I went out to dinner tonight with a bunch of my girls. We went to one of a kind Rainey Street in Austin – my first time there. I had a wonderful time. We ate at NO VA Kitchen & Bar. The food was delicious. Their white sangria is amazing. The service was great. I highly recommend it. Afterwards we hopped around to a few other places and enjoyed sitting outside on the patio, with the sky flashing with the lightning of the cold front approaching from the northwest.
A cool light fixture above our table at NO VA:
And a shot of part of their menu. The ingredients listed for their white sangria include: armagnac / aged rum / spiced pear / sage / vino blanco
I know this is supposed to be a photoblog, but I didn’t get a photo tonight (gasp!). Forgive me. 🙂
I met some girlfriends downtown tonight at Malaga, a tapas and wine bar. I have gone several times when they used to be on 4th street. But never in their new location on 2nd street. Ok, maybe it’s not so new, i guess they moved a few years ago…. it’s been a while for me.
The tapas were delightful. The wine was good — a Tempranillo. And the company was great: Ann, Ireni, Laura & Lori. We should do this more often.
Since I didn’t snap a photo tonight, I’ll leave you with an audio tidbit instead. The speech about “sunscreen” came up in our discussion tonight. Variously attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, but really written by Chicago tribune newspaper columnist Mary Schmich. What sticks in my mind is this version set to music that hit the top 40 in 2000 or so, produced by Baz Luhrmann. Lots of wisdom therein – check it out.
Today we set out for La Jolla beach, rented bikes, enjoyed a picnic on the shore.
Pelicans flying overhead at La Jolla Shores:
An artist’s vantage point at La Jolla Cove:
Pelicans and seals nesting on the rocks:
Back in San Diego watching the America’s Cup boat Stars & Stripes tacking across the bay:
Safe and sound back at the Palomar lobby in time for happy hour:
Dinner tonight at Cafe Chole. Didn’t get a picture of the restaurant, but the food and the service was excellent.
Back at the penthouse, there was table dancing into the wee hours. No photos here, but what a fun time!
Sort of spur-of-the-moment, but with just-enough planning, I left today on a girls’ weekend to San Diego with Lori, Doray, Laura, Ann and Irene. Here are some sights from today.
We flew Southwest – my first time on that airline. Ended up with a window seat. We had reservations at the Palomar Hotel in the Gaslight district. AAAWESOME!!!! No complaints on the lodging.
Dinner at Croce’s restaurant Thursday night. Good jazz, kind of loud, and very busy. BTW, they are not closing, they are moving, so check them out in their new location.
Yay Friday. We went to a party at friends’ home tonight. They designed and built this house themselves and moved in 2 years ago. This week they put it on the market and it sold in about 5 days. So in 3 weeks they move out and will do it all over again on a new lot in town. An amazingly beautiful place.
They had friends come in and play steel drums for entertainment. A great sound. I have only a picture to share.
Lori rented a place on Lake Buchanan for her 50th birthday extravaganza. It was a fantastic day. The weather was awesome. It was great to see friends that had come from near and far to celebrate with her.
We celebrated the evening with friends. The murder-mystery theme was fun. It was set in 1969, so the costumes were a bit … far-out, man. I was Enya Goddard-Daveeda, high priestess of the Church of the Vacant Mind. My costume instructions were to wear all white: gogo boots, flowing robe & miniskirt. Can you believe I found knee-high white platform-heeled gogo boots that laced up the back?!! Thank you Goodwill!
It is fun to get a little silly. And we did.
As is the custom, Monte played Auld Lang Syne on the saxophone at midnight, and everyone sang along. We also played an encore out on the front lawn just to make sure noone was asleep.
I don’t exactly know what my resolutions are. I do know that I want 2013 to be a year with a little more peace, love and understanding. I guess we’ll have to figure out what we each should do to make that happen along the way.
Rumors of the end of the world have been greatly exaggerated. We headed out today with a boatfull of friends, Al, Tina, AJ and Ireni. Lori went out as well with Doray, Laura and Ann. A good time was had by all. AJ took the helm and took us up and down the lake in mighty strong breezes. He’s a natural.
