Calling all Camp Northland Girls!

Well, school's about over and summer's on the way!
To recapture your youth, you might want to check out the photos from the CN Reunion 07
and join the Yahoo group to reconnect with long-time friends! (Please note I didn't say "old" friends!)
Discussions are underway for a CN Reunion '10! More will be posted on the Yahoo site later in the summer-when it's good and hot and we're thinking of those Northland breezes!
Now where is my camp trunk and the laundry box??

Choo choo!

Ok that was a lame title, but it's before coffee, so it is what it is....
The Road Show has been sticking pretty close to home these days, enjoying trips to the Hill Country as often as possible.

Thanks to another silent auction, we got certificates to take a ride on the Hill Country Flyer. It's billed as the Austin Steam Train, but the steam engine is undergoing refurbishment, so there's only diesel-a 1960 Alco, for you train buffs. The engine pulls several different passenger cars from different eras, and the more you pay for your ticket, the higher the level of service and amenities.

We had the cheapest ticket, so we rode in the 1940's era parlor car with windows that opened and no AC. There was another excursion car with seats from the '50s or '60s (with AC) and lounge cars with AC and tables and snacks. There is a snack car on the train with sodas for a dollar and candy bars, etc.


We took the short ride, (3 hour tour) traveling from the depot in Cedar Park (just NW of Austin) to Bertram, home of the Oatmeal Festival, where there is a restored train station building but not much else. This trip is really called the Bertram Flyer.
The train stops long enough for people to have a quick look around, (and use the portapotty if necessary) and then it's back on the train to wait for the engine to detach from the front at reattach at the back.
The longer trip-the Hill Country Flyer-goes to the town of Burnet and takes about 5 hours. The train stops there long enough for people to have lunch on the square.

Luckily it was a beautiful day and not too hot. I was reminded of train trips to Grandma's house way back when. If you like trains and train rides, this is a fun day out. We'll go back when the steam engine is back on the rails!

Elaine's Sticky Date Pudding!

Below is the recipe for Elaine's Sticky Date Pudding all the way from Tasmania! As promised!
It is simply delicious and worth a go! Thanks, Elaine!

2 cups chopped pitted dates
1 ¾ c. water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 heaped teaspoon powdered ginger
90 grams butter(6 TB.)
1 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
Preheat oven to 180C (=350 F)
Grease base of 23 cm cake pan.( 23 cm = 9.1 in)

1. Put dates in a pan with 1 3/4 cup of water, bring to the boil then remove from the heat.
2. Add the baking soda and ginger and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Coarsely mash with potato masher.
3. Cream together the butter, sugar and eggs, one at a time.
4. Fold in sifted flour and spice, add date mixture and stir until well combined. 5. Pour into cake pan and bake for 55 - 60 min. Cake will pull away from the edges of the pan and have a shiny appearance on top when done.
6. Cut into squares and serve with Caramel Sauce. (May need some vanilla ice cream as well on the side as this is quite rich!).

Caramel Sauce
150 grams butter (10 TB.)
1 cup soft brown sugar
1/3 cup of golden syrup (you can try substituting it with 2 parts light corn syrup and 1 part molasses if you can’t find this, but a lot of markets have it)
3/4 cup of cream
Put all the ingredients in a pan and stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved. Simmer uncovered, for three minutes. Serve caramel sauce warmed with pudding.

Back from the Outback

Ok-it's been over 2 weeks since our great Oz trip ended and no updates. Sorry about that. It was such a great trip and we covered so much territory! The jet lag took about a week to get over: one day to recover for each time zone crossed. We took 10 flights in 27 days and logged over 12, 000 miles. Qantas was a great airline to fly: on time, serving food on every flight (!), efficient and relatively comfortable.

