Last night we celebrated Laura’s birthday by going on a wine bar crawl downtown. We had picked out 6 or so places ahead of time to stop in at for appies and drinks during the night. We made it to 5 of them! In crawl-order: Prelog’s, Irene’s, True Food Kitchen, La Condesa & The Secret Bar at the W Hotel. A good time was had by all.
I especially liked this overhead light fixture at La Condesa:
Seen on a building along one leg of the crawl…. i agree 🙂
A friend of mine recently sold her house and moved into a condo in downtown Austin. Her view is amazing.
Yesterday was National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! I did my part to celebrate. Did you?
Today was one of our first days on the lake this year! Usually we’ve been tearing it up for several months already. But life has keps us both busy. Julie and Ryan joined us for the day. We were excited to see Marty and Sue and their beautiful new boat!
We both went out for a sail in light winds. It was nice to be out there – a beautiful sunny day.
Back at the marina, we enjoyed watching the setting sun together. The lake is at 683.66, several feet over full. The water is flooding parts of the parking lot at the marina. A site we have not seen for 6 years or more. The flood gates on the dam will be opened on Monday to lower Lake Travis a bit, as more rain is expected next week. I have not forgotten the feeling that many years of drought brought, but to see the lake brimming is truly a sight to see.
I was on campus tonight to join an old college roommate and her family watch one of her daughters in a dance competition. And her team won!
I caught a quick shot of the UT Tower. It is lit up in orange tonight; for Honors Day. Hook ’em!
By the way, if you ever want to know what the occasion is for a lit up tower, checkout this link. And a background on the university tradition of lighting the tower here.
Sheila365 has been rather quiet lately, as I’ve had many irons in the fire. But I’m making up for it with this long post. For the past week and half, I’ve been enjoying our latest sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands. Before that, I was busy just getting ready to leave.
This year, Colleen and Lee joined Monte and I on a 40′ Beneteau called Forever Young. Also on the trip were Kurt, Ken, Kevin and Greg on the guys’ boat, Ada, a 43′ Beneteau. This is our fourth trip to the BVI, each time coming back to charter from ProValor Charters, well-run by Jim Gulczynski & Cecilia Donegan.
We all flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico and met up. The next morning we headed to Tortola and the boat fun began.
Our island hopping route, more or less:
Our boat, Forever Young, is on the right in this shot, and the guys’ boat, Ada, is on the left. This shot is from Little Harbour on Jost Van Dyke.
I brought my new big-girl camera, equipped with polarizing filters for the lenses. I was excited to try it out. It seems to have worked, the blues and greens in some of these shots are nearly as amazing as the real thing. I took way too many pictures to upload here, but here are a mess of my favorite shots.
Day 1: Fat Hogs Bay, Tortola
So it begins….
Day 2: Tortola – Indians – Little Harbor, Jost Van Dyke
The BVI Spring Regatta was underway the first few days we were there. We had front row seats.
One of the races literally sailed through the mooring ball field at The Indians just off our stern. We we had stopped there to snorkel for the afternoon.
Pelican Island:
The Indians:
We sailed to Jost:
We caught a ball for the night in Little Harbour. This is a shot looking towards Tortola. Lobster at Abe’s for dinner!
Day 3: Little Harbour – White Bay – Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke
We sailed into White Bay, and snorkeled the reef. While we were doing that, a 40′ cat hit the reef just a few feet away from us, leaving bits of its hull floating to shore (!)
After some painkillers at Soggy Dollar bar, we headed to Great Harbour for the night.
12’s representing at Foxy’s:
Day 4: Jost – Key Bay, Peter Island
We sailed to Peter Island to a bay that we had anchored in overnight 2 trips ago. The weather permitted us to do it again this trip. We had the place to ourselves.
This is a shot looking east from Key Bay, Key Cay to the right, more of Peter Island in the background.
Glorious sunsets. St John USVI in the background of this shot:
And yet another:
Goodnight, Forever Young:
I saw the Southern Cross constellation overnight. It was due south from us, just above Norman Island – I didn’t get a photo, but my SkyGuide app image will give you an idea of what I saw:
Day 5: Peter Island – Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda
We enjoyed a long sail up to the North Sound of Virgin Gorda, and caught a ball in Leverick Bay. Our refrigerator had died on us, so we had to toss some of our provisions. But the repair guy was quickly on the boat and had us back in business in very short order.