We are blessed with great and fun friends. What a great day spent with them!
One of the most well-padded packages I’ve ever received arrived today, containing a lovely gift from friends Teri & Jim… a hand-made sailboat ornament. L.O.V.E. I.T.! 🙂
Here’s to friends, family and fun. Embrace them all, every day!
We went to Laura and Arnie’s Christmas party tonight. It’s become a tradition, and a most fun one at that. Everyone ends up gathered around the piano belting out Christmas songs. Some scenes from the evening:
Usually every November a large contingent of sailors head up-river for a multi-day raft-up…aka an Up-the-river cruise. This weekend the winds were so light, noone was interested in motoring for 6 hours to get up river. So, plans changed. Instead, we rafted up in a cove about 5 miles from our marina. It was a really lovely night, though. Temps got down into the 40’s but we were toasty down below. We baked pizza in the oven on Nirvana, and it turned out quite tasty.
We had 6 boats stay overnight. This shot was taken this morning by Robert from the dinghy, after Eric and Micheline left on Karma. We’re on the left on Nirvana, then Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Robert on Voodoo, Tony & Sharon (and Aussie) on Wind Thief, and Gray & Debbie on Sacre Bleu. This morning the winds finally picked up. We had a really nice sail back to our cove.
It’s Sunday, and I have 7 more days of vacation!!!
Yesterday we set out for the lake to raft up with Lori & Dave on Camelot. We put our repaired jib back on. And Julie met us at the slip. We were the only two boats on the lake, i think, given the continued forecast of rain.
We anchored up in Arky south last night, expecting some good downpours after midnight. Lori and Dave hosted us to a delicious spaghetti feast on their boat. Thanks guys!
We played iPod wars for a bit and turned in relatively early. The rain really didn’t start until about 8 AM. And it still hasn’t quit. No complaints here though. The lake is up a total of about 11 inches since Wednesday. Keep it comin!
We played rummy in the cabin for several hours and then headed back to the slip.
Now we’re back home and pizza dough is being whipped up as I type this.
It’s Sunday night, and the end of another great weekend. Yesterday my cousin Devitt and Aunt Joanne came over for a breakfast visit with Monte, Julie and I. Monte made french omelettes, Julia Child style. And we tried our hand at a potato recipe that we got from Devitt:
Browned Breakfast Potatoes
Large cast iron skillet 8 oz bacon, cut into 1-2″ pieces 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2″ cubes 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped Salt & pepper
Cook bacon, onions and garlic in large cast iron skillet until browned. Discard bacon fat from pan. Add potatoes, salt & pepper. Cook another 10 minutes or so over medium heat on the stovetop. Then place skillet, uncovered, in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve and savor!
Afterwards, Julie headed home to study up for the last final exam of Summer session (good luck!), and we packed for the lake.
We planned to raft-up with friends overnight to watch the Perseids meteor shower. We made it to the cove by about 5pm and set our first anchor on the new boat. It was a good set. We were soon joined by Joe on Prelude, Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Nick, Laurene & Morgan on Kalliopi, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. Everyone was tied up by the time the golden hour was upon us. The shot above is of the 5 boats, stern to the sunset. Nirvana is in the middle.
After dinner and stories from the day, everyone grabbed a cushion and laid on the bow of their boats to watch for meteors. It wasn’t a knock-out show, but we did get to see some good ones. The night was peppered with random shouts of “There’s one!” every 10 or 15 minutes.
This morning everyone floated for a while and then people started peeling off at about noon. I’m pleased to report that we got the anchor up with little problem. I am loving the electric windlass to bring up the chain and anchor!
Monte and I sailed ALL afternoon. The breezes started out sluggish but filled in to some great wind that we haven’t seen in a long time on the lake. At about 3:30 we dropped sail and picked up Devitt at Arky cove to take him out for a sail. He did great, taking the helm as Monte and I worked the lines. We dropped him off back at the park around 5:30 and headed back to the marina.
By the time we got home several hours later we were pleasantly exhausted.
I can’t wait to get out there again. Friday soon come!
We had reservations at the 
Sheila365 