On a nice day we took the car down to the bottom of the Miura peninsula to Joga island. It was nice to see and smell the fresh ocean air and walk around the rocks looking at the tide pools. It reminded my of the last time I was there, and made me wonder about why we had not been back since but more about how time really does fly.

This year we had just a small Thanksgiving dinner with a few other people in my house. I still made a huge turkey and all the usual foods.

We went camping with some of Melina’s school friends near the Tanzawa lake dam. The kids had lots of fun running around the park near the dam, playing and collecting firewood. We then set up our tents and had a great campout complete with Smores. The following day was spent hiking, playing in the forest, and then back to the dam again for some lunch and views before heading home.

I decided to spend Veterans day climbing up a mountain. The weather was beautiful and I needed a day to get some exercise and refresh. Tounodake is one of my favorite mountains to climb as there is some challenge, a good distance to get to the top, and great views of the surrounding area and Mt. Fuji.

We went to a campground in Chiba that I have been wanting to try out. The campground is right next to a river/lake and has a rental canoe for exploring the river. We went on a Sunday night so had the campground mostly all to ourselves. The river had lots of birds, turtles, and other wildlife to look at as well as a secret little tunnel to go through.

On our way to a camping trip we stopped at a pottery center to design our own custom plates.