Garage Sale

We have a contract on our house here in Dickinson Texas! Hence the garage sale, the purpose of which is getting rid of a lot of stuff that we accumulated over the years. If all goes well, we will be looking for a house or a condo in Punta Gorda in November.



Joanne's friend, Barbara, added a bunch of her stuff to ours. Wow, one can get stuff really cheap at the garage sale. We made some very sweet deals to accomplish our mission - clearing out!

Before we leave Texas we will visit Michele in Austin next weekend and sail in the Harvest Moon Race the first week of October.

http://www.harvestmoonregatta.com/

Oregon

July 24, Joanne and I hopped a plane to Portland, Oregon. Well, hopped not! This time I pushed her through the airports in a wheelchair; she had fractured her knee cap tripping over a curb while I was in Florida discovering lightning had struck Eagle's Wings.

The damaged knee nixed her plans for hiking, camping, biking and white water rafting. Nerverthless, off to Oregon we went with plans to stay at her sister's cabin in the Coast Mountains outside of Willamina and beat the Gulf Coast heat. But we brought the heat with us as Willamina baked at 108 F during our first week.

After a week of driving scenic roads, white water rafting and biking for Richard and a stay at Crater Lake, we returned to the cabin to meet Joanne's mom, Marie, who flew in from Tampa. Actually, she flew to Portland. I forgot to take my camera on our rode trip so no photos but you can check out the links below.

With Marie we visited the state capital and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. When Kevin, Joanne's brother arrived, Marie, Joanne and Kevin headed for the nearby casino. As I am decidely not a casino fan, so I elected to hang out at the cabin.

At the end of our stay, Joanne's sister Mary and her husband, Alan arrived. We all attended a luncheon honoring Marie, who was sort of a pioneer in the Woman's Movement having been the first female manager in the Lipton Tea Company.

Willamina, Timbertown USA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamina,_Oregon

Coast Mountains - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Coast_Range

Aufderheide Scenic Byway: http://www.roadsnw.com/rnw/67

Belnap Hot Springs - We spent two hot nights here w/o A/C

http://belknaphotsprings.com/

White Water Rafting on the McKenzie River - I had a great time while Joanne availed herself of the hot springs. http://www.highcountryexpeditions.com/

Paulina Plunge: I did this while Joanne was restricted to the Sunriver Resort http://www.paulinaplunge.com/

Sunriver: http://www.sunriver-resort.com/sunriver-resort-photo-gallery.php

Crater Lake: We spent a night at the lodge and Richard took the boat tour off limits to Joanne due to a one mile walk down to the boat dock from the crater's rim . http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm

Oregon Capitol: http://www.leg.state.or.us/capinfo/

Oregon Coast Aquarium: Joanne and I took Joanne's mother, Marie over to the coast for a visit one afternoon. http://www.aquarium.org/

Depoe Bay: We stopped for a late lunch at the Tide Raves restaurant in Depoe Bay. We watched the resident whale blow while we chowed down on good seafood.
http://www.gonorthwest.com/Oregon/coast/Depoe_Bay/Depoe_Bay.htm

Lake Hebo: Joanne's brother and I hiked part of the Pioneer Trail that starts at Lake Hebo. Mount Hebo lies on the west side of the Coast Range. Light rain sporadically falling from an overcast sky at the cabin on the east side of the range left little hope of any long views, but we drove the pretty back roads to the coast anyway. We came back wet but happy!http://www.oregonlive.com/oregoncoast/oregonian/related.ssf?/outdoors/hiking/hike38_990827.html

Hill Country Classic - Hamilton Pool

Last Thursday, we drove to Austin to visit Michele. While we were visiting Michele in Austin last week, Joanne & I drove to Hamilton Pool out in the Hill Country. A short steep hike leads down to this popular pool from the parking area. The short hike was hot in 100+ degree but the water was cool. I enjoyed treading water while the falls down to a trickle splashed on my head. Check out the pool at http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tnr/parks/hamilton_pool.asp

After munching sandwhiches that we picked up at Central Market, I hiked along the half mile drainage to the Pedernales River while Joanne continued to enjoy the pool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedernales_River

Joanne & Michele cooked gulf shrimp Cajun style for eating in experience while we ate out with Michele and Brian at normal and with Michele and Brian at weird places - See Keep Austin Weird ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Austin_Weird ). While walking the beagles, Joanne & I discovered that a house that Michele has been interested in was for sale. Later in the day Michele put in an offer for the house!