Some interesting things about Australia that we experienced:
1. Taxis:in the big cities, one person getting into a taxi will get in the front seat with the driver.
2. Paying by credit card: Every cashier will look at the signature on the back of the credit card as it is signed. Each cashier will also ask how it is to be debited: debit or credit; signature or PIN. They are much more careful about checking signatures than in the states.
3. Coffee: Long Black, Short Black, Flat White. I never really got the hang of this. Short Black is espresso, served in the small cup; long black is espresson with water added, served in a larger cup. Flat White is milk added to coffee, as opposed to cappucino, which has the foamed milk added. (Correct me if I'm wrong, all the Aussie readers out there!)
4. Driving on the "wrong" side of the road is hard to get used to, especially if one is a passenger in the front seat.
5. Restaurants again: "entrees" are smaller portions than "mains", and if your table has a number on it, chances are you pay at the counter, telling the cashier your table number.
6.People are generally friendly in Australia, but I didn't find them more or less friendly than in most places in the United States.
If I think of more things, I'll add to the list.


Uluru at sunset



We loved all the variety in the climate and geography; also the habitats and ecology are extremely interesting.
The desert of Central Australia, the tropical rainforest of Northern Queensland, and the temperate rainforests of Tasmania are all
great places to go!











We got excited about seeing wildlife-Tasmania had the most variety of animals that we saw outside of zoos or animal parks.

Echidna-small anteater that looks like a porcupine

Bennett's Wallaby

The next post will have the delicious recipe for Elaine's Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel-Toffee Sauce!
Stay tuned!

Good-bye to Australia

Wearing the bugnet hat at Kata Tjuta/Uluru!

Packed up all the souvenirs and my suitcase still closes! Big question is the weight. Airlines are so picky these days.... We'll see what happens at the counter. I'm hoping for the best!
It's been a great trip! Have spent the last 3 days in the city of Brisbane (or "Brisvegas" as it's commonly referred to here). It's a relatively small central business district ("CBD") on a peninsula of the winding Brisbane River, surrounded by many small suburbs in the hills and valleys. The coast is about 5 miles away, and north and south of Brisbane are numerous beach communities: South is known as the Gold Coast (lots of high rise condos) and North is known as the Sunshine Coast- more rural and laid back.
We toured sites in the CBD, notably the Commisariat Stores Building, the only remaining convict-built building in Brisbane (built on the shore of the river in 1829), the Treasury Building (now housing the Treasury Casino, where I won $44), the Southbank cultural precinct. We rode the Brisbane Wheel, similar to the London Eye, but not as tall. We took the city ferry to sites along the river bank.
We spent a day at the Australia Zoo, made famous by the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. I got to feed an elephant (but didn't buy the photo), and we saw cassowaries, koalas, and the infamous saltwater crocs.
Will post more photos from home and add a few final thoughts!
Thanks so much to all our Australian hosts and new friends!

Looking forward to the flight home!

Into the Outback!

DD and I have had a wonderful trip to the Outback. We spent 2 days in Alice Springs (remember "A Town Like Alice"? book by Nevil Shute and then the miniseries? It doesn't look like that anymore!) The Alice is a bustling town of about 27,000 people spread in the valley between the MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River runs through the town, but the river is usually dry. This is desert country, but was really greener and had lots more vegetation than I thought. We walked the Todd Mall (pedestrian shopping area) and climbed Anzac Hill-got a good lookout over the city and the red rocks. I bought some art by an Aboriginal artist. This is the place to learn about Aboriginal culture, as the further north you go, the more Aboriginal settlements there seem to be. Alice Springs is in the Northern Territory, which isn't a state of Australia, but a territory. It was a 3 hour plane ride from Melbourne and really in the middle of nowhere. A lot of tourists use this town as the waypoint on Outback adventures. Also, the famous train, the Ghan, stops here.

We were picked up by luxury motor coach on the third day for the 5 hour drive to Ayers Rock Resort and the famous Ayers Rock (now called Uluru). Talk about the middle of nowhere!~ We road for many miles without seeing a single sign of human habitation. Uluru the rock is visible from 40 miles away. It is a sandstone monolith, the largest in the world. We had a sunset tour of the rock, where we saw several geologic and sacred Aboriginal sites and then watched the sunlight change the colors of the rock as the sun set. We had an Aussie BBQ dinner where we sat out under the Southern Cross and ate kanagaroo, among other delicacies.

