September 3, 2011

Wow...it's Saturday already!! Our 4 day weekend is flying by! The weather is messing with us today. It can't decide whether it wants to rain or not. Tropical Storm Lee has created a disturbance between here and New Orleans. The winds have picked up out of the north and is blowing all the water out of the bay! That usually happens here in the winter time.

I was afraid the winds were going to rip the cover off "Katie-Did" so Dean & I went out and took it off. We retied her snug as a bug in a rug on the dingy lift to the stern of Our Way Too!

With this weather change I have been struggling a bit with my Fibromialgia (FM), so I am not overdoing it today. Dean has been putzing with his little projects and organizing his tools & nav station. For whatever reasons I woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep so I finally crawled out of bed about 3:35 am and sat out in the salon working on blog posts. Things are finally slowing down a little and I can relax and enjoy our new boat!

We watched some tv for a bit and I headed into slumber early. It started to rain and Dean discovered we have a leak again over the galley area. So he sopped up the water before he came to bed. Guess what he will be working on next?!

September 2, 2011

Projects & Messes!

Slept in til 9:30am!
 I guess this drive to Houston/Kemah every weekend is catching up to us.
 It is just so hard to get here then hop into bed right away.
 We cannot wait til we can be onboard full time!! 

We sipped our morning coffee, had cereal & planned the day.
 We went to the office and paid our slip rent,
 went to the Kemah Post Office to mail a box to
 Landon C for his belated Birthday gift,
 went to West Marine for our Galveston Bay chart (we had a West Advantage certificate to use),
 then to the hardware store for a new lock tumbler for the companionway door...
we couldn't get it to unlock last weekend and it didn't want to unlock again last night!

When we got back I dug into cleaning the old silicone out from around the outer edge of the windows on the port side. Dean will help me reseal them early in the morning so the sun isn't so hot.
 When they are resealed then all we have left to do are the seals in all the portholes.
 There shouldn't be any more leaks when it rains! :-)

While I was making a mess on the deck..
Dean was rippin' & tearin' and making a mess in the salon.
 First he mounted his weather station. 

Then he decided to mount our flat screen TV. 

That boy just can't sit still!!

He is gonna run out of projects!

Oh, wait a minute...then he can get started waxing the deck! :-)

Jay, Rob, & Todd
 come over to Our Way Too!
 this evening to continue celebrating
 Jay's 72nd Birthday!! 

Happy Birthday Jay!! We love ya! Cheers!

We had Rum & Cokes, Beers, Margaritas, dinner, then...more cocktails!
 Jay brought his famous home cooked in a cast iron pan Gumbo!
 I had some sausage to add to it, and grabbed some frozen peas out of the freezer which Jay spruced up with onion & seasonings. Yummmmm!

Klyde keeping Todd in line!! ;-)


It actually turned out to be an early evening.
Our guests left and we decided to watch alittle tv then hit the hay. 
Of course more projects again tomorrow!

September 1, 2011

Arrival Night

We arrived in Kemah about 10:30pm.
 Dean opened up Our Way Too! and turned on the air conditioning.
 It was only 96 degrees inside the cabin!
  We unloaded the car, grabbed a beer & did our walk around,
 then we sat on the bow in the breeze while the boat cooled down.
 While we sat out there one of our local policemen drove thru.
 Nice to know that our marina is being checked on.
  We put things away, grabbed another beer ;-)
 and walked out to the island to sit in the swing & watch the water go by.
 So quiet & peaceful here tonite!
We had a tailless Heron strut right by our feet....
I think he was too busy fishing to notice we were there!
 There is a unusual high tide tonite.
 Off to bed about 1am~

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Thursday, July 7, 2011

...don't know when I'll be back again...

that sounds like a song I used to sing! ;-)

Our beautiful "Cowgirl" has left us! :-(

We drug our feet this morning as long as possible leaving the boat for the airport.

Seems like she just arrived and had to turn around and leave us.

We miss you already & We love you bunches Chrissy Girl!! 

We had alittle lunch and here I sit at the computer...playing catch-up on our trip across the gulf.

Dean is started on his little project with the Hot water heater. It needed a new check valve. 

So...now I have HOT water & COLD water!! Lucky me!! 

The cold water...always felt warm so I really wasn't missing it! It's a warm Texas summer you know!

The cool showers have been quite refreshing! ;-)

Dinner, a dip in the pool, cocktails and another relaxing evening enjoying 

Our Way Too!

Chrissy in Kemah!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Chrissy snuck out early and did her run. Such dedication!

