Mom & Brother's Visit

It has already been two weeks since my mom and brother came to visit and left. A week was not long, but now that my mom knows what our lives are like over here, it somehow shortens the distance cross the ocean. Still, it was a quick, short week, though full of fun times.
There was no time for jet lag. The day after their landing we took a 3-hour drive up north, meeting up with Phil and Judy. A gorgeous day for a picturesque picnic. Yum....

And of course the beautiful Lake Superior shore! Photos can't do justice... my mom realized after all these years of me telling her!

Saturday we went to see Bark River off road race, which was in the out-of-nowhere farm country, yet televised on Speed channel. A huge event in the rural America.
That night we stayed out in the backyard to view some meteors up above us. Mom got to see the Milky way, too.

Sunday morning we started with Japanese breakfast of rice and miso soup my mom cooked, before we got ready for a BBQ party. Balancing out the meat centered meal later on. 

That Sunday we couldn't have asked for better weather for a backyard party. Warm, dry, and no wind! Just perfect. And we had a wonderful bunch of guests, mostly Joe's big extended family. Glad we invited our pastry chef friend Lisa for her elegant chocolate banana cake!!  

For the main course we had Joe's BBQ ribs, Teriyaki chicken, fried rice, along with black bean salsa and chips. What you don't see in the photo was the dessert line-up. Joe's mom brought a bath tub size cheesecake AND two whole fresh pumpkin pies! Everything was oh, so yummy!

Monday was our recovering day. Did a very small amount of souvenir shopping, showed them where I work, and such. All day we prepared ourselves for Joe's mom's special pasties (Cornish meat and potato pie).

Though the threatening thunder prevented us from going out shooting, we instead had lots of fun skipping rocks, including my mom. No, not skipping mom, mom skipping rocks.

We worked off some of our pasties to make room for our favorite Vierling beer. While three of us Japanese chatted away over our beer, of course in Japanese, Joe was rescued by the host there who could speak English. So we all got our fill of beer and talking!

After taking a whirlwind trip to Green Bay to see the Murphys, we went to the State Fair.

An introduction to American Fair food- our first stop at the Teriyaki Chicken and Tempura place.  

 More than half of Joe's siblings met up at the fair groud and shared some fair food. My mom couldn't be happier to be included and handed whatever food to try.  

This was my huge buritto, for a minute I never thought my mom would give back to me! This photo turns out to be my favorite of mom during her stay! It shows how she enjoyed her short visit truly, which makes me very, very happy!