At 5 am the next day we were back on our coach with Tina, our local driver-guide for the sunrise tour and short walks. The climbing route on Uluru was closed, as the temps have been 100 degrees or higher every day. We saw more Aboriginal sites-ceremonial and dwelling- and got close to the huge walls of Uluru. Truly an amazing site.

Pictures will follow, but internet connection is pay-per-minute here. I also promise to expand on our experiences-Oz is a fascinating place!

One thing we haven't seen much of is wildlife-I expected to see some kangaroos while we were driving, but didn't. We did see a fascinating lizard called a thorny devil-spikier than a horned toad. And the bugs and FLIES are too numerous to mention. Most of the tourists wear fly nets as soon as the sun gets warm until dark. I'm so happy I bought my L.L.Bean Allagash hat with fly net attached.

On to Melbourne for a one-night layover as my trip was supposed to be ending here. I added on Brisbane at the last minute and couldn't change flights without huge penalties, so we will be in Brisbane next.

Have one min. left on my pay-per-play, so signing off!

Down Under-Week 2

We are now in Melbourne (Feb.17) and enjoying this cosmopolitan city. Today we went to Federation Square and the Australian Museum of the Moving Image, the Eureka Skydeck (observation tower 89 floors above the city), Old Melbourne Gaol and the Watch Tower Experience, and the Melbourne Museum. Whew! The weather is warm, but not horribly hot. We could see hazy smoke from the brushfires you've heard about when we were up on the observation deck.
Doug learns to play the digeridoo.

We spent 5 days in Cairns and Far North Queensland. Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, and we had a wonderful day on a snorkel trip to some amazing coral reefs. We drove north to Cape Tribulation, as far as you can go on paved road before the tropical rainforest takes over. The area is beautifully lush and green, with great mountains and lots of sugar cane farms. We are here in the heat of summer, which is the low season for the far north. Very hot and humid, and not a lot of air conditioning. We stayed at a wonderful B&B in Holloway's Beach, a truly beach-y community just north of Cairns proper. Away from the hustle and bustle of touristy Cairns, it was a nice retreat.They have IGA's here!
At this time of the year swimming isn't advised because of the deadly jellyfish (large and small) and the salt-water crocs. Towns have special netted areas for swimming, but even that can't keep all the bad creatures out.A Rainforest walk.

We have another day here in Melbourne and then some of us head home and some of us head for the outback!

Having a wonderful time!
More soon!

Hello from Tasmania!

We've spent a lovely 6 days in Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia that's also an island! It's about the size of W. Virginia, with about 500, 000 people. Tasmania was one of early British convict prison centers, and we've seen a few of those ruins and historical sites.

We've been based in the capital city of Hobart, on a lovely harbor on the southeast coast. We saw the Australian Wooden Boat Festival and went to the weekly market. We drove to the top of Mt. Wellington for the most amazing views!
We've enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Beecheys! And had fabulous food, including homemade Sticky Date Pudding that was the BEST!

We also went to the wilderness of northwest Tas. to see Cradle Mountain National Park. The countryside is truly amazing, changing from farms and fields, sheep and cows, to mountains and temperate rainforests. Huge trees, ferns, moss and beautiful rivers and waterfalls. We've seen lots of Aussie wildlife including wombats, echidnas, wallabies, pademelons, even a Tasmanian Devil. I did a Tasmanian wine and cheese tasting and went to the Tasman Wool Centre.

We have one more day here and plan to see some more wildlife at the Bonorong Wildlife Park and perhaps a winery. (of course we've been enjoying Tasmanian and Aussie wines!).

Have posted a few photos on my Flickr page, which you can click through to on this blog. Will try to post more photos in a day or so. There are a lot!
Enjoying all the comments and emails, even if it's a few days before I can respond!

Hello from Down Under!

