Field Trip – Page 8

2018 happened.

The year was full of the usual fun times spent with Monte, our friends, as much family visits we could squeeze in, and my girl posse. I stopped coloring my hair. I gained too much weight. I missed my mom often. I was continually enchanted by Keeto. People often ask me what I do with my oodles of free time. On the spot, I usually can’t think of what the heck I’ve done to fill the days and weeks of this year of retirement. So, I spent some time today scanning the photos I took this year, to jog my memory for some highlights.

Outside of Lubbock in January

Crossing the Gulf in February

Grand Canyon in March

Tower of Pisa in April

Turnback Canyon Regatta in May

Sailing with Keeto in June

Fireworks over Lake Travis in July

Storms in the Gulf outside of Port Aransas in August

My Pride of Barbados bloomed in September

Flooding in October

Trident getting ready to leave November

Mozart’s lights in December

January brought many birding day trips and a number of lifers. More special were visits with 2 of my high school friends. Pilar was in Austin for business and looked me up. We hadn’t seen each other for … decades, not counting one brief wedding visit that happened many moons ago. We’d reconnected on social media several years back, but it was really wonderful to get a face to face visit in. Another friend from high school, Irene, texted me to see if I could join her in Lubbock, of all places, while she was there for her son’s sports event. And so I took a road trip and saw some interesting things along the way.

February brought a huge leap of faith, a drive to Florida with Lori, Monte & Joe, and then a journey across the Gulf of Mexico by sailboat to bring Lori’s new-to-her sailboat home to the Texas coast. It was an awesome and challenging trip.

March brought a really memorable road trip across Arizona and New Mexico. We celebrated Monte, Gene and Susanne’s birthdays together. I saw a couple dozen lifer bird species. Tucson, with its Catalina Mountains and the Sonoran Desert, is a truly amazing birding destination. And on the way home, we saw some glorious works of nature and man. We spent 2 days on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, staying overnight in a cabin sitting about 50 feet away from the rim. We marveled at a ginormous meteor crater off of I-40 on the drive to Santa Fe. Then we spent 2 days in Santa Fe, staying at the luxurious Spa at Loretto. We saw more new birds there, but the highlight was a visit to the Loretto Chapel, with its spiral staircase that legend says might have been constructed with divine intervention.

April brought a number of trips to the coast; one special one to visit High Island during a Spring fallout, and another girl’s trip to Kemah to officially rename Lori’s boat, S/V Trident. But if that wasn’t enough, I joined Irene again, this time for a week in Italy. I thoroughly enjoyed Florence, Pisa and Cinque Terra and points in between.

May brought more trips to the coast to help Lori with Trident repairs and projects. It also marked the return of warm weather and lots of fun boat outings on Lake Travis with friends and family on Nirvana.

June and July were full of projects at the house, in the shop, and in the yard. We popped down to the coast again, a time or two, and really enjoyed our almost full lake during the peak of the heat of summer. We delivered a beautiful table that Monte made for Doray and Tom in their new home in Wimberly.

August brought another trip to the Texas coast – to crew for Lori and Mike on their first shake-down cruise on Trident since she arrived in Texas. We sailed out to the Gulf of Mexico and down to Port Aransas. We stayed for a couple nights in the municipal marina there, and enjoyed one of our favorite towns on the Texas Gulf Coast, before our return sail to Kemah. Then we popped up to Seattle for a very overdue trip. We stayed two weeks, encased in smoke from the nearby fires, but did enjoy immensely seeing our family, and a bonus of 2 clear days on the Pacific coast of Washington.

September brought a month of non-stop rain to Austin. So we busied ourselves with more projects in the house. I began to dabble with sewing canvas projects for the boat. Monte made sawdust and honed his web site and various GPS apps.

October brought another trip to Kemah. I became a novice diesel engine mechanic. We also experienced historic flooding amongst the Highland Lakes. Monte worked on shop projects for a client or two. Autumn arrived in Texas, which I love only second to Spring in Texas.

And then it was suddenly November! Monte made another trip down to Kemah to help with last-minute projects. Thanksgiving happened. Then we made one final trip to Kemah together at the end of the month to bid bon voyage to Lori and Mike, and their crew, Janet and Will, taking Trident back east to Florida.

