(Editor's Note: Jerry Robinson visited the famous Japanese garden at the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden with a couple who know it well.)

When I bumped into Fran Seike at the store, I asked what she and husband Hal were doing since the Port of Seattle bought them out and closed their long time nursery on Des Moines Memorial Drive.

She said they are not working as hard as they once did but spend several hours every day just doing some free maintenance at the new location of their famous Japanese garden in SeaTac.

So we arranged to meet them there.

Having been a frequent visitor to the historic place built by Hal's father, Shinichi Seike, in 1962, I was anxious to see what landscapers had done when they moved and rebuilt the ponds and shrubbery to exact duplication of the original.

It is amazingly authentic except for the ponds full of Koi. Fran said the Port frowned on moving the fish. They feared some sort of hazard to airplanes flying directly overhead.

I was filled with a mix of joy and nostalgia as we wandered through. Did it feel like it once did?

Not exactly. But it is a minor miracle, never the less.

I did miss the life provided by the huge Koi (actually colorful carp) and the Port decision likely had more to do with the cost of feeding and fencing and other protective needs.

Fran talked to me about her life in the Minidoka internment camp in1942 (she was 12) in Utah. They were treated well, had coal stoves and were warm in the winter.

Meals were served three times a day in a commissary. Hal was sent to Heart Mountain in Idaho where conditions were similar.

They met and married in 1956 and live in Normandy Park.

As we talked, Fran was quietly pulling weeds and tufts of wayward grass in the gravel paths. A habit after half century of love of their creation, I guess.

Go see it. It is wonderful. And take your out of town visitors. They will love it.

And you will most likely see a diminutive lady pulling weeds. Don't hesitate to ask her questions.

Hal will also likely be there. He is a tall slender dignified man, probably using a garden rake.

Ask him about the lanterns or the huge turtle his Dad loved..