We went ashore to Kurt’s friend’s villa overlooking Leverick Bay for dinner. The food and the views were divine.
A shot on the way to Virgin Gorda:
On a mooring ball in Leverick Bay, looking out through the Mosquito cut at a clipper sailing by:
Views from the villa:
Frangipani!
Day 6: Leverick – The Baths – Cooper Island
Heading out of North Sound, Ada is right behind us; Leverick Bay is in the background:
Going by Mosquito Point:
Rain in the distance outside North Sound:
We got a ball at The Baths and dinghied ashore. It was as beautiful as ever, but we encountered just way too many people inside along the trail (with tour guides) – more than I have ever seen before.
Then we motored on over to Cooper for the night. Ada had kindly saved us a ball. We went snorkeling at Cistern point:
Painkillers, bougainvilla and critters ashore at Cooper Island Beach Club:
And, the unbeatable sunset views looking out over Tortola:
Day 7: Cooper – Fat Hogs – The Caves – The Bight, Norman Island
We sailed on the outside of Norman to The Caves for a snorkel, then caught a ball in The Bight on Norman Island for the night. Dinner ashore at the Pirate’s Bight.
Somewhere in the Atlantic:
The Indians and Pelican Island from the Bight:
In the Bight for the night, Treasure point to the right:
Day 8: Norman – Sandy Cay – Diamond Cay & Little Jost Van Dyke
We sailed to Sandy Cay for lunch and a trip ashore. We anchored first, and then saw that they now have mooring balls – they didn’t the last time we were here.
Then we got the next to last ball in front of Foxy’s Taboo at Diamond Cay. Little Jost was just to our port:
I caught a rare not-blurry-shot from the boat of the sliver moon and Mercury below it to the right, just barely visible over the hill of Jost:
Day 9: Little Jost – Monkey Point, Guana Island – Tortola
The next morning we walked ashore to the Bubbly Pool.
Mangroves in the bay:
Waves breaking on the rocks:
Above the Bubbly Pool:
And the Bubbly Pool in action:
We decided to head east to complete a circumnavigation of Tortola for this trip. We stopped at Monkey Point on Guana Island, and then headed back to the marina for the night.
One last look over at Cooper, on our way into Fat Hog’s Bay:
Day 10: Homeward bound
Up early and headed home. Flying over Trellis Bay. Goodbye BVI!
Looking to the east at Virgin Gorda with the Dogs in the foreground:
Now I’m back home with great memories, lots of pictures, and these treasures:
Yikes, my last post was on March 3rd! I’ve been a tad busy. Since then, life has happened. I have been taking pictures along the way. Let me bring you up to speed:
– My 6th blogoversary! Six years ago I started sheila365.com. I’m not as diligent as I used to be about posting, and my posts have gotten less photo-worthy, but I do enjoy it. How time flies!
– Celebrated a friend’s birthday – this shot is from the lobby of the Hotel Van Zandt downtown. I accidentally left my Harvard Business School umbrella in the restaurant there. Oh well. 😦
– Lots of little birdies out back. I think I have 9 feeders out, altogether. I love watching them.
– We have been dealing with battery problems on Nirvana for the last couple of months. Ok, I’m using the “Royal We” there. Short story: our batteries crapped out on the boat. The charger was apparantly kaput as well. Monte has been researching chargers and new deep-cycle house batteries to keep our floating second home powered while we’re not hooked up to shore power. We have since ordered, and Monte has installed, all the various bits and pieces, and this is a snapshot of the voltmeter on the control panel down below after the installation. All is well! I think we will be anchoring out before too long!
– Work took me to Raleigh all last week. I have been taking advantage of the Austin Library’s on-line e-book and audio-book collection that can be easily checked out via the accompanying Overdrive app. On this trip, I checked out the audio book for Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley – a story about a roadtrip he took across the country with his poodle in the early 60’s. The jury is still out on how much I enjoyed it.
