Anniversary and Cinco de Mayo

Joe had to give up part of his vacation week, but he was able to have the 5th off from work. We fished Apple Creek, my first day this trout season, in the morning. We actually caught a few fish, ranging 10 to 15 inches. Decent, but we were hoping for much bigger steelhead, like 20-30 inchers. We weren't however expecting to find morel mushrooms... it hasn't been very warm at night. Spring time in the woods is fun because we run into different wild flowers and plants. 

Later we checked out our local lake shore and found it was filled with sand... and it's still the same big lake!

And today we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day late at home. Cheers!

MN North Shore Trip

Though we couldn't travel to Japan again this year, we drove 400 miles along Lake Superior shore towards the Minnesota-Canadian border for a mini vacation. Still amazing how big Lake Superior is. The MN Shore is much more ragged, but the weather patterns are similar to ours. It was 80 degrees on Saturday, then back to 40-45.

We checked out High Falls on Pigeon River, which divides the US on left and Canada on right. Gone as far north as we could...and turned around. 

Even though our trip was short, we managed to enjoy a handful of good eats. Last night we found a cozy hang out spot, too.

The best part was that we stayed two full days right on the lake, before the summer vacationers arrived.

Cabin Fever, Fishing Fever

Where did April go?! 

Part of the reason is that Joe got promoted to the location manager when his boss retired, so he's been a little occupied... in a good way.

And I had my first shot of Covid vaccine 2 weeks ago. My reactions were certainly not severe but delayed, which caught me off guard. I ended up sleeping 2 days last week. I'm all better now and planning to enjoy this weekend.

The last two weeks the weather up here has been up and down, too. We had some 60 degree weather 2 weekends ago... but then lost count of how many times we had snow since. Wet snow that melts in a day or so... nothing unusual in April here. Actually we are quite happy this year that all the snow in woods has been gone before the opening day of trout season (last Saturday). And big fish (steelhead and salmon) are up in rivers to spawn. We'll be going fishing whenever we get chance. 

Easter Weekend

Unlike last year this Easter was warm and snowless. We didn't waste our weekend off... took a walk on the sandy beach, checked out a few fishing spots, and got our fishing licenses renewed. We actually saw a guy catch his second coho salmon on Saturday when we had no gear.

So we went back on Easter Sunday to fish the river mouth. No fish!! Oh well.

For Easter dinner we stayed home to have Joe's favorite Japanese dish, tonkatsu. I didn't cook it for his birthday this year, we both had cravings. 

Happy belated tonkatsu birthday dinner!

Joe's Birthday

This Friday we both took a day off and enjoyed a few of our favorites around town. It was also Joe's youngest brother Mark's birthday, so we celebrated together over dinner and candle lit bread pudding.

Somehow earlier in the day Joe ended up getting us furniture at an antique shop on his birthday. We had been looking for a bit more grown up piece to replace our $20 bookcase. 

It happened to come in two pieces, so the other piece replaced our stacked antique wooden crates as bookcases in the living room. We totally forgot to take "before" pictures... 

The weather this weekend was not spring-like. Hard to believe just previous weekend we were walking on the lakeshore in the 60 degrees temperature in Ironwood.

We woke up to about 5 inches of wet snow Sunday morning. Well, its still March....

Goodbye Hair!

So it's been a year with Covid. Also a year since I needed a haircut. Most definitely my hair was the longest, about 3 years worth. Plenty enough for a donation to Locks of Love.

What a weight loss off my neck and shoulders! 

Glimpses of Spring

After the last post, it didn't take much time for the ice in Lower Harbor to break and be blown and gone. Depending on the wind directions, ice pieces come and disappear. This weekend we found them at our favorite lake shore. But this meant the wind off the ice packed lake was not so tolerable. So we walked in the woods to stay warm. 

Still, days have gotten longer, and the sunshine more intense. Spring is somewhere around the corner.... March 3rd, Girls Day in Japan, has come and gone. We celebrated with sushi and special sake. We are ready for Spring!