Joanne & I also toured the Bob Bullock Museum before returning to Dickinson.

http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/the_museum/about.html

Ike Height

My brother, Bart and his wife Nita visited from Killeen this weekend. Bart recently retired as Colonel after thirty-eight years and five combat tours with the army and army reserve .

Topwater Grill, one of our favorite restaurants has not quite recovered from IKE so we opted for dinner at Landry's on Kemah's touristy boardwalk.

Landry's has a colorful history. Part of that history is told by the gauge now painted on the first floor wall. The gauge shows the high water marks measured from the building's floor for hurricanes since 1900. Note that the floor is about four feet above mean high water in the Clear Lake Channel just outside. Ike is off the scale! Looking out over the bay and realizing that Clear Lake is twenty-five something miles from the Gulf of Mexico, the volume of salt water that was pushed up the bay to bring the water level that high is just incomprehensible.

The Kemah waterfront was very different when we first "sailed" down the Clear Lake Channel and out to Galveston Bay. What a thrill it was to pass the shrimp fleet tied up across the channel from the restaurants. Some people still called Landry's, Jimmy Walkers. I can remember how good the seafood smelled as we passed the Flying Dutchman, Joe Lee's and of course, Landry's. The shrimp boats are long gone. In fact, the north side of the channel is almost barren; the pilings, packing houses and everything is just gone. Click http://www.art-photography-nature.com/Category_22.html to see some historical pictures.

All the restaurants are now connected by one corporate boardwalk lined with carnival games and amusement park rides. Of course, I liked it the way it was. Besides the great food, that is why I like Topwater Grill so much more. I suppose it is time to move on.

Kemah History: http://www.specialtyretail.net/issues/june99/waterfront.htm

Back in Houston

We are back in Houston wondering what we are doing here. We stopped in New Port Richey to visit Joanne's Mom before making the long two day drive back. Sherwood, our cat, turned out to be a good traveller on the boat and in the car. He wasn't happy but he persevered.

On the food scene, we timed our trip for a Cajun seafood lunch Pat Henderson's in Lake Charles For our first dinner back - Mely's for Mexican food. We hear Topwater grill is back in business but I think we will save that one for my brother's visit in two weeks.

Richard

Back at Burnt Store - Cruising is over for a while ...

Anchor away at Ding Darling at 7 AM for 5 hours of mostly motoring (AKA "motor sailing") on a very pleasant morning through what are becoming familar waters to Burnt Store Marina. We will spend this week cleaning up the boat and securing it for the summer before driving to Texas next weekend.

We are somewhat sad that our cruise is over == but at the same time == glad to be back especially now that thunder storms prowl the evenings and the thermostat is on high.

Our cruising in Florida is over, for a while at least. Time to go home and reflect on our journeys. We definitely want to come back in October to cruise with the Punta Gorda Sailing Club to northern destinations (St. Petersberg, Tarpon Springs, etc.). We hope the summer weather is kind to our boat, Eagle's Wings, and that hurricanes stay far far away from Punta Gorda.

Hope everyone has enjoyed our blog. Send us an email if you have at saileagleswings@yahoo.com ! Cheers from the crew of Eagle's Wings!

Ding Darling

Today we mostly motored from Naples as the winds mostly nonexsistent or light from the northeast to anchor off the Ding Darling National Refuge at 2 PM. Tommorrow we should be back at Burnt Store.

To learn about Ding Darling click http://www.fws.gov/dingdarling/VisitorInformation.html