I made a side trip while downtown. The Hope Outdoor Gallery has officially moved from their old location near 11th and Lamar. But some of the graffiti-covered walls remain. I took a few pics through the chain link fence that surrounds it.
I wonder what will be done with this space.
Noreen and I did some shopping yesterday, then headed to the University of Texas campus. We went up in the UT Tower on a tour. Monte and I have done this once before but it was a dark and rainy day, so I was looking forward to getting a better view.
As a part of the tour, you can go outside and walk around all 4 sides of the top of the tower.
My town, looking south from the UT Tower:
The UT Tower, viewed from the Turtle Pond just north of the Tower:
The UT Tower with the UT Tower Memorial in the foreground, a remembrance of the victims of the shooting that happened over 50 years ago:
After the tour, we grabbed lunch on the drag, and then mosied over to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon to experience chicken shit bingo. We didn’t win 🙂 But it was fun to cross that off my bucket list.
Back home, we mournfully watched the Seahawks lose to the Rams. Keeto is very broken up about it.
Noreen is here for a visit. She brought me another beautiful stained glass panel that she made. I love it! She’s so talented at making them. Lucky me!
After dinner tonight the power went out on our block with a “pop.” We have a dozen or so candles lit. Old school tonight at the chez. 🙂
Monte and I spent the morning at ground zero for Kyle’s Challenge. There were a dozen or more smokers and grills cooking up about 50 turkeys at a time. Sides and desserts were being stockpiled as they arrived. They’ll keep this up through the night till everything is cooked and ready to be plated tomorrow.
God bless these good people. 
Today was a baking day. I signed up to bring two pies to Bill & Yvonne’s house tomorrow. They are in the seventh year of organizing and executing a massive community effort to cook turkeys and all the fixings for Annie’s Way Thanksgiving, providing a couple thousand meals to families in the community. This year their goal is to cook over 150 turkeys tomorrow, to be packaged up and delivered for Thanksgiving Day. They call it Kyle’s Challenge, which the Austin American Statesman featured a story on here. It’s quite a commitment.
All set!
All done. That third pie in the back is for Monte. 🙂
Last night Monte and I met Joel downtown. He’s been a friend of ours for about as long as we have lived in Austin, and he has enjoyed (?) some of our most exciting moments sailing on Lake Travis. And, he STILL wants to hang out with us!
We bumped into a couple of our friends, and Joel bumped into a couple of his friends, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy yourselves, and enjoy the friends and family that you are blessed to share it with.
My high school friend, Irene, was in Austin this week. She and a colleague and another friend were headed for San Antonio for a conference and made a side trip to Austin. We karaoke’d, texmex’d, BBQ’d, imbibed, touristed, selfied, and enjoyed catching up. Then I drove them all to San Antonio for the conference and stayed at their hotel on the Riverwalk. I even squeezed in some birding while their conference was in session.
Irene and I were besties in high school. Life happened. We ended up on opposite coasts and fell out of touch until rekindling our connection in the last 10 years, in which I have really enjoyed our rendezvous. The years melt away and what is left is pure friendship.
Singing and dancing…
Tour of ATX…
MEAT! @ the Salt Lick…
Pretty views along the Riverwalk boat tour…
A lovely night along the Riverwalk…
Hotel room view of the Alamo!
See you again soon, Irene!
I spent today and another day last weekend sitting in the bottom of our port-side lazerette at the stern of the boat. We lost the electronic control unit of our auto helm in a lightening strike at the marina earlier this year. We got off easy; a neighboring boat’s electronics repairs from the same strike is over $80K and counting. Marty gave us a unit that he used to have on their boat. We installed it over the course of the last two weeks. Lots of pulling of cables through tiny stainless steel tubing, making new electric connections, and squeezing into small spaces.
Marty and Sue accompanied us on the calibration run. Everything worked! It’s nice to have Otto back.
Monte and I rang in our anniversary with a trip through the Texas Hill Country. We had our own mini-Oktoberfest exploring Altstadt Brewery and spent the weekend in Fredericksburg.
We enjoyed the wine and brews of the region and some local good-eats. We also did our share of antiquing and mantiquing and each brought home a little sumpin-sumpin.
The Longhorns have an off-week, but we caught them chilling in the shade near the Pedernales River:
We did a number of laps down Main Street in Fredericksburg. Next week is Oktoberfest in F-burg, so GET DOWN THERE! 
You gotta love the Texas wine trail… grape vines and live oaks.
And zinnias as far as you can see…
Happy Anny to us!
I’m slowly working down my boat sewing project list. I made 5 winch covers for our jib sheet winches, house top winches, and windlass. I used Sailrite’s pattern and instructions as a guide. My takeaway: it is not easy to sew a circle onto a rectangle.
I also replaced our frayed and yucky bimini straps, having to sew a loop and attach the fastener-buckle thingie before installing.
Bring on the next project!
We are about a week away from the end of summer here in our Central Texas home. Today we motored over to the Lake Travis In-the-Water Boat Show on Cupholder. Turns out we were the only sailboat.
We did tour a 45′ $880K+ motor cruiser. Nice RV. I’m sure it throws a horrendous wake.
Then Kurt and Barbara rescued us and took us out for a drive in their new red convertible. Awesome!!
The view from Lake Travis Steak House:
I joined Rachel and Becky on their second day in Austin.
Monte made crepes for breakfast. Then we headed out.
Spelunking at Inner Space Caverns:
Boot shopping at Allen’s Boots:
Zilker Botanical Garden:
Chillin’ at Barton Springs Pool:
Mural tour:
Boot scootin at the Broken Spoke:
Mr. Dale Watson:
Good night Austin!
Rachel and her friend Becky are visiting this weekend. We didn’t think we could keep up with a couple of vivacious 30-something’s in downtown Austin on a Friday night, so I dropped them downtown tonight for an evening of fun. I was treated to a view of tonight’s lovely sunset on the way home.
Sheila365 