Monterey Bay Aquarium New Jelly Exhibit Opens Today

The new Monterey Bay Aquarium Jelly Exhibit is great. Very kid friendly with lots of cool interactive touch screens, movement tied into full wall exhibits. Friday nights event was fun as usual. Great food, music and this time no rich rude dude to barge hit my wine glass and be rude to me. Great family night. It was very cool to see Santa Cruz artist Jimbo Phillips work. Some news blogs and links. Santa Cruz Sentinel MSNBC Mercury News SF Gate Video Today's Hours: 9:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Members: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Veteran's Day and what it means to our family goes deep

Today is Veterans Day. My kids are out of school, for them it means a day to play. I want them to know what the day really represents and why they are out of school. They never experienced life any different. My parents and grandparents did. Though they never talk about it and ever made us feel guilty for having wonderful childhood memories. My Uncle Yukio and Molly Sumida helped produce a Documentary Film Beyond Barbed Wire which talks about the camps and war. Watching this at the Pacific Film Festival when it came out with my dad was eye opening as I had only seen him cry once in his life at his mom's furneral. That was the second time I saw tears. This movie got my family and others to share their stories.

Celebrating the extraordinary human sacrifice and courage of Japanese-American soldiers in WW II, Beyond Barbed Wire tells the stories of the U.S. Army's 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regiment. These units absorbed the highest casualties and became the most decorated units in WW II. While they fought, their families lived behind barbed wire in American internment camps. Proud veterans break their long silence with moving tales of heroism and prejudice.

Filmmakers: Terri DeBono and Steve Rosen | USA | 1997 | 88 min | Documentary | Colour | 35mm

My friends parents Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston wrote the book Farewell to Manzanar that became a movie and tells how life was in the camps as well.

This is an interesting site my husband came across that has stories of the men that would sneak out and fish at camp Manzanar.
This site is called. Fear No Trout

Welcome to my site. I am compiling information for an exciting project documenting the history of Manzanar internees who snuck out of the Internment camp under the noses of armed military guards to go trout fishing. I want to tell the story of the Japanese American internees -- imprisoned as "enemy aliens" during World War II as a result of Executive Order 9066 (even though they were American citizens) – who sought to experience a feeling of freedom, however brief, as they matched wits with the wily trout of the famed Eastern Sierra fishing grounds.


Densho is a Japanese term meaning "to pass on to the next generation," or to leave a legacy.

Cypress Garden Nursery Website goes live

Cypress Garden Nursery website, my cousins family owned and operated local business in Monterey, California. Photo's by Jason Liske (Nursery indoor and all landscape photos) and John Tsuchiya (low voltage lighting and nursery). One of the only locally owned businesses left on the Monterey side of the bay, started in 1952 by my Aunt and Uncle.

Cypress Garden Nursery landscape history page in progress

Working on the Cypress Garden Nursery history page for my cousins nursery. It has a rich history that my Auntie Mollie and Uncle Yukio started 52 years ago. My uncle still propagates plants that the nursery sells and Ray uses in his landscape projects. Family owned and operated, it is one of the last locally owned nursery's in the Monterey Bay in Monterey. Updated the original flower logo design my Aunt had for the nursery and put signage on the landscape trucks which hadn't had signage for 10 years.








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Cypress Garden Nursery landscape projects for the website

These are a few of the photos that will be going on the Cypress Garden Nursery site I am working on. Photos by Jason Liske of Redwood Design in Santa Cruz. My Aunt Mollie and Uncle Yukio Sumida started the nursery in 1952. My cousin Ray Sumida started up the landscape division years ago and Ann his sister runs the nursery and the gift store. They are the only owner operated family run nursery left in Monterey. These are a few of the projects in the Preserve, Carmel Valley, and Pebble Beach that they have created. I will post the finished site when it is done.

Cypress Garden Nursery logo update and web design in progress

Cypress Garden Nursery logo update and website work in progress. Photography by Jason Liske who is an amazing architectural photographer. Site is in progress.

590 Perry Lane
Monterey, CA 93940
(831) 373-1625


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My brother and I Pleasure Point 1963

My grandma raised five girls and a son in Monterey, worked at the fish canneries in Cannery Row with her two eldest daughters, my dad's father was a fisherman. She lost everything she owned to a house fire, rebounded, lost her son, lost everything again when the family was put in Internment Camps during World War II, pregnant with her daughter, she lost her husband and raised her family solo. My mom was 12 years old my dad in his own camp with his family was 14. The untold story Beyond Barbed Wire movie a documentary my Uncle Yukio helped fund tells what happened during this time. Something my parents never spoke to us about until this movie came out. I saw my dad cry for the second time in my life while watching this movie at the Pacific Film Festival, the only other time I saw him cry was at his mother's funeral when I was 8 years old. My parents Americanized us, spoiled us and encouraged us to do things they could not. I know that is part of what drives and fuels my passion to make life better and to do more then just sit and watch it go by.