As was the case last year, Stephanie couldn’t make the Obon Festival at the Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. Her high school team was playing in the San Diego Classic during the same weekend. Morgan, Iris, & Ron had plenty to do, though, helping out at the Dango booth, the Udon booth, Chicken Teriyaki booth, Snow Cone booth, and Girl Scout Aloha Toss booth.
Morgan got to dance both days and, interestingly, she wanted to dance, which was unusual for her. Ron got to dance Sunday. Too bad we didn’t make any practices this year, because there seemed to be a lot of new dances, and Ron sat out most of them. Sunday evening ended with four classics: Shiawase Samba, One Plus One Ondo, Tanko Bushi, and Obon No Uta (aka Bon Odori Uta), so Ron was able to get a little dancing in.
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Ron, Stephanie, and Morgan ran the Run For Education, which is a 5K run through the streets of El Segundo. This is the second year Morgan has run the race; she gets extra credit for PE when she runs, so there’s some motivation for her. Ron and Stephanie have run this for several years.
It’s a hilly course, with a steep uphill grade about two-thirds of the way through on Sycamore Ave between Center Street and Maryland Ave. The race is sponsored by the El Segundo PTA.
It’s once again the season for selling Girl Scout Cookies. This year’s new variety is Thank U Berry Much, a shortbread type cookie with dried cranberries. Fortunately, since Stephanie isn’t participating in Girl Scouts this year, we don’t have to worry about selling quite as many cookies. However, Iris is the cookie chair this year, which is a lot of work.
Iris’ mom, Sue, took us out for dinner. She wanted Chinese food, so we went to the Sea Empress Seafood Restaurant in Gardena. Morgan had a serious Jones for Peking Duck, and we intended to order a half a duck to keep her happy. The waiter, though, informed us they were having a special on a whole Peking Duck: $20. Since the special on the whole duck was only $4 more than a half duck, we got the whole duck.
What a nice production. The waiter wheels the roasted duck out on a cart, then cuts it up and serves it in front of you. All in all, we were happy we got the whole duck, but we had ordered so much food, we ended up taking a lot of it home.
Morgan left for Outdoor Science School (OSS), a five day camp experience for sixth graders at El Segundo Middle School held in the Malibu canyon area. Students have the opportunity to learn about different ecosystems by exploring the nearby tide pools as well as the canyons.
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Morgan invited her basketball team and some friends from school to a sleep-over birthday party. The plan was to have a scavenger hunt the next day, so they started off by splitting up into teams, and each person made a t-shirt with their team’s color as part of the main design. Iris made a big pot of spaghetti for dinner.
Coincidentally, Santa Claus came through the neighborhood, escorted by a couple of police cruisers. He stopped at a nearby corner, Morgan got to tell him what she wanted for Christmas, and the girls all got a group shot with him.
We all then went to El Segundo’s Candy Cane Lane Luckily, Michelle Olson volunteered to drive so we wouldn’t have to try and shuttle all of the kids in two cars. Candy Cane Lane was spectacular, as always. Afterwards, we drove over to Yogurberry, where everyone got to make their own frozen yogurt dessert.
The next day, the group broke up into their teams. Iris had come up with some really good goals for the scavenger hunt, including picking up an item at Airport Cleaners in El Segundo, getting their picture taken with a Rite Aid employee, finding out the price of a chicken taco at Fantastic Cafe, and getting a hand stamp from the El Segundo Library. It was a fairly long scavenger hunt, and both teams came back pooped.
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We took Stephanie’s friend, Kimberley Davey, who was over on a holiday from England, to Disneyland for the evening. It happened that the Sangha Teens from Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple were also at Disneyland for the day, so the girls were able to join up with them, and Morgan had a friend to go on the rides with.
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Morgan attended LABCC (Los Angeles Buddhist Coordinating Council) camp again this summer. This was her second year, and it was a summer activity that she was very much looking forward to.
This year’s camp was again up at Camp Morningside in the San Bernadino mountains, up by Big Bear. Morgan was put into the G8 cabin, which was two grades higher than where she normally would go. She got to go canoeing this year, which was something she missed out on last year because of rain.
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Morgan graduated from Center Street School (she completed fifth grade) and will be attending El Segundo Middle School next year.
The school had a nice promotion ceremony, with Morgan getting a certificate for her participation in CAT (Cougar Action Team). Morgan also ended up with all As and Bs on her final report card; she was close to getting a C in Science but managed to turn in some extra credit.
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