I can't believe it has been a whole month since my last entry! I have been in the land of no internet and am happy to say that I've returned to the web.... well, sort of happy. I have been living blissfully these last few weeks in a beautiful cabin by the sea, spending my hours swimming and riding waves, building sandcastles, eating chocolate chip cookies, watching the moon rising above the distant horizon and reading books. Life has never been better. It's too bad vacations can't last forever.


Some highlights from Tak 2004 include the following :

1. Ryan and Cami both brought their girlfriends, Yvette and Deidre. I liked them a lot.

2. Brent and I, with in minutes of each other, nearly killed ourselves when our feet slipped off the cliff we were "repelling" down as we were trying to explore a WWII sea cave. Brent swung into the cave on a rope that was wrapped around his hand and I would have done the same if I hadn't been a foot too high. In a complex maneuver that meant sacrificing my hand to the god of rope burn, I managed to wrap my free hand in the rope and dropped a foot onto the lip of the cave. Glad I survived that one.

3. I saw so many beautiful sunsets and had great conversations with God. There's nothing like the beach to bring out the inner poet.

4. Night swimming was awesome. There are these little microscopic creatures in the water that glow when the water is disturbed. When you swim among them every movement your body makes in the water shine with a bluish-green light. It was a little weird and spooky but really pretty.

5. For some reason, walking twenty minutes to the Red Lighthouse, climbing it, sitting under the revolving red light and eating goodies from 7/11 creates a great atmosphere for talking. Cami, Deidre, Ryan, Yvette and I had a pretty good time one night. If only it hadn't been so cold....

6. We had some funny game nights. I will never forget when Brent and some other guys had to act like they were monks while they were delivering Isaiah's "baby." Yikes. Even though it was an acting game it was pretty scary. My favorite was Ryan having to play a feminine emperor. He did a VERY good job.

The memories go on and on and on. Tak holds a very special place in my life. Some one pointed out that our cabin is the only place my family and I have returned to consistently throughout the years. We've lived in different houses, different countries, gone to different schools, had different friends but Tak has always remained the same, steadfast and unchanging through it all. My memories of Tak fade so far into the past that I cannot remember life without it. In the midst of my turbulent and changing life, Tak remains a rock.

Everyone should have a place like Tak.

(Definition. Tak: Short for Takayama. A vacation area on the eastern coast of Japan set aside for missionaries and their families. Tak has been around for over 100 years. It was occupied by Japanese forces during World War Two and served as an American military rest camp after. It has a lot of other interesting history to it which always spurs us on to more adventures.)