– It rained in Raleigh. Monte’s birthday also happened while I was there – the first that I haven’t been home to celebrate with him.
– I flew home home on Saint Patrick’s Day. Slainte!
– And then it rained some more in Austin. After MANY years of drought, and a little help from last year’s El Niñ0, Lake Travis is officially full now at 681′ above mean sea level. Hallelujah!
– Once I was back in Austin, we celebrated Monte’s birthday at a favorite restaurant. Baked Alaska for dessert!
– And, this weekend we worked in the yard and welcomed in the first day of spring!
Now you are up to date. 🙂
Tulips! I had a very nice Valentine’s Day. We went to the lake for the afternoon, and enjoyed a great sail up the lake a ways. Kevin, Kurt, Marty & Sue joined us on our boat, and Lori & Joe sailed along on Camelot.
And to cap off the day we had a delicious dinner at Andiamo. They were serving a special 4 course dinner with wine flight, and it was wonderful.
Now, I’m trying to get psyched up for Monday…
We heard about a play near campus called Shit-faced Shakespeare, and went to see it tonight. Yep, you guessed it: one cast member is supposed to be very, very drunk, while the show goes on. I suspect it actually involves more acting than inebriation.
It’s not for everyone, but whether they are actually sh!t-faced or pretend, it’s a funny show.
It’s showing at Spider House Ballroom – little over an hour long. And they have a bar in the back.
We watched the Superbowl at Dave’s house tonight with a bunch of friends. We played the dollar-a-square pool. Look who won at halftime (Broncos 13 – Panthers 7)!
And it’s only Saturday!
In my life, I’ve picked up and moved from one city to the next over a dozen times. Each time saying goodbye to old friends, making new friends, and making a home and new memories in a brand new place. My last move, to Austin, was different. Not only did I stay, but when I moved here, so did over 700 of my colleagues. One day we were all working together on one campus, in one state. A few weeks later, we were all back together again, but everything else was different.
Many of us took root here, getting married, having kids, living out our passions, and spending a very big chunk of the time that we’ve been given here on Earth loving living in Central Texas. We’ve scattered. Some moved back home. Some moved on. Some have passed from this life. But, this week marks the 20 year anniversary of our migration. So, last night we held a reunion to celebrate. A hundred and fifty or so people turned out. And it was amazing!
I don’t know what the next 20 years holds for me, but I’ve enjoyed this last round. 🙂
TODAY, we headed to the lake, of course. The winds were blowing 20-30 knots. So Lori and Kurt jumped aboard Nirvana with us and we all headed out. This is a shot of Lori at the helm. Sunny. Windy. A tad chilly. But a wonderful day.
I’ve crossed off another project from my growing wanna-do list in my head this weekend. As you may have come to know through this blog, we like to make homemade pasta. A lot. Spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, waddevah. It’s the food of the gods. Over the holidays, I ran across a fresh pasta hanger on Amazon and it looked so simple and easy to make, that I refused to put it in my cart. We have a gynormous wood shop out back. So I did a little recon and found what I needed already in the shop and… voila! Ye olde pasta hanger. I made it without glue, so I can take it apart to store easily in the cabinet.
Tonight I tried it out. So, here’s how it went down:
I used our Kitchen-Aid roller, starting on setting 1 – ending on setting 5. Rolling and dusting the dough with flour several times on each setting. After rolling each of the three balls into a sheet at setting number 5, I cut each in half. I found that each of my six pasta sheets ended up making about 2 ounces of pasta – a serving. So 3 eggs + 2 1/4 cups of pasta yields approximately 6 servings.
Next, I put the fettucine pasta cutter on the Kitchen-aid
I hung each section on my new, handy-dandy pasta hanger. (Awesome!)
Then I threw the pasta into a pot of boiling water. I sauteed the other bits in a skillet with some olive oil and I let the flavor develop.
Yummm!
Yesterday we went to the lake and Joel joined us with his out of town visitor, Chris. We sailed up to the basin and back. Winds gusting in the high 20’s & low 30’s made for a great day.
This is a shot of Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, who sailed along with us for the day.
Sheila365 