December brought the usual whirlwind of decorating, baking, parties, Christmas shopping, visiting with friends, and eating too much. And now, POOF, it’s the last day of the year.

Tomorrow, I will gear up to do it all again – starting a new year with an as-yet-unknown set of trips, projects, visits, fun and (hopefully only occasional) troubles that lay ahead. I am truly blessed.

Very merry.

I joined some friends yesterday at Ann’s house for nibblies and libations. Then we all walked down to Mozart’s on Lake Austin to watch their Christmas light display. It was a beautiful night, with a clear sky and a nearly full moon. You should check it out, too!

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Counting birds.

I participated in my 3rd Christmas Bird Count today. Our small group of four birders hiked for over 6 hours and logged 45 species. Our counts will be rolled up with the other teams’ results.

A foggy morning over the Pedernales River….

turned into a beautiful day above the Pedernales River.

What a lovely day!

Headed East at sunrise.

Today is the first day of December 2018. It is also the first day of my dear friend Lori’s cruising dream realized. After a lifetime of planning and one hellacious year of hard work, she left Galveston this morning, setting sail for Florida, and then on to the Caribbean.

She and her crew on this leg, Mike, Janet & Will, will take S/V Trident across the same Gulf that Monte, Joe and I crossed with her back in February.

My heart is full, as I see them pull away from the dock this morning. You did it, Lori. 🙂

Fair breezes, safe seas, and Godspeed my friends!

Boat run.

We are pet sitting this week – our niece, Julie’s, dog, and Doray & Tom’s parrot. Because of that, we have been sticking close to home. But, today we took the opportunity on this beautiful day to take a drive.

We stopped by several vantage points around the lake. With the emergency flooding situation behind us, Lake Travis is dropping about 1.5 feet a day now, currently at 695′ above mean sea level. The butterflies were thick today, which makes me very happy – so much of what humans do have hurt their populations over the years. It’s nice to see them out there despite us.

I believe these are Queen butterflies, on blue mistflower. I think I’ll plant some of this in my yard!

We also stopped by the marina to check on our boat. Our marina’s staff has been doing a wonderful job keeping all the docks floating and clear of obstacles. They are running a shuttle to the docks for boat owners, since the lake is still flooded, and the water level is still about 15 feet above the parking lot. Everything looks fine. Our batteries are doing well (electricity has been off to the docks for 12 days, so far).

I brought my completed propane bag out to the boat and hung it. It works great, and I found the perfect spot for it.

Citizen Sheila.

I scored a civic triple this week. I chatted with my district’s city councilman at a neighborhood block party over the weekend, voted early yesterday, and today I headed downtown for jury duty; on the bus, no less. There’s too much traffic and not enough parking to try driving down there and back at rush hour. Monte gave me rides to and from the metro station and I caught the Express, which drops me and picks me up two blocks from the courthouse.

Learning new tricks.

I drove down to the coast this week to join Lori and Mike on Trident to work on some boat projects. We sat through a day-long, hands-on class for “Marine Diesel Engine Introduction and Maintenance” which was delivered on-board Trident. I learned a tremendous amount, and now feel like I have a basic understanding of how a diesel engine works, and how some maintenance can be done. At night I dreamt of primary fuel filters, lift pumps, fuel pumps, engine fuel filters, injector pumps, injectors, oil extractors, heat exchangers, impellers, strainers, shut-off valves, stop-cocks, oh, my!

Today, after the lecture part of the class, Lori and Mike performed the following maintenance to Trident: primary fuel filter change, engine fuel filter change, impeller change, oil change, oil filter change, belt tension check, transmission fluid check, heat exchanger coolant check, raw water strainer cleaning). Nine hours of learning and doing. I’m looking forward to opening up Nirvana and seeing if I can identify all the components on her 3 cylinder, 30 HP Yanmar diesel.

Why do they put such big engines in such small places?

The engine and generator are inside this compartment, comically called the engine “room.” There is actually a guy (the teacher) sitting on the generator inside this compartment, pointing to components on the engine behind it.

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Lori is changing the primary fuel filter here, reaching through the aft access door to the engine “room.”

Happy anny.