After 29 hours of travel, we made it to the other side of the world! The 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney wasn't too bad, despite cozy seats and airline food. I watched 4 movies-well, started watching each movie, but fell asleep before the end of each one. Advice we received was to stay awake for the first half of the trip, and then take a sleeping aid and sleep as much as possible on the second half of the trip. It worked pretty well!
Sydney has been great-very warm and slightly humid, but ocean breezes are welcome! We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House today. It's one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, but I didn't know it was really 2 large buildings, holding 5 separate venues: 3 smaller theaters for drama, a large concert hall and the opera hall. The facility holds 2500 events every year, so it's a busy place. We were able to see the symphony orchestra rehearsing for a performance in the concert hall and then watch the stage hands prepare the opera stage for the evening performance of Madama Butterfly. We also took a ferry to Manly Beach, got a look at the Pacific Ocean and watched surfers, went to a small aquarium and watched divers feeding sharks. We got to pet a baby saltwater croc! We've explored several neighborhoods and harbor areas, seen all kinds of boats.

Have to say thanks to DB#3 and family for helping us spend our long layover in LA. They took us to Redondo Beach to a great surfside restaurant, then on a tour of some of the beach towns and piers. Interesting real estate and and a view into the California lifestyle. We were really grateful for the break, especially when we had to spend time in the LAX International terminal at peak travel time (nighttime) with few services past security.

Of course, we've loved seeing our DD and her DH! Looking forward to seeing more family and more of Oz!
Will post photos in the next few days! On a pay-for-internet service here, so have to keep this brief!
Jet lag is taking over, so will close for now!

Pre-Flights Check-In

So, it was a long day getting everything ready to leave for Australia (or Oz, as some people call it!). I was pretty much packed by 7:00 pm. DH didn't start packing until 10pm.
No comment there...

Many odds and ends to tie up: bills to pay, fridge to empty, papers to organize, and pack, pack, pack! I'm worried our suitcases are overweight; we shifted some things around. I took out a big bag of Jolly Ranchers for DD-don't worry, I left one bag in...and a couple of shirts.
Am bringing some small gifts to our Aussie in-laws in Tasmania, couldn't leave those out!

Packing clothing for cool weather and hot weather, mostly casual. Thanks to my fashion advisors (you know who you are) for help with the shoe dilemma. Keeping it down to 3 packed, one wearing, although I will miss my Merrells for the duration.

I'm using packing cubes, which helps keep stuff organized. DH won't use them, he thinks they just take up more room. I would much rather have TSA handling the packing cubes than lots of individual garments, if you get my drift.... My new Eagle Creek Tarmac has compartments on the lid which will hold packing cubes or odds and ends. I think those will be very helpful.

In the photo you can see the compartments on the left with the zip covers rolled back. The right is the deep part of the suitcase with my cubes and toilet kit.

I'm also taking a shoulder bag and tote bag (both from ebags.com). Sorry, no pics on them as yet.
For reading material I'm going electronic: I downloaded 2 audiobooks to DH's Nano (Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke) and am taking the Amazon Kindle onto which I've downloaded an audiobook (The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly) and an electronic book (The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult). These last 2 are for the Last Tuesday Book Club. We'll see how they work.....

I did make the rubber band clothesline suggested by my buddy TFOP! http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Rubber-Band-Travel-Clothesline-for-Less-T/
I will post a photo when/if it gets used! My rubber bands are pretty small. It may not hold much!

Hope to post more photos and updates early next week. This time tomorrow, we'll be over the Pacific!

Inaugural trip for the Eagle Creek Tarmac!

The Road Show is enjoying a few days of R&R at Keystone, Colorado this weekend. DH is attending a conference and making a presentation, so we have some fun socializing as well! The weather is snowy but not too cold, which is nice.

