Happy Anniversary!

Three years!! Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. It's amazing how quickly time passes, and at the same time how it feels like forever... like we've always been together. To make it a special 5th, we both had a day off from work and planned a day trip to Munising to see some waterfalls and to check on wild morel mushrooms in the area. We got to Munising, browsed a used book store and had ice cream... then our plans got changed, not for worse.
Earlier in the day we learned the fact that we will be home owners this Friday, only in three days!!! A house is our three-year anniversary present! We'd been anticipating the progress of our home buying for about a month now, but every step is a new and greater adventure for us. And quite frankly, everything's been going pretty fast!

Anyway, we had to turn around and drive back home (oh, about 45 minutes) to take care of an important matter. After all was done, we had our P.B.J. sandwich lunch at home and decided to go fishing Joe's usual stream. First, we found trout lilies and bloodroots (photo) in bloom. Then Joe spotted some suckers (carp like fish who swim upstream to spawn just like steelhead) in the water. When we got to Frowling Falls, we could see lots and lots of suckers in the deep pool, trying to swim up the falls in vain.

And look! Kayo caught a sucker!! Even though it wasn't a trout, catching a fish was very exciting. Joe released the fish, and Kayo was relieved because she doesn't like the sucker's toothless round mouth. It wasn't the only excitement. On our hike back we saw a steelhead couple getting ready to spawn. The female did her dance (photo) to dig the gravel; the male chased away small fish that hung around waiting to eat the fresh eggs. What a picture of their survival. Anyway, Joe casted a lure that resembled one of those small fish at the steelheads, hoping one of them would chase and bite it. Well, it instead spooked the male into his hiding spot... a smart guy. As for the female, despite everything Joe tried, she made very little notice. Even when a lure bounced right on her head, she just dodged and minded her own business. Joe just couldn't believe all this. Finally one last cast got her attention, and Joe felt her on. The next moment Kayo almost got snagged when Joe set the hook and the lure went zinging past Kayo's head because the fish spit out the lure(hook). A very smart fish. Indeed. To top our evening off we went to the Brownstone Inn for dinner. We were hoping to have ribs but our luck was holding true because they only serve ribs on the weekend. So we had burgers and beer for dinner. How romantic. But it was a very fitting end to our day. Joe is wondering how he is going to top a house as an anniversary gift next year.