Halloween Traditions?

Last Friday we went to see our local Vista Theatre production of The Rocky Horror Show... mainly because one of Kayo's coworkers was in it. It's such a different sub-culture genre that we tried to fit in by dressing up a bit and also previewing the movie version. It was definitely an interesting experience. But we had fun. The theatre puts out The Rocky every Halloween season, so it could be our strange but fun tradition....  

Another, more normal, tradition for Halloween is pumpkin carving. Last night we each carved a pumpkin. Tomorrow evening Joe will be home and light our pumpkins for trick-or-treaters.

Happy Halloween to everyone!  

Color Tour... In the Fog!?

On Sunday we took Joe's mom out for her belated birthday. We decided to drive up to the Copper Country, hoping to catch some fall colors, though it was a cool wet drizzly day. We got to see some colors through car windows on our way. Then we observed that we were driving into the fog. When we finally drove up to Brockway Mountain Drive, we found ourselves in the total white.
Here Joe and I stand in front of the valley, which is completely invisible!

Our final destination on this trip was Harbor Haus. As expected, we had a wonderful meal there, though our view out the window was a bit limited.

Our color tour was mostly in the fog... in that very mystifying way. But we were glad we went for the ride. It was fun. Though as you might have guessed, Monday was a beautiful sunny fall day, perfect for a color tour! Oh well.

Grapes, Grapes, Grapes!

Since our spring came so late, we were worried that our grapes didn't have a long enough growing season. In contrast, however, Joe picked the most grapes yet ever. Roughly 60 pounds of grapes! And they all turned color at the same time. So Joe picked the grapes, got rid of stems patiently, then boiled and made juice.... While Joe went out to pick some more grapes, I made grape jelly and canned, just to make more room for more juice. Dealing with all the grapes was our night job for the whole week.

All the grapes had been picked, either turned into jelly or juice. Joe ended up using 25 pounds of grapes to make wine. Eventually he filled that huge crock in the below photo most of the way with wine-to-be. After a several days now it's starting to ferment. It smells wonderful!

Taste of Autumn

It's October, and trout season is officially over. The fall color is also all around us. Since we weren't home to go out fishing on Apple Creek one last time this weekend, Joe hit the stream a couple of afternoons last week. He might have missed other much bigger (smarter) fish, but he managed to come home with a very nice salmon or two both days. Tonight we had fresh salmon roe and avocado over rice for dinner. A decadent treat.

Finally a female packed with salmon roe (below). That night we patiently cleaned the roe (lots of work!) and marinated in the sweet soy sauce mixture. Kayo was happy!

Now we get to deal with our grapes. Joe finished stemming all 15 pounds of grapes last night. Tonight he is squeezing the grape juice to be turned into jelly later. It's work, but rather gratifying. That's what you call "priceless," truly the Nature's gift. 

Fun Detroit Trip

We took a four-day weekend to drive down to Detroit to get Kayo's Japanese passport renewed. Our important mission was accomplished rather smoothly, thanks to the help of Joe's two sisters Anne and Catherine, who are much more familiar with the area. While we were in town, we went to the Detroit Institute of Art. To celebrate the day's success, we treated ourselves to the authentic sushi experience.

Saturday we ventured out to the Renaissance Fair, where we got to see lots of interesting people, or people in interesting costumes. Probably both.

The photo below was the extent of our Renaissance look.

We watched jousting, crazy fire performances, bagpipe music, etc.... The whole experience was quite overwhelming. We were very glad that we took extra days in the big city to have fun and to spend time with Joe's sisters. Only if it weren't so long a trip! 

Today, Monday, we went back to work. Back to normal. After work Joe had to pick his first batch of grapes in the backyard. As I type, he is patiently taking grapes off the stems in his chair. Lots of work before I can make jelly.

Good Day Fishing, Finally!

Good evening to everyone. It was Tuesday, my day off. We planned on going back to Apple Creek after Joe came home from work. So I got our ramen noodle & pot sticker dinner all ready by the time Joe got home. We slurped our dinner, then left for the stream.
It was a gorgeous sunny autumn day, quite a contrast to Sunday. At first Joe was being teased by a few large salmon, not being able to hook one. There, a fish was hooked on the end of my fishing line! A surprise. It was a very nice 15" brown trout. Thank you, Fish God!

After a bit of trying, Joe caught an 18" Coho salmon. Fish vs. Joe. Joe won today!

I just wanted to show how big my fish was, compared to my hand. Can't wait to taste them tomorrow... yum.

Fair Weather Fishermen We Are Not

Today, Sunday, turned out to be a chilly rainy day-off. Knowing some great fishing has happened on a wet day like this, we had to go out and find out. More precisely Kayo wants to taste some fresh salmon roe again. So Joe had to go along in the wet weather and continue on hitting all the fish holes even well after he had determined that not a single fish was going to bite. And even after Kayo hooked his ear and drew blood. Our fish god was not on our side. At least we showed that we were not fair-weather fishermen. Maybe next time it'll pay off. Maybe. 
Last Tuesday was not much better fishing. When Joe came home from work, we ate our dinner of Japanese lunch box style meal on a platter, instead of taking along to the river bank.

The stream was misty and rather pretty. We had a good feeling about fishing at first, but fish didn't cooperate. Oh well.

At the very end Kayo hooked a small rainbow trout, which swallowed a whole hook and wouldn't have survived. It became Kayo's evening snack. It's that feeling of never knowing the outcomes if you didn't go fishing and find out yourself, that keeps us heading to the stream. One more cast, one more hole. Maybe next Tuesday is going to be a better fishing day!!