Anyway, it is a good chance to try out the new luggage! I bought the Eagle Creek Tarmac 28 after a lot of research online and shopping in stores. It is easy to pack and holds a lot! Of course, it gets heavy when it is full! It pulls very easily and the inner pockets hold items well. Of course, I use the packing cubes (from Rick Steves and Eagle Creek) and this bag is designed for them.
It seemed to weather the first airplane flight and bus trip well, so I'm encouraged!

More updates on packing for Australia to come soon!

Going Down Under

We're very excited about the upcoming Australian Adventure Tour! Have been planning this for almost 6 months and now it's less than 2 weeks away! It's going to be a 19 day trip for DH and a 27 day trip for me.
Cities on the itinerary: Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, Cairns, Alice Springs/Ayers Rock, Brisbane.
Australia is the size of the continental US and has the population of Texas.
A lot of open space!

I've been reading up in preparation. And watching movies!

Here is what I've read so far:

Fiction:(although a few are somewhat based on true events)
English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
In the middle of: The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan

Non-Fiction:
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
The Devil in Tim by Tim Bowden
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees

I also have a Fodor's Exploring Australia and a AAA Essential Australia that I'm still skimming and will take with me.

One book that I read a long time ago is The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.

I've also watched several movies about Australia or set in Australia:
The Dish
Strictly Ballroom
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant
Australia (the new one)
Muriel's Wedding
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Ned Kelly (with Heath Ledger)

Whew!
I'll post packing photos next week when I get that sorted out! What would you take for a 3+week trip?????? Feel free to send suggestions! Remember, 1 suitcase per person!

We used a travel company (About Australia) to help us plan and book this trip, and they've been very helpful. For such a long trip with so many stops, it seemed daunting to do it all ourselves. Of course, after this trip, we'll be experts!

More soon!

The Hill Country

The Road Show has been keeping pretty close to home lately, but still has found a few weekends for some of our favorite drives.

One thing I noticed is that many towns are sprucing up and hoping to capture an influx of tourists and 2nd-homers. In Llano, the Super S Foods has had a major makeover, with newly painted walls and rearranged cold cases.
The animal mounts are fewer and more tastefully displayed.

Unfortunately, some of our favorite small restaurants have closed, due to high gas prices over the summer and now the economy problems. (At least one place closed more because of the food than the gas prices, we think...) Anyway, if you know and like restaurants in the Hill Country, make the effort to patronize them! The owners will certainly appreciate it!

One new place we found is the Alamo Springs Cafe, outside of Fredericksburg. Huge burgers and a jalapeno-cheddar bun that is fab. I didn't eat the whole thing!




Enchanted Rock is also a great diversion. We felt the need for some exercise, so made the trip recently.

The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States. It also goes up the 425 feet in about a half-mile. We got up pretty quickly and then had an adventure (at least for me) walking down the back side which was pretty steep.


Another fun thing to do during the holiday season is look at the Christmas lights. Most of the Hill Country towns decorate their court houses and have lighted walk-through displays. We saw the ones in Marble Falls and Llano. The invention of those lights in tubes has been great for these shaped displays.


We also made a run up to San Saba- The Pecan Capital of the World- and went to several pecan distributors. The best thing is tasting the varieties before buying! We always end up with 10+ pounds of nuts and freeze them until we use them.



Llano River. Late Afternoon. Fall 2008.

Signs of the Times

The first photo was taken in July.
The second photo was taken in October.
Things are crazy out there people!

Hill Country Yarn Crawl

Hill Country Yarn Crawl

I decided to participate in the 2nd Annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl, but not in any organized way. My knitting group (the Knit Knackers) didn’t have a plan to do it and I had a commitment on Saturday that precluded going with others (see below). So I wasn't sure if I could visit enough stores to compete for the Grand Prize but I tried anyway.

