We spent Friday night and Saturday morning in Cow Creek, one of the loveliest coves on Lake Travis. In the morning we had the entire cove to ourselves. We each took a turn kayaking around it. The wall has water perpetually seeping out showering the lake below and there are curtains of mineral deposits and caves along its face. It’s a beautiful thing.
We headed up the lake yesterday (yes, a Friday!) for 2 or 3 nights to see what we could see. We are anchored in a lovely cove this AM about 20 miles upriver from our marina. The sun was scorching yesterday. I like how it was illuminating our flag. I hope you have a great 4th of July.
To celebrate the end of my last day of work, at 5pm last night I popped the cork on a bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1993 that I received upon my promotion to the executive ranks. (woo hoo!) I kept putting off opening it until an appropriately auspicious occasion.
Well, here we are 15 years later – and this was to be the occasion. Conventional wisdom says that good champagne shouldn’t be saved or aged. I didn’t really know that at the time. Over the years we have joked that this bottle of champagne, which has taken up space in our refrigerator on its side all these years, was going to be flat and vinegary when we eventually opened it. So, i was fully expecting that. We even had a backup bottle of bubbly on ice, just in case. But, low and behold, there was a resounding pop when the cork came off, and no shortage of fizz and bubbles! And it tasted good, like… a very special bottle of champagne. 🙂 I take that to be a good omen on the closing of one chapter of my life, and the start of the next.
Cheers!
I would also like to thank Teri & Jim for this absolutely stunning orchid that they sent me today. You guys are the best! It’s gorgeous, thank you!
Today I am throwing off the bowlines and sailing away from the most recent, and longest, phase of my life – the full-time career phase, that is. I’m ready. I am going to take my time charting the next phase. I can’t wait to see where it takes me!
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 🙂
The skies above us this weekend. Pre-solstice full moon at sunset:
Beautiful colored skies before sunset:
We went to a Round Rock Express minor league baseball game tonight. We won 4-2 in the bottom of the 9th on a three run, over the fence home run. Exciting finish.
On the way up there we stopped at the Chisholm Trail park on Brushy Creek. In the middle of the creek is a large limestone rock, eroded on all sides, which back in the day became known as a marker of the low-water crossing of the creek for indians, travelers and cattle drives of the 1800s. This is the rock that Round Rock, Texas is named after.
I can’t believe we’ve lived here for 20 years and have never seen THE round rock. Better late than never.
First of 2016 from the garden!
I took this shot from the back of the boat, as the sun was setting last night.
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!
White Russians, all around! Vodka, Kahlua & milk over ice. We’re channeling The Dude.
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!
A friend of mine recently sold her house and moved into a condo in downtown Austin. Her view is amazing.
Sheila365 