While Ryoji was here, AJ asked if I could make aprons for his aunt, uncle, and cousin....since I had made aprons for everyone else (I made them the year before, and AJ delivered them when he was there in June.)  No problem - I was on vacation, so I can do that, right?  I took Ryoji fabric shopping so he could choose the fabric....due to the language barrier I made 5 more aprons - one for him, his brother, his sister, his mom, and his cousin (the dad and uncle were left out.)  AJ failed to communicate "which" family I was making them for.  I did get them all done - with a little help....whew!  They said they loved them when Ryoji got home....

 

We took Ryoji out to the gun range before he left for a few rounds with my 9mm (and yes, we cleared it with his parents before we took him out....).  He did great - once he got over his nervousness.  AJ probably put the fear of God into him before we went out.  He went over the "this is not a toy and can kill you" multiple times, and demonstrated safe gun handling skills for him.  Ryoji did great!  My shooting was off for some reason, and he ended up shooting better that I did.  We set up a clean target for his last shoot, and sent it back with him as a souvenir.  After we got back I heard him on the phone to his brother, and I couldn't understand a word he said, but could tell he was very excited.

 

Pat brought me a bottle of wine on Sunday   She buys wine like I do, based on the label!  I love it!

I think this is the last "trip" Ryoji and I did - a hike to Whiskeytown Falls.  We took both dogs with us, and it was hot, but beautiful  The falls are still full - especially for late August!

 

Last weekend, we went to Crescent City - hoping to show Rhyoji the elk, along with the redwoods, light house, and the coast.  My timing was bad all around is all I can say....

We saw elk twice - both times Rhyoji was asleep.  We went to Trees of Mystery, and the SkyCam wasn't working - one of the best parts of the attraction.  We made due with the SkyWalk, but it isn't the same.  Turns out that the entire north coast (Del Norte County) had no power and Trees of Mystery was running on a generator due to a threat to the power lines from the Six River Complex fires.  Crescent City had no power.  No stop lights, no gas, no lunch....  We drove up to Brooking to gas up and grab some pizza.  Just waiting to gas up ate up close to 30 minutes of our day - every gas station was packed with people filling up their rigs and gas cans for the generators.  The line I chose had a lady filling 4 cans with diesel....so we were there for a while. (Oregon just allowed self serve last month, so many people there are not familiar with it, and it took her a while...)  It was also high tide when we got to the beach, so no tide pools, no walk to the light house, etc.  It was a long day....I enjoyed it, for the most part, but I don't think Rhyoji was that impressed.

 

Rhyoji and I made a day-trip last week - we went to Lower McCloud Falls, Burney Falls, Subway Caves, and Mt. Lassen.  Subway Cave and Burney were the biggest hits - he slept through most of Mt. Lassen.  The fire devastation there was just horrible to see - I hadn't been up since the fire went through.  

Here's Lower McCloud Falls:

Burney Falls:

Subway Cave:

 

One of our adventures last week was to Turtle Bay Museum, which wasn't as much fun as I hoped it would be.  It was the last weekend for the Butterfly House, and there weren't many butterflies left, and we only had 5 minutes in the Parrot House because they were closing for lunch, so there wasn't as much interaction as I hoped.  (Not to mention it was a 107 degree day in Redding that day....)  The wildlife show was fun, but I don't know that Rhyoji caught all the humor due to the language barrier.