The Yarn Crawl is when yarn shops cooperate to offer discounts, freebies, drawings for gift certificates and a chance to win a $250 Grand Prize basket of goodies. This year there were 10 shops participating in 5 different towns around San Antonio and Austin. The event began on Thursday and ended on Sunday. For $10 I got a booklet with maps to all of the shops and a tote bag. To get in the drawing for the Grand Prize, you had to visit 7 of the 10 shops by Sunday.
At each shop I had to get a stamp on the back page of the booklet which I turned in at the last shop to be eligible for the grand prize.
Also each shop devised a “scavenger hunt” consisting of several questions specific to that shop. People who completed the scavenger hunt could then be entered into the prize drawing for the individual store ($25 gift certificate).
Here is the run-down of the shops I visited and the freebies I got at each:

San Antonio:
Yarnivore: Samples of scented fiber soaking soap.
The Yarn Barn: A ball of ribbon yarn and a pattern to make a sachet.

Boerne:
Ewe and Eye: A ball of Idena Kos yarn; very thin and sort of shiny. Made of viscose and polyester.
Rosewood Yarns: 3 small stitch markers made with glass beads.

Austin:

The Knitting Nest: Yarn and pattern for the Black Widow Headband, complete with a plastic spider. This is a newer shop on the south end of Austin.
Hill Country Weavers: A ball of organic cotton yarn and a pattern booklet of washcloths. This shop is the grandmother of all knitting shops-see below.
Gauge Knits: A coupon for one free open class. This is another new shop in Northwest Austin.

Fredericksburg:
Stonehill Spinning: A pack of safety pins

I did the San Antonio shops on Thursday, the Boerne shops on Friday, the Austin shops on Saturday (thanks to Maggie Magellan) and the Fredericksburg shop on Sunday. It would have been possible to do them in 2 days, I think, but it would have been a LOT of driving. I didn’t get to the 4th shop north west of Austin (but I’d been there before) and one in the town of Paige, abut 50 miles east of Austin (never been there, but it would be a fun trip, I think.)

More about Hill Country Weavers: It is in the hip part of Austin called SoCo, named for South Congress Ave. The next time TFOT visits, we’ll definitely go there. The shop is in an old Victorian house that is a rabbit warren of rooms, each one packed to the ceiling with yarns, threads, notions, books, you name it. I don’t know how they can keep track of their inventory. They’ve also taken over the house next door and opened a knitting room and a small café. I had a nice conversation with Trish, a yarn spinner and knitter from Oregon visiting Austin and conducting spinning workshops. She had beautiful yarns, inspired by the colors of the Pacific Northwest. I wanted to buy some of her yarn, but it was way out of my price range…..
The cupcake trailer, “Hey Cupcake”, was right across the street. This place has been featured on TV as one of the quirky food businesses and I would have succumbed and gotten a snack for the road, but they weren’t open yet- I was about 20 minutes too early.
Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it. I decided I was lucky they weren’t open yet. Especially since I had stopped for lunch AND dessert at the Bear Moon Bakery in Boerne on Friday.

Saturday my time was limited as I had to be in Llano at 2:00 for the annual neighborhood homeowners association meeting, so I skipped the 4th shop in the suburbs north of Austin and made my way west. Made it just in time for the meeting. Drove about 175 miles in all.

In Llano, I enjoyed seeing a bald eagle flying over the river and the wild goats out for exercise.

Headed back south on Sunday, stopping in Fredericksburg at Stonehill Spinning. It’s a smallish shop but has lots of fiber arts and crafts. All in all, a great yarn crawl!

Electronics Woes 3

Well, another of my electronic accessories has gone missing. Actually, I've lost 2 bluetooth ear pieces-I'm sure they're in the car somewhere or lost in the black hole that is the house, but the latest device I've lost is my Creative Zen Microphoto. I believe I left it at the Mayan Princess in a cute little leather bag with my name on it.

By the time I'd looked everywhere for it, and called my friend and asked her to check her car, I knew it had been left in the condo. I finally got around to calling the condo-and anyway, shouldn't they have called me when they found the blue bag????

I talked to a girl at the front desk and described the bag to her. It was in their Lost and Found. I didn't ask her to look inside and see if my Creative Zen MicroPhoto and ear phones (with the neat earphone cord holder that trailerfulloftunes had given me), but I assumed if they had the bag, they had the Creative Zen Microphoto as well.