But it must wear her out...this is afterward!
A mid morning siesta!

I turned her loose in Our Way Too!'s Galley.

She's hired!! 

 I think she enjoyed it! She put together a light lunch.
She did up some Plantain's for us to try. They were yummy!

She definitely enjoys cooking! And altho I am sure her culinary school has taught her a great deal, 

She is a natural born Chef!

Since we are not able to take the boat out we decided to take Chrissy on the tour of Kemah area.
We headed next door to the Boardwalk.

Dad & Daughter
(Our Way Too! is in this picture as well! To the right of Dean's arm...
it's the tallest mast that is just about touching the telephone lines.) 

We had saved exploring the Boardwalk for when we had company to enjoy it with.
This was our first time here as well.

 At the Aquarium Restaurant
We just stepped in to check it out.

We will have
 to go
up in this sometime.

It would be
quite a view
of all
the
boats
out in
the Bay!

 A nice
Breezy
day in
Kemah!

Lots of folks
enjoying the
Boardwalk
with their
children!

We wandered around along the boardwalk side so Chrissy could see Galveston Bay.

 Who's fault you say?

Daddy, Daddy, please don't leave me here!! Save me!!!

If we could keep her out of the Saloon, then we could probably keep her out of jail!!
The girl sure has a mind of her own!! ;-) Such a independent lil' thing!

We had a great afternoon wandering around seeing the sights. We left the Boardwalk and took her for a drive along the Bay coastline just to see the area a bit.
We went scouting for the "Green Parrot Tree".
The story is that during one of the hurricanes, the owners let their Parrots loose to fend for themselves. Never thinking that they would survive, multiply, and make this area their homestead.
Jay had taken us to the tree during our first trip to Kemah and it was loaded with green parrots!
We drove for quite awhile and finally found the tree,
 but sadly there were no parrots to share with Chrissy.
I will have to investigate that more...maybe they just moved to a bigger tree?

We went on a mission to find a vodka that Chrissy wanted us to try.  ~"360 Vodka"~
 Found it at Spec's in Webster so we headed back to the boat to enjoy "Cocktail Hour".
Chrissy introduced us to  a nice smooth vodka & 7-up! We like!!!

We hung out, had some laughs and enjoyed catching up!

Then we headed out to Gilhooley's for a late supper. 

Newman & Michael are lonesome for her!

 Enjoying Gilhooley's!!
Good Company!

Good Food!
Chrissy ordered a chicken sandwich...just in case she didn't like oysters. 

 Great Faces!! HA HA!!

We always order our favorites: A dozen "Raw" & a dozen "Shrimphooley's"

Chrissy like's the famous "Oyster's"! :-)

We headed back to Our Way Too! to enjoy a beautiful evening onboard.
 Our time with Chrissy is going by way too fast!

We haven't done alot while she's been here, but just "being together" means the world to us!!

 Chrissy & her proud Daddy!

Our Beautiful Bow Bunny!

Chrissy & her proud Momma Katie!

She thinks she is on the Titanic!
Our Way Too! is so Big!!

This actress would give Kate Winslow a run for her money!! ;-)

Enjoying the deck on Our Way Too!
For sure the next visit we will be able to take you Sailing!!

Touring Dallas/Arlington Area with Chrissy!

Tuesday July 5, 2011

(I won't normally blog about our days away from the boat

 but Chrissy's visit is going to be so short I will include it and the photos.)

We arrived to the 5th wheel about 2:45 am. Chrissy snoozed pretty much the whole ride, jet lag and recovering from the run in Atlanta that her and hubby Michael did before she left to come visit. I napped too so I could drive when Dean became tired. About three quarters of the way home he finally got sleepy enough, pulled over and let me drive. Other than that, Dean only slept for a couple hours before getting up at 4:30 am to go to work. Poor Dear...I know he wants to spend every moment possible with his baby girl!

Chrissy got up early so she could go for a run before it became too warm..

 Afterwards, we had our coffee's, planned our agenda, then got ourselves around and ready to go.

Our first part of the tour was driving by the General Motors plant so she could see where her Dad works. Then we headed toward the Ranger's Ballpark and the Cowboy Stadium.

Now mind you, I am not much for driving downtown Dallas but for Chrissy I would!

So next we headed the short 12 mile or so jaunt to Dallas and their famous Dallas Farmer's Market.

Chrissy loved it!!

 Of course we bought all kinds of fresh fruits & veggies!

She was amazed just like a kid in a candy store! Of course our Lil' Chef was in her element!!

We walked thru the market sampling what was available and when our hands were full with bags of fresh goods we headed back to the car to proceed with the rest of the big city tour!