We recently celebrated our anniversary. Tonight, we had Lori and Pooh over for dinner and popped open one of our oldies.

It was a bottle from a winery that we visited on our honeymoon – an almost 20 year old chianti that we brought back with us. The cork didn’t leak or budge in the last two decades, so the wine was really pretty good! I am very happy to be able to share it with friends.

I ♥ d’Orsay.

TripAdvisor just announced their list of top museums in the world, ranked by their travelers. At #1 is my favorite, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. I’ve visited Paris on four different trips, and hope to make it a few more before I’m through. And when I do, I will walk through the entire d’Orsay again. It’s beautiful – a restored train station, the Gare d’Orsay, that was built for the 1900 World’s Fair. It opened as the Musee d’Orsay in 1986. Its exhibits are diverse and gorgeous.

Here is a pic from my last visit, it looks just like any other taken of its expansive great hall, around and through which its galleries are placed.

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And another pic of the old clock, with a bit of my own artistic treatment (using the Brushstroke app).

You simply must visit on your next trip to Paris.

Wrapping it up.

We took the scenic way home from Rachel’s, dropped Rebecca and Aaron off, and then came home and whipped up a delicious risotto for dinner.

The next day we stopped by my nephew Jared’s new house, and then had a fun family get together at Noreen and David’s.

Then, FINALLY, we had one glorious, clear summer day on Hood Canal. Jake went for a hike with us and then we met up with James for dinner.

These are two pictures from the same place, taken at about the same time of day. The first is from one of the smoke-filled days, the second one was taken 5 days later.

I MUCH prefer this one….

Blue sky days.

We headed west with a mission to see where the Pacific Ocean meets the state of Washington.

Along the way, we stopped in Aberdeen, home of Kurt Cobain, former frontman of Nirvana. We stopped at a modest but touching memorial to him.

We thought this sign at the neighbor’s house was especially funny.

And we did finally make it to the coast. It was our first smoke-free day, and it was lovely. We spent a day at Ocean Shores…

And another clear sky day at the coast, this time at Westport…

We spent the night at our niece, Rachel’s, new home, joined by Fran, Aaron, Rebecca, Noreen and David. We had fun exploring the area and enjoying our time together.

Island hop.

The next day, we drove to Colleen’s house. She cooked pulled pork, from scratch, and it made for delicious sandwiches. We visited with her, Lee and Jake all night. The next morning we headed to Whidbey Island for a day trip.

The smoke and haze was very bad. But it’s a beautiful destination.

Whidbey Island Distillery makes a nice whiskey, and delicious berry liqueurs. They use a continuous still, homemade – see the copper pipes and tubes in the second picture below.

I walked down to the beach to get a view of the Deception Pass bridge…We popped into the Admiralty Point lighthouse…Then we hopped the ferry to Port Townsend…VERY smoky. This is a shot from the deck of the ferry of the sun setting over the beautiful Olympic Mountains. 🙂

Boats, et cetera.

We toured the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain tall ships with Francine, Rebecca & Aaron. It was fun to learn they would be here during our visit.

The next day we ambled through some antique shops, and then took the ferry to Seattle to visit Pat, Nga and the boys.

A photo of the Southworth ferry (manipulated with the Prisma app)…

They have a beautiful new home in seattle with a view of the Sound. Another pic, manipulated with the Prisma app that I so enjoy playing with.

Will helped Monte hang their dartboard. And the throwing ensued.

We walked around the neighborhood garage sales, and all the beautiful yards.

Then blackberry picking…

Then we made a wonderful seafood dinner. I sautéed some Manila clams. They were eaten so fast I only got an after photo…

Pat grilled salmon and it was perfect!

Nick and I put together Lego dinosaurs after dinner – well, I helped. 🙂

Hazy dayz.

We made an overdue visit to the Pacific Northwest to visit family and friends.

Fires are burning all across the area, and in Canada as well, so smoke was thick everywhere.

A drive up into the Olympic mountains made for a lovely day trip, but you could not really see the mountains, even standing amongst them at 5700′.

Port Townsend is one of my favorite places. I just can’t visit there too many times. We walked through the Maritime Center and watched shipwrights work, and walked the docks where the Wooden Boat Show will be in a few weeks.