For Bill

Black-and-White Warbler(シロクロアメリカムシクイ)
My host mother took me to some nature parks in Houston downtown. In Houston Arboretum, a ranger kindly guided us through the park. Thanks to him, we could see some migrators and winter visiters, such as Great Crested Flycatcher and Pine Warbler. American warblers are nice because they have bright colors and pattern, unlike Japanese dulll brown colored warblers.

red sandals

My host father bought me a pair of red sandals for canoeing!! I liked them so much and wore them to everywhere that my host mother also got a pair for herself. All of a sudden, everybody around us wanted to get the same pair to join our red sandal club.

Canoe

Roseate Spoonbill(ベニヘラサギ)
The most wonderful experience in Texas was canoeing on the river near the house. Host father had a mud water canoe so we paddled it and went into some narrow creeks, passing under bridges and fallen trees.
Main channel of the river was busy with people on big motor boats, but no one came into narrow, shallow creek except for us. And there was the place for birds, such as Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Tricolored Heron and so on.
Again, I remembered another children's book called "Minnow on the Say"

Wildlife

I was surprised to find many kinds of wildlife around the house, which is in the suburbs of Houston. "We should take advantage of living here rather than watching TV," my host mother said to me. Her words made me really happy.



アライグマ（Raccoon）
One evening when I was walking slowly along the river, a big tail hanging from a tree branch lept into my sight. Another squirrel, I thought at first. But it was much bigger and had a striped pattern.



アメリカフクロウ（Barred Owl）
I noticed that there was something big on top of a pine tree because of shrills of Blue Jays. I carefully approached toward the calls, looked for the something. And I saw two brown eyes and a yellow bill...of Barred Owl.
I dashed to the house to get my scope. When I came back, it was still there, hiding behind the pine leaves and watching me.



トウブワタオウサギ(Eastern Cottontail)
Rabbits were everywhere.

ヤマネコ島

Surely, I ate and drank so much in Texas, but it's not the only thing I did there...



"Wiledcat island"
When I was walking around a nature park with my host mother, I saw some campers in a small island in a river. They had a nice tent and a red flag and were swiming in the river, which reminded me of a scene from the book called "Swallows and Amazons". I wish I were one of them.



Cypress trees from the park. I like thier roots!

Strawberry taste

Another "non-alcohol cocktail" at another Mexican restaurant.
I always ate so much chips & dip that I became full before the main dish.

twenty-one

Piña Colada

In that Mexican restaurant, I drank this Piña Colada! but...virgin one. Because in Texas, we can not drink alcohol until the age of 21, another one month to go for me.

Cactus

ヒューストンにいる母の昔のホストペアレンツを今年はひとりで訪ねてきた。がんばって航空券だけ買えば、家に泊めてくれて、食事も出してくれる、そんな知り合いが海外にいるなんて本当に幸運だ。何十年もコンタクトを取り続けている母とアメリカの"祖母"に感謝。


In a Mexican restaurant, one of our friends was drinking a cocktail in this cactus-shaped glass. "It's really cute" I said. Then, someone told the owner of the restaurant, "She's from Japan. She liked that cactus glass." To my surprise, he gave one to me as a souvenir!