Chrissy in Dallas!
This is only a small portion of the skyline behind her.

I was so proud of myself for driving right to the market. Then I took her through downtown...showed her as much as I could, then drove past the Book Depository(now the 6th Floor Museum) where President J F Kennedy was shot. The traffic was moving quickly and she couldn't see the X's on the road that marked the 1st & 2nd shots that hit him so I expertly (or so I acted like I was an expert!) maneuvered our little zip-zip car through and around the crazy Dallas, TX highways out of downtown, making a turnaround heading back into downtown to go by one more time so that she could see them. I was able to drive her by the JFK Memorial as well the second time around.

As we headed out of town I was amazed and pretty proud of myself for handling all of that as well as I did! We decided our next stop was Whole Foods for a few groceries. I really wish we would've had enough time to go to Fort Worth! Now that is the real Cowboy Town and our favorite place to visit. The daily Cattle Drive, history, rodeo's and true atmosphere of the yesteryears. Maybe her next visit!?

While we were out sightseeing, Dean was at work telling everyone including his boss, how his wife and daughter had surprised him. The boss felt bad cuz Chrissy had come so far to see him so she gave him a VR day (call in day) for Wednesday and a vacation day for Thursday which in turn covered him for having Friday off! Yay!!! We were heading back to the boat right after work!

After grocery shopping I thought we should do alittle FUN shopping.
 You can't come to Texas and not look at the Cowboy boots & hats!

Cute Model! 

Cowgirl Chrissy!

So I took her to Cavendar's and she had fun trying all the different hats & boots on!
She finally settled on her favorite hat & pair of boots.
 We went home to the 5th wheel, packed up, and as soon as Dean arrived home we ate and left to head back to Our Way Too!

Our days with our daughter are going by way too fast!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Monday July 4, 2011

Happy Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

Enjoyed my coffee up in the cockpit this morning! Let Dean sleep in to recover from his rough day yesterday and I am sure it will be a late night drive home. He has a list a mile long of things he would like to do but I wish he would just take a day to enjoy our boat. The man just cannot sit still!

Today will be such a great day!!
 I hope to talk Dean into dinner out & staying for the fireworks.

Dread the drive back to Dallas, but it must be done...GM wouldn't let him off!

When Honey woke up & relaxed with his coffee, we contemplated our day.

I 've been pouting alittle... the 4th of July isn't the 4th of July unless we can watch the fireworks!!!
Since we can't take our boat out to watch them I talked him into taking me out for dinner somewhere nice, then come back to watch the fireworks
before the long drive back to Dallas. Oh...and I promised to help him drive!

I sternly told my Hubby that he had to be done with his projects by 4pm so he could clean up & we could enjoy our date and a bit of the holiday. I'm sounding so bossy!! ;-)

While Dean started his own projects, I decided to work on two of my own.
 First whenever I sit down for a few minutes I try to work on the Gulf trip Blog, updating & uploading the pictures. I feel bad that it is taking me so long but there has been other priorities, Fibromialgia flareups, lack of Internet/issues with Internet, 1 trip to MI and once again, I am job searching. Now I am preparing for yet another trip to MI but afterward we will have all of our boating equipment here so that we can sort it and determine what we need and sell what we don't!
 My second project of the day was the forward cabin and head.
 It has become our catch all storage area for the things we are not sure that we want to keep or it doesn't have it's own spot yet. It was such a disaster! You wouldn't know that there was even a bed up there!
 So I worked diligently at organizing and cleaning up the mess. I am sure I will add to, take out, and rearrange a few more times...but I can walk in there and it is at least useable now!

I told my Hubby we had reservations and NOT to ask any questions!
Being the "gotta keep the Wife happy" kind of guy that he is, he followed my directions perfectly!
By this time he knew I was up to something...

I must interject here with this note. In our 10 years of marriage I have not been able to surprise Dean with anything! If I buy him a present...he knows what it is before it's opened. If I try to surprise him with something he figures out what it is. He is Mr Observant and I call him 'Mr Gotta Know Everything'!!

 The last 10 minutes of the drive, I know he figured out the "something"...
It didn't help that Houston Hobby Airport signs were plastered all along the highway when I said,
 "Take the next exit."
and it didn't help that we were there too early and we had to drive around and around and around the circle like 8 times!! The plane was a little late.
Well that just gave him too darn much time to think!
I could see his wheels turning and the smoke coming out of his ears!! ;-)
Now the big question was WHO?

Finally...

SURPRISE!!!

Our "Chrissy Girl" arrived and Daddy spotted her the moment she stepped out the door of the airport!
He said "I knew it would be her!
I told him, "No...you didn't know, and just never mind, enjoy being surprised for once in your life!"
You don't always gotta know everything!"
High 5's to me & Chrissy!! We pulled it off right up to the last few minutes!
(We had been planning this since Father's Day!)

Gotcha Honey!! :-)
HAPPY 4th of JULY!!
I LOVE YOU!!!

Now he understood why I was so set on staying for the fireworks! And we had to hurry back to the marina so that we could introduce Chrissy to Our Way Too! and see those fireworks!

ohhh....

Welcome To Texas!!
Fireworks just for Chrissy! ;-)

I dare say these two were enjoying themselves!!

ahhh....

This is what we see every friday night in Kemah throughout the summer!
It's absolutely awesome to be on a boat watching them from the Bay!

We had a great view from our Dock.

 Except for the bridge gets in the way if the fireworks don't go high enough.

Bummer...4th of July has come to an end for us.
 It was time to load up, jump into the car and endure the long drive to Dallas.
 If Dean were to call in...he would lose his holiday pay and get wrote up. :-(
We are hoping maybe he can get Wednesday and Thursday off so that we can come back to the boat tomorrow night after work?! I will play tourist with Chrissy of the DFW area during the day until we can come back to the boat. Hopefully, his boss decides to give him at least 1 day off while Chrissy is here.
We shall see...

May the Bird of Paradise Shed on.....

Sunday July 3, 2011

Dean was up bright and early...I really slept in late!

Must've been extra tired from all the hard work washing the boat!

We lingered over coffee while Dean made calls to a couple of NAPA stores.

 Nope...they didn't have the eraser wheel in stock but they could order it.

 Well we'd check a few other stores further away. One said they carry them so off we went. We got there and low & behold...they didn't have them in stock, but he could go get them from another store and would have them there in a couple hours. We had a couple other parts to find so we decided to grab lunch and then hunt down the other parts and just come back in a while. It was too far to make two trips so we went to lunch at Jim's Coney Dog place and we found a Home Depot near by there. We wandered around stalling time until we could go back to get the wheel. 

When we went back to NAPA, Dean came out alittle disappointed. He had ordered 2 wheels

(which they told him the other store had 2!) but when the guy got there....they only had 1!

Oh well, at least they had one...the job was finished as soon as we arrived back at the boat. 

It probably took Dean no more than 15 minutes to get the numbers off both sides of the bow! 

While he was busy with that, I cleaned all of the isinglass.

We were both so busy with what we were doing that we didn't notice that our flags attached to the spinnaker halyard were flying free ~ high in the sky! Dean had attached the bottom end of the string of signal flags to another line and then tied it to our life line. Due to his lack of expertise at knot tying, apparently the wind worked at it until it untied itself! Our flags were not to be reached until the wind died down! 

I wondered what all our marina folks thought...

That new boat in town doesn't know how to fly their flags properly!!

Poor Dean...he's had a rough couple days for things not going right. 

  

Organizing & Sorting the aft swim platform storage.

Dean waves at me...but do you see all those Birds??

But he's such a good sport...he kept right on working at his projects!

From my Blogpost title I know ya'll must be wondering...

Dean decided it was "Beer Thirty" & "take a break time" to cool down.

Just before he stepped into the cockpit...

Yepper!! One of our friendly Bird's of Paradise shed a 'Direct Hit' to Dean's shoulder!

He washed it off with the hose then came down below for his beer break and said,

"Guess what happened to me?"

I looked at him sorta dumbfounded and shrugged my shoulders.

He calmly says, "I got Shit on!"

I busted into hysterics! I knew that was gonna happen to one of us eventually, not just Our Way Too!

I wish I could've been out on deck to see his face!

Oh my Gosh! I am still laughing out loud!! Sorry Honey!!

We decided after that it was time to put away things for the day and kick back. We invited Jay over for cocktails, chicken on the grill dinner, then a couple more cocktails.

Good Friends~Good Food~Good Drinks~Good Laughs~Good Company!!

In no particular order! :-)

We went up for showers and afterwards sat by the pool with Cody, Cameron, and their puppy Nula for a bit to watch all the boats coming in & out of the channel. 

Another beautiful day in Kemah has come to an end...

And I am still laughing!!

A Putter-On-Boat Day!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Up enjoying coffee and deciding on our 'list of things to do for today'!

Dean decided today was a 'work on watermaker' day & I decided Our Way Too! needed a good bath. Those darned birds have deposited uncountable direct hits to her deck!

So we did breakfast & our errands to pick up parts for the watermaker repairs. We came back and got right into being busy. Dean down below & me on deck. 

Watermaker Repairman!

After our jobs were done we puttered around cleaning little things, organizing this & that.

We decided we should decorate a bit for the 4th of July so out came the flags! 

Our dear friends Jim & Jane gave us some of the flags & a bow from Senior Prom.

And we bought a large new United States flag.

Our Way Too! in all her Glory....ready to celebrate the 4th of July

All Decked out!

She wears it well! :-)

Our Way Too! looked 'Grand' all ready for the 4th of July Celebration!

Dean hopped from project to project for most of the afternoon. He started to remove the GA registration numbers from the hull thinking that would be an easy quick job but that was not to be. Our neighbors we met the other night, Cody & Cameron, came down the dock and Cody lent him an eraser wheel that would make the job a snap. Oh it worked great until.....Dean didn't realize the drill was in reverse and it unscrewed itself right off and PLUNK....into the water! Oh was he upset!! Mostly because it was borrowed! But it really worked great and it was making the job alot easier!
Well we found out he bought it at NAPA...now to find the nearest store that has one in stock!

Our evening went by fast!
 Jay come over to visit and joined us for dinner.
 Before we knew it, it was time for showers and off to bed.
Our long holiday weekend is flying by!
Nite all!

Hooray for the Long Weekend!

Friday July 1, 2011

We slept in this morning! 9:30am...which really isn't late considering we don't go to bed on arrival night until wee hours of the morning!  Our mattress is so very comfy! We both sleep better on the boat anyway but this mattress is the best ever!

Dean called the AC guy right away. The forward cabin is pretty warm! I closed the door to the aft cabin so we would at least have a place to cool down! Texas is having the hottest year ever!

AC guy finally showed up & did his thing. Dean asked if he would mind if we observed. He didn't mind, so  Dean asked questions and watched to see what he did. Hopefully it's a fix this time! He did several checks on things, cleaned filters and such, then recharged it. Turned it on and...waaa laaa...it cooled it down in there! Wish us luck! 

We decided to get some errands done, so first, we headed to Skipper's for Brunch. It's our favorite place in Kemah for omelets!  Then we headed to LaMarque, TX about 20 miles away to the closest Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to register
 Our Way Too! 

More $$$...Big Bucks!!! Yikes!!!

Just as we were about to leave my Hubby decided to ask, "Are we legal to take the boat out now even if we don't have the documentation papers back from the Coast Guard?"

Oh My Gosh!! We almost started a war between two of the workers. One says we are now legal and  the other says we are not. The guy was from TPWD and the gal was from Marine Sheriff Dept.  I said to Dean..."See what you did now?" I felt bad for the young lady that was doing our paperwork. She asked them the question and just stood there looking from one to the other, then back at us, then them again, shifting from one leg to the other patiently waiting for an answer for us while those two went back and forth at it. I was rather embarrassed, there were were like 8-9 folks waiting in line behind us. Finally the guy asked us to come back to his office. He pulled out the Rules & Regulations book of his and read us the section concerning TPWD rules. Apparently, Texas has several groups that patrol the Galveston Bay waters and you can be pulled over by any one of them. TPWD might consider us legal, and the Coast Guard might look at our papers and consider us legal, but the sheriff or local police might slap you with a ticket. Or visa versa, it just depends who and what mood they are in I guess. We were also told that if the name of our boat isn't on the boat the same as the Coast Guard documentation papers read, then we could get up to a $10,000.00 fine. I believe the boat WILL stay in her slip until we are totally legal! Looks like we can't go out to watch the fireworks on board Our Way Too! like we were hoping to for tonight & the 4th of July. Bummer! We cannot afford a ticket or fine a like that!

Kemah's Boardwalk sponsors Fireworks every Friday night through the months of June, July, & August. It's quite the deal and there are alot of people, cars, and boats that come from all over every week. They put on a great show each night. I am really curious to see if the 4th is the same or better!?

When we arrived back to the marina, Rob asked if we'd like to go out on Wandering Star to watch the fireworks with them. We accepted the offer and enjoyed a beautiful evening anchored out there in the Bay with friends. The company was great, the laughs were many, stories were entertaining, snacks & drinks were aplenty, & the fireworks were awesome.
 Life is sure great on the water!

When we arrived back at the marina we decided it would be a nice quiet relaxing time to cool down in the pool. So we headed up there and enjoyed it all to ourselves! We do really enjoy it here!