff for sale. We also saw many "interesting" people and styles of dress. First, here's the entrance to the street:

Next are photos of some of the shops:

The next store is a bit interesting (or scary - depends on you POV). We have no idea what Sex Pot Revenge means or stands for, but we didn't go in to find out. Yes - we're boring.

Next we saw a guy whose hair matched his jacket. How neat is that! Bob is looking for a gray jacket with most of the hair falling out; he wants to be in style.

If you think of "zen" as peaceful and quiet, forget it in this mall.

We go a few blocks and change from cute and stupid to outrageously expensive (maybe also stupid but on another level). We walked past many stores that we couldn't afford to go in to much less shop in.We had lunch in a Hawaiian burger place that reminds Amy of living on Oahu.

We also visited the Fire Museum where Adam (and the rest of us) had a great time. Thanks Amy, Chris, Adam and Lottie for the fun tour of Tokyo.

Trip to Japan - Yunessun - Only In Japan!

After checking out of the ryokan on Wednesday morning, we headed to the Yunessun amusement park / bath house. We got the chance to take many different types of baths (i.e. different "flavors" of water) and have some unique experiences.

One of the first things we did was go to the bath where you stick your feet in and small fish (2-4 inches) eat the dead skin from your feet. This is very interesting and often tickles your feet. One of those things you just have to experience.

Next we went to a saltwater bath containing 40% salt. The density is so high that it's easy to float. Bob could put his hands behind his head, lie back in the bath and float. For reference, in fresh water or normal seawater, Bob would quickly sink. (We'd only see his nose sticking out of the water!) We all had a great time floating around. Following a quick shower to remove salt, we headed down for our initial tour of the outdoor baths.

After lunch, Rosie, Bob, Adam and Amy ventured back into the various hot baths for some "photo ops." Our first stop was the coffee bath. The bath looks and smells like coffee. Every few hours they pour a fresh barrel of coffee into the bath. You can actually drink coffee from the barrel as it's poured in if you like; they'll pour the coffee into your hand.

Next we went into the wine bath. Don't we look good in red?

The green tea bath was the next stop. It was by far the hottest bath. We don't know if there was some significance to that or not.

We then transitioned to a sake bath. Not a lot of sake odor and we certainly didn't taste it to find out.

Our final bath (in the outside portion of our photo tour) was another green tea bath. This was a bit cooler than the first green tea bath and came equipped with a tea pitcher.

While we were out enjoying the baths, Daddy Chris was letting Lottie sleep on him. He's such a good dad!

We next did some indoor baths. Here are Chris and Bob in the chocolate bath (trust us - it only looks like mud). This bath smelled really good when we first got in. Note the chocolate bar hanging over the bath. I think they're getting ready for Valentine's day!

Rosie and Lottie had fun playing in the shallow indoor pool. There were lots of toys floating around in the water to play with.
After the exotic baths, we went back to our locker rooms, showered, dressed and took the bus to the train station. Next stop - the New Sano Hotel in Tokyo.

Trip to Japan - Our Ryokan: Ichinoyu

Amy booked us into a great ryokan (Japanese hotel) for our first night's stay in Hankone. The name of the ryokan was the Ichinoyu. Our room overlooked a small river that ran behind the ryokan. We tried to capture the beauty and sound of the river on a short video.

It was great sleeping; no cars, buses or people - just the sound of the river.

Our room was really nice. We had a large tatami room where we all slept on futons, a sitting room, a bathroom and an outside shower and hot tub. The ryokan also had an onsen on the first floor for guest usage if they desired. Chris, Amy and the kids bathed and soaked in the room's hot tub. Bob and Rosie went down to the first floor and used the public onsen where we were the only ones present. Nice, large pool for soaking with sliding doors that opened to a Japanese garden with lantern and the night sky.

For dinner Amy had arranged for us to have shabu shabu - one of our favorite Japanese meals. Here are most of us are eating our shabu shabu. Delicious!

Finally, here's a shot of all of us in the sitting room. Our room was the Sakura (cherry) room and the limbs in the photo are those of a cherry tree. The spring views from that room must be outstanding!
Our next stop Yunessun - a great place for unique baths - only in Japan!

Trip To Japan - Traveling to Hakone

On Tuesday, 27-JAN, we all headed out for Hakone - the area around Mt. Fuji. We had multiple modes of transportation during our trip and some really fantastic views. We used the following modes of transportation:

1. train (which used switchbacks to get up the mountain)
2. inclined cable car (short ride from train to rope way)
3. rope way (gondola cars across the valley - really great views of Mt. Fuji)
4. pirate ship (complete w/ Japanese pirates - not really)
5. bus

The inclined cable car was short but rather steep - which you can't really tell from this picture.
Most of our pictures - or at least interesting pictures - were taken from the rope way. As we started out we saw a lot of steam rising from one of the areas below us. We also noticed the yellow sulfur on the ground. This area is know for is hot baths.
We had some really outstanding views of Mt. Fuji during our trip across the rope way. Here are some of our favorite pictures out of the many we took - thank goodness for digital cameras.
We got a good picture of Chris, Amy, Adam and Lottie with Mt. Fuji in the background. Mt. Fuji is a bit hard to see, but trust us, it's there.

Next came our trip on the pirate ship. We got a good view from the rope way of the ship coming into dock. Then we all went down to get on board for the short trip across the lake.As typical in Japan, we pay close attention to all signs. They always carry important and useful information. This sign is an excellent example.After the ship, we caught a bus for the ride to our rokan (Japanese style hotel). We'll cover that in our next posting.