The girl at the front desk told me how to get in touch with Lonestar Overnight Delivery service and arrange for a pick-up. I had the package the next day! But no Creative Zen Microphoto inside nor headphones or cord holder. There was a small battery-operated fan in the bag, which I had also left in the condo. hmmm.

I'm glad to have my personalized leather bag back, but I'm going to miss my Creative Zen Microphoto. I had downloaded the first "Master and Commander" book and DH and I had been listening to it on our car trips. I also had a few nice playlists and about 400 songs. Not a lot in this iPod world, but I was content with my content.

This has not been a good year for me and my electronics.

Lake Powell 2.0

We enjoyed another great week on the Star Chaser Houseboat on Lake Powell. The water was up about 25 feet from 2006 and we enjoyed new views and different campsites. We flew to Phoenix and picked up friends and a rental mini van for the drive to Page, AZ. On the US Airways plane (where even coffee costs $1 now) I read about breakfast places in Phoenix, so when the question of food came up, I suggested The Original Pancake House in Scottsdale. It took a while to find it, mostly because we didn't have a very good map or sense of direction, but finally found it. This is part of a chain, but a quirky one. Authentic pancake house, everything from scratch. Blueberry pancakes were outstanding, as were the egg dishes. At this location, they don't take credit cards, so be prepared with cash.

Anyway, we made our way up state to Page and met the rest of our group at the Antelope Point Marina, run jointly by the US National Park Service and the Navajo Nation. Great kids driving golf carts with trailers take your stuff from the parking lots to the docks. We planned to spend Friday night on the boat in the marina and take off up river on Saturday.

Friday night found DH and myself at the Page Walmart picking up last-minute items for the group, mostly alcoholic....The Page Walmart sells liquor, as do the other grocery stores. Very convenient!

We went into town and found the R.D. Drive In (Page's original drive-in). Definitely a local hang-out, with video games in the back and the older people sitting at the patio tables outside. We had pretty good burgers and fries, and a milk shake for dessert. Finally got to the boat with all the supplies and helped getting things shipshape for departure.

Saturday am was bright and clear and we set off after being checked out by the marina master.
We were planning to get about 40 miles up the lake and camp in Oak Canyon Bay.
This photo shows the digging of the anchor holes so that the boat doesn't float away.



We stayed 2 nights in Oak Canyon, and visited Rainbow Bridge again. The water was much further up the canyon, so the walk in was a lot shorter.
We went about 20 miles further up and stayed in Cottonwood Canyon, behind Register Rocks (our 2006 campsite) for 3 nights. We took boat rides and explored slot canyons on the jet skis.



We also revisited Forbidding Canyon and the Anasazi Ruins called Defiance House. Again, the water level made the walk in about half as far.
This canyon is known for the wall paintings.

The last 2 nights we spent in Padre Bay under the Cookie Jar Butte.
We had great food, thanks to the wonderful cooks, good weather, except for one rainstorm that turned the canyon walls shiny and covered with water falls, and a very relaxing week!
Lake Powell is always interesting!

But, at the end of the week, we had to come into the marina, unload the boat, pack up the cars and head south. We stopped in Flagstaff at the cafe at the Little America Hotel and did some shopping and sightseeing in Sedona. Stayed in Phoenix and went home on Sunday. Hope we can do that trip again before too long. Thanks to PW and JJ and the rest of the group!

Beach Getaway

Time for the annual trip to Port Aransas, Texas! Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, so we didn't have that much time on the beach. We did get to go kayaking around Shamrock Island, and made friends with some pelicans.


Usually the water is clear and marine life is easily seen. Due to recent rains, the water was stirred up and we didn't see too much....

We stayed at the Mayan Princess, a venerable place about 10 miles from town. The place is showing her age (lots of rust on the stairs), although our condo had been reasonably updated. Definitely stay in #305 if you want a HUGE master and a TINY second bedroom! And bunk beds! