Summer At Last

Hard to believe the 4th of July is next week already. It's starting to feel more like summer up here. Though we aren't the only ones loving the warm weather. Plenty of bugs and mosquitoes everywhere.... Joe's grape vines are growing well. Tomatoes and a few other veggies that we got from Phil and Judy were added in our rather chaotic garden of volunteer daikon radishes (below). Exciting nonetheless.

On Tuesday I made spicy shrimp rolls in the style of dragon rolls to finish the bottle of sake we had opened with Kozue.

We wished we had company to share our cool looking sushi rolls and sake... but then we got to enjoy more of everything to ourselves. We raised our sake cups to the beautiful summer weather.

Kozue Was Here...

Both Joe and I truly enjoyed having Kozue. As expected, there was too much to do and catch up in too little time. Still, on her last day we managed to relax and enjoy everyday things, like cooking together and chatting in the kitchen over some coffee. Kozue even volunteered to cut our grass, which was overdue.

For dinner we made egg rolls and Thai curry. The curry was alarmingly spicy!

After dinner Joe took us for shooting. Definitely Kozue's first ever experience. We all hit some targets and savored the great ending to our short but action-packed fun time together.  

With Kozue we saw a moose (for Kayo's first time in the UP) and an eagle closer than ever. She must have been our good luck charm. We already miss her... but then we barely caught up with our sleep! For now we promised ourselves not to wait 6 years again to see Kozue next time.

Kozue Is Here!

Kozue is visiting the UP, her home number 3,4,5... we can't tell, but definitely a very special place she loves, like home. Besides visiting with the friends and people and sharing the good food and drinks, if she had her way, she would still be out on the beach looking crazily for agates.

You know when you're at Lake Superior... it's usually colder and windier. But we are no fair weather agate pickers.



 

Appropriately enough, we stopped to view Agate Falls on our way back from Ironwood. 

Kozue also got to go fishing. Over all a short but good fishing trip. Nobody lost a lure. Joe managed to catch a small trout, which he later grilled. Needless to say, Kozue and I devoured the whole fish clean with chopsticks! 

Yesterday evening we had Joe's big family over for a BBQ party. Ribs, teriyaki chicken, Spam musubi as main dishes. And Kozue and I made a couple of rhubarb pies for dessert, all from scratch including the fresh rhubarb from the garden. So glad it is in the middle of rhubarb season!

We have one more day to relax and enjoy. Today is another beautiful sunny day. I think I'm going to wake her up now!

First Trout of the Season!

Finally, Joe got to go out fishing on his Apple Creek for the first time this trout season. The water in general is still pretty cold, about 10 degrees Celsius, but is no longer too high from the snow melt. Even better his cousin Al got to join. Unfortunately I had to work and missed a beautiful day. But it paid off well at the end of the day when I came home. A very nice 14 inch brown trout was waiting for me. Joe cooked it on the grill, served with sautéed morel mushrooms and Vidalia onions.

And next is the picture of the fish "after." (Translation: Kayo and chopsticks happened; no cat involved.) We are hoping our friend Kozue can catch some fish when she comes to visit next week. We pray to our fish god.  

Brother Luke's Wedding

June 1st was Joe's brother Luke's wedding. As you expected, we both got to dress up for the special occasion. The weekend started to be nice and warm.... After the wedding and photo shoot in the afternoon, it started pouring cold rain and continued on all night. The night temperature was 40. Brrrr..... Thank goodness, we got to enjoy the sun in the early afternoon.

The wedding and the reception were both very nice.
Congratulations, Luke and Andrea!