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It's already the end of August, and for us in the North it seems that summer is finally here. It's warm enough with no socks and even no flannel sheets. One thing though some guys are starting to think about hunting season; stores are displaying Halloween. We haven't gone fishing enough at all this season. On my weekday off last week we decided to go to Apple Creek after Joe came home from work, taking store-bought pasties (Cornish meat/ potato pies) along for dinner.
We actually saw a bunch of fish. We just couldn't get any of them interested to bite. There were some pretty big fish. They just hung out right in front of us, which alone was quite exciting. But we wished we could have caught one! Oh well. The truth was that with or without fish it was very enjoyable to be on the stream. We both were glad we didn't wait for the next weekend off together to go fishing.
We got to spend this weekend in Ironwood. Saturday we had Joe's cousin's wedding to attend. The weather was beautiful. The wedding was also very nice. Once again it turned out to be a rather busy weekend. Still we got to visit with Phil and Judy a bit and took short walks in the wild.
Before the wedding we went to Superior Falls. Joe tried fishing the mouth of Montreal River... no fish, but we enjoyed the warm summer day.
Sunday on our way back we stopped at Agate Falls to fish downstream. Again, no luck except for a couple of bites. Still it was very nice to be out on the river on the warm afternoon. The last couple of weeks had been rather cool and not quite like mid-summer. We tend to complain when the temps go up to 90's up this north, but the reality is that it never lasts long before cooling down to below 60. We have to enjoy what's left of our short summer up north. Today after Joe gets off work, we are going to Apple Creek for fishing, since we realized we haven't gone fishing enough this summer.
P.S. It is officially the end of summer up here. The State Fair was last week. Truck loads of Wisconsin sweet corn has been coming up, too. Like summer, the sweet corn season doesn't last long. We'll enjoy these best corn as much as we can!
We are still alive! The summer months seem to be flying by... yet we had a good reason to have been looking forward to August 1st. We got to go to see a ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. He and his little characters were all great and funny. We also stayed at the casino resort, which explains the unusual mixed drinks we had afterwards.
Next day on our way home we took a long-way along the lakeshore and stopped to stretch our legs. The beach pebbles were calling us.
We were wishing Kozue had been with us to pick some agates.... The weather couldn't have been more perfect. A very good mini vacation... except Joe had to take apart our washer after we came home. It wouldn't do the spin cycle. The diagnose was the bad door lock. Let's hope the new lock part will cure it.
We took a 3-day weekend to experience the Iola Old Car Show with Phil on Friday. "80 acres of nothing but cars and car related things" advertised in word did not prepare us to be ready for what we saw (and a lot more we did not see). Lots and lots of cars! Cool old cars.
What was fun for me (someone with far less car knowledge) was to have Phil tell and show us the kinds of cars he used to work on and did crazy things with.
And even more funny was to see both Joe and Phil clearly overwhelmed and lost not knowing where to begin. Below was Joe already overwhelmed and hot (baked in the full sun at mid 80s) standing by a Chevy Blazer, wishing it was his.
Not until later did we learn that one giant section we walked into had over 4000 flee market style venders, selling anything from old car parts to women shoes. The truth was that we learned a lot more about the show in the 4-hour air conditioned car ride back home. We figured out the map at last. Well, guys, let's plan a little better next time? Still, this was a fun experience, more like an adventure.
And it's been pretty hot and summer-like up north, too. High 80's and humid. On my day off the house is staying relatively cool, and I am staying inside. I just made a batch of gyoza pot stickers and froze some for later. Tonight we are going to see "the Lone Ranger" to stay cool at a movie theater.
Happy 4th a day late to everyone! The weather was almost perfect up here, and our firework display at the harbor was one of the best. The only downside was that I had to work on the 4th and this entire weekend. Oh well. Our unorthodox July 4th dinner plate held spicy tuna sushi rolls! I took advantage of a rare seafood sale the day before and made the rolls. (Not too worry, I got to have some taste of the more American tradition of brats, baked beans, potato salad at Joe's mom's later.)
As a side note, our yellow irises bloomed in front of our house for the first time. Very graceful.
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.
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.
