Last night we stopped at a new place, for me, Parkside, right on 6th street. They have a nice happy hour Monday-Friday from 5-6:30pm, which we missed by 2 minutes. 😦
But we didn’t let that stop us. Their appies and burger were great. Check them out.
Category: Fun
Roadtrip!
Since we are (mostly) unencumbered by commitments, we took a road trip over the weekend to Louisville, to attend our niece’s wedding. We extended it a day or two to squeeze in a couple of additional visits in Indiana and Kentucky before heading back home. It was a beautiful and heartfelt wedding. The fall foliage was beautiful. We were able to play tourist a little bit. And we are now back home safe and sound.
Mary Anne and Chris did it up right. We enjoyed the ceremony, the reception and, most importantly, the time spent with family visiting and telling stories and laughing. Not everyone could be there, and Gene & Jo were sorely missed.
We visited some wonderful places in Louisville.
The Louisville Stoneware factory got my potter juices flowing:
The FlameRun glass-works gallery and working studio:
The Louisville Slugger factory & museum:
The Big Four pedestrian (former railroad) bridge over the Ohio River:
And then we popped over to Indiana to visit Charlie & Kathy, and enjoyed the night life and autumn beauty of Madison.
Will Carter and Trisha Gene Brady performed at Red Bicycle Hall.
This is the amazing view of the Ohio River valley from their living room!
Then we stopped in the hills outside Bowling Green for a day with Lanny, and I scoped out all the birds I could find. The bird on the left is a lifer for me – a white-breasted nuthatch; a carolina chickadee on the right. I do love the birdies!
Another trip in the books. It’s also nice to be home 🙂
Veni. Vidi. Vino.
Girls night out! It’s been months since all of us were able to make it. It was…. lovely!
Desert bird report.
In addition to having a wonderful visit with old friends, I did see birdies while visiting Palm Desert last over the weekend.
Right outside our house there were 2 palm trees on an island in a large pond on the golf course. Every night cormorants and egrets would come and roost. They came late and left early. I counted at least two dozen at one point. This is a shot from one morning as the sun was rising.
An American Kestrel visited me while I was drinking coffee one morning; he’s backlit by the rising sun. This is the first picture I have ever gotten of one.
A blue heron made an appearance. There were a number of mallard ducks in the ponds at the golf course. I saw a belted kingfisher flying away from the pond every night. We had a couple of bewick’s wrens scolding us when were out on the patio. We had many hummingbirds buzzing around. A flock of Canada geese flew over us on the way to the airport. There was a flock of unidentified colorful birds that stopped in a Joshua tree while we were in the park, but I didn’t get a good look. I also saw a verdin, and a cactus wren; both firsts for me.
Henry sez…
I’m headed home after a wonderful weekend with two lovely ladies that I wish I had kept in closer touch with over the years. But, thankfully, we picked up where we left off – and then some. It was a really great visit. I’m looking forward to all the others. 🙂
FaceTiming with the bird.
Today was another lovely day in Palm Desert. Irene and I took a long walk this morning and found two geocaches along the way. We all had massages this afternoon and then grabbed a bite to eat while watching the end of the Seahawks game at a restaurant nearby. We won!
Back at the house we did our best to finish off all the food and wine we had bought for the long weekend. We stayed in the hot tub again looking at the moon and stars til we were pruned.
We also face timed with Keeto, a first for both of us. Goodnight birdie!
Where two deserts meet.
We visited Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, drove the entire length of the park, from south to north, and stopped to explore all of the varied terrain and plants. The park is ruggedly beautiful, and marks the intersection of the Colorado Desert and the Mohave Desert.
We had a blast. And took a bazillion selfies. I’ll share some photos, but also wanted to share this cool interview I found this morning…. it’s 10 minutes long… of Steve Averill, the guy that designed and photographed the album art for U2’s album The Joshua Tree, which is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. I think this guy has my dream job. 🙂
A fine example of the namesake of the park, said to look like Dr Seuss trees:
Amazing rock horizons:
Skull Rock, spooky!
Another peek from beneath the rocks:
I love exploring new places, and I love hanging with my girlfriends. A perfect day.
Desert fun.
I’ve met up with Irene and Linda, two girlfriends from high school, in Palm Desert for the weekend. We are having fun catching up on three decades of our lives while enjoying this beautiful oasis.
This is the view from our patio. Lucky us. This is looking east across the Coachella Valley towards the Little San Bernardino Mountain range.
This is the same view, later last night as the full moon was rising.
Autumn rainbows.
Yesterday was the autumnal equinox. It turned out to be a lovely evening for a beer can regatta on the lake. I took Nirvana out with Lori and Kurt as crew. Marty took Stand by Me out with Monte and Kevin as crew. There were four other boats as well. We were treated to a pretty double rainbow as a rainstorm skirted us to the southeast. When we crossed the finish line in fourth place, it was against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset. A fun sail!
Photo credit to Lori.
Suit up.
We enjoyed a lovely Sunday and Monday on the lake. We met up with Marty & Sue and floated in the marina, then set anchor in the cove. It was a perfect holiday weekend.
We made it home with plenty of time to clean up, eat dinner, visit with birdies, and participate in my fantasy football league’s draft for this season. It’s ON!
Eclipse day 2017.
We’ve wandered a bit and saw some interesting things today.
We hung out at a park in Cross Plains, Tennessee with a couple hundred other people on the line of totality for the solar eclipse…
Some enterprising kids recognized it as a business opportunity…
Of course, we bought some.
And I took some pictures of the amazing display in the sky above…
ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/30 sec
ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/800 sec
ISO 200, f/8, 1/5000 sec
It was an incredibly amazing experience. I’m looking forward to the next one in Austin on April 8, 2024!
GNO.
It’s been busy here for the last month or so. We had several nieces under our roof and at the lake with us this past week, which was a joy for me. Good visits, good fun and lots of laughs were had. But they are now back in their respective places living their exciting young lives. As for me, I’m committed to relaxing for the rest of this week. Last night I joined some friends for girls’ night out at Alcomar in south Austin. I enjoyed it.
PROs: Tasty tapa-ish seafood dishes. Happy hour from 3-6pm every day. And their own parking lot on S 1st!
CONs: wine not included in happy hour.
That’s a wrap.
We raced in Friday night’s beercan regatta with Kurt. We came in 2nd! And it was a 3 boat race, at that. Light winds but a lovely sunset.
Goodnight!
Blues on the green.
Tonight we made it to the last concert in this year’s Blues on the Green free concert series at Austin’s lovely Zilker Park. Bright Light Social Hour was the headliner. We joined Lori and Doray, who have made it to every show this year. They’re professionals; they have the parking/tailgating/setup thing down. We got downtown early, went for a swim in Barton Springs Pool and then headed over to the Great Lawn to set up our chairs and share some nibblies before the show.
I enjoyed the night very much. Temps were in the 80s!! How lucky was that?!
Sheila365 