We anchored out in our cove last night with Marty & Sue, and Kurt & Kevin. This morning I paddled around to check on the 2 geocaches that I have hidden along the shore there. The first one was still there, just above the highest level of floodwater. I lifted a rock and found it. Right next to it was critter I would rather not have come across!
The lake levels are dropping from the 693′ levels from earlier this week. Lake Travis was reopened today. It’ll need to get to about 683′ before we have power on our docks restored. But we’ll probably head out there this weekend anyway. The shot below is of the downstream side of Lake Travis’ Mansfield Dam, with 3 flood gates open, from last weekend. What a difference a year makes!
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.
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…
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.
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.
I had a lovely morning.
This is a shot at anchor tonight. The rains in Central Texas have moved on. 
We’ve been busy! This past weekend, we made a roadtrip out to west, stopping first at William Chris Winery, where we caught up with a friend of ours that we ran into, by chance; then we hopped over to Wildseed Farms to pickup a bunch of seed; then made it over to one of our faves, Becker Vineyards, where we had a tasting, a picnic, and checked out their new field of zinnias. Just beautiful.
On the way home we headed over to the Real Ale Brewery in Blanco. We took the river road south/southeast from Hwy 290 to Blanco, and stopped along the way several times to check out the now lazy river that was uncontrollably raging just 4 months ago, tragically sweeping away homes and families over Memorial Day weekend.
At Real Ale, Monte sampled a flight, and I sipped my favorite – Hans Pils.
Then Sunday rolled around, and we headed out to see the Anderson Mill historical site, near its original location at Cypress Creek on Lake Travis. The Anderson Mill Gardeners do a wonderful job of preserving the site and its history.
We made it to the boat in time to cheer the Seahawks on to their first win of the season, enjoying the recently repaired air conditioning on Nirvana (yay!).
About an hour before sunset, Kurt, Barbara, Dakota and little Leila joined us on the boat, and we motored out to the body of the lake to drift and watch the supermoon lunar eclipse.
Have I mentioned taking photos of the moon and stars on a moving boat is hard? I didn’t get any good shots. But I thought this one was kinda cool… you get the idea.
It was a great weekend, indeed.
Yesterday was pleasantly windy – 15+ knots. So we set out for the lake and met up with Lori & Joe on Camelot, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, for a long sail towards the dam. We managed to weave our way through the Austin Yacht Club regattas, and made it to Mansfield Dam Park and turned around. What a marvelous day! We had a slip up and talked all night with Lori & Joe. Just like old times. I miss the rest of the gang! 🙂
Here’s a shot of Camelot on the way back.
We had alot of fun with Fran and Rachel this week. The house is guest-free again. Well, except for the parrot we are house sitting. 🙂
We enjoyed a fun weekend on the lake – Saturday’s sunset:
We spent Labor Day down by Zilker Park and paddling on Ladybird Lake. A friendly swan:
The paddling scene:
Then we threw some lambburgers and hamburgers on the grill to celebrate the holiday.
A short work week is a busy work week. I didn’t make time to post til now. I’ll try to not be so slow with my updates. Have a great weekend!
Well, mostly the river taketh away.
It’s a risk we deal with, spending so much time playing on the water. And, it so happens that this past weekend I lost yet another pair of prescription sunglasses. I was helping put up a friend’s wind scoop on the bow and the wind whipped things up and the next thing I knew they were sinking below the surface of the lake. I summarily jumped in to try to grab them, but to no avail.
I lost a different pair of prescription Raybans on the San Marcos rapids a few years ago. Monte lost a pair of prescription glasses there, too. A friend lost their wedding band on the same rapids. I’ve lost three favorite hats, a towel, and know of at least one bathing suit top and diamond earring sitting at the bottom of the lake. And, amazingly, we lost our entire flag and flagpole that was flying off our transom – on the Fourth of July, no less! It happens so frequently that we keep a Lost Sh#t Log on the boat.
But every once in a while, the river gives back. About 10 years ago, I lost a pair of prescription eyeglasses in the lake. One minute they were sitting on the cabin-top while I tightened my pony tail. The next minute they were gone. Over the following few years the lake alternately rose and dropped. Until, about 3 years after I lost them, the lake was finally low enough that the place where we anchored the day I lost my glasses was high and dry. So one Saturday morning, I announced that I was going back to that part of the cove to look for my glasses. And I did. I combed that dry cove for an hour or two. I found a snorkel, swim goggles, a swim fin, numerous pieces of fishing tackle, several pairs of sun glasses, a hat, an anchor, lots of trash, AND my lost-for-three-years eyeglasses!
They were sun-bleached and cruddy and one ear piece had broken off. But there they were! I can’t bring myself to throw them away. So they sit in a drawer until I take them out for a chuckle every once in a while.
🙂
I have been challenged in posting the last two weeks. We are in the middle of a 3 week set of back to back visits from family. Which we absolutely love, but it means a little less time to tend to my photoblog. The real challenge though is that the WordPress for iOS app that I use primarily for quick posts is broken and completely useless since the last 2 updates (both updates ver 5.4 and 5.4.1) of the app. So I’m using the browser version of the app for this post. I hope they get it together and fix the problem in the next update.
One set of guests were unaccompanied minors, so I had to get a pass to go through security and accompany them to their gate to pick them up and drop them off at the airport. As I was strolling along the concourse on the west end of the ABIA terminal, I spotted some lovely, colorful prints on display from a Texas artist that I hadn’t seen before. The artist is Margie Crisp, and her prints are simply beautiful. I took a picture of one – couldn’t avoid the reflections from the lights in the airport. This one is called In the shadow of Buchanan Dam. Inks Lake is in the foreground, with images of all the things I love about the Central Texas Hill Country.
I googled her to learn more about her and found that she has produced a book called River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado, which features many of her river prints. As I’ve come to love the Colorado myself, I’m going to order one.
You might want to check her out, too.
As for me, i need to get moving… we are headed to the lake to raft-up overnight.
Pre-dawn today was to be the peak of the annual Perseids meteor shower. So last night after work, and after the rush hour traffic had subsided, we headed to the marina. We anchored in the cove after sunset and made comfy spots on deck to lay down and watch the stars.
The best time is typically between 1AM and 4AM. There was no moon to interfere. We just had to wish away the partly-cloudiness that arrived with sunset. And the clouds did clear up and we saw the first burner by about 10:30. More clouds came. And then the sky became crystal clear around 12:30. We were treated to a nice show – dozens this year. Star gazing on a boat does not lend itself to photographing meteors, so I have no awesome pics to share.
Even if we hadn’t seen any meteors, sleeping under the stars and this morning’s sunrise would have made it all worth the trip out.
Now…off to work!
Sheila365 