>There were two programs this morning. Ross Mayhew had us all practically
>falling out of our seats laughing as he tole about his rtip through Labrador?
>At any rate he was very funny. Dave Green had a wonderfully relaxing program
>about the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Dave had a lot of beautiful slides along set
>to music from a CD of sounds from the Aquarium and whale calls, birdsong and
>instrumental music. It was a soothing way to end the programs. I hope it
>soothed Dave as  well, he had a rough time this convention. The less said
>about the bourse and the dealers the better :-(
>   Thursday evening at the banquet, Charles Opitz spoke to us about Shell
>money and trade shells. He had many examples of shell trade articles from
>Papua, New Guinea and other places around the world. It was interesting and
>informative. With the end of that program, the convention was concluded.
>  The REAL heroes, Linda Koestal and the Central Florida Shell Club. They did
>a remarkable job to see that the schedule ran on time and things went
>smoothly. My personal hero, Phyllis Gray. There has always got to be one in
>every crowd and I was it, this time. Never could seem to find the right ticket
>for the right event.Remind me not to change purses so often!!!  Phyllis took
>it all very calmly, and efficiently. She had it all written down bless her
>heart. Sorry Phyllis.
>  One thing I especially liked was the lobby lounge. If you had a little time
>you could sit there and meet new people from the group. I met some really
>wonderful people this convention. All the waitresses and service people were
>friendly.
>  As you can guess, I am now at home and writing this. It seems impossible
>that a week went by so fast. You wait and wait and like a flash of lightening
>it is over.
>  See you in Louisville,
>            Carole Marshall
 
 
Carole,
        Thank you so much for the time and effort you spent each day
sending the day's account of the COA Convention.  I've saved each one to
share with my "shell pals" so that maybe next year we can make the trek to
COA.  I'm sure that you could have spent the time with others at COA, but
your sacrifice ment a lot to a lot of us who couldn't attend.  Once again
thank you.  I hope that you got some shells that you were looking for and
met some nice new friends.
 
Dan Yoshimoto
 
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Dan & Hiromi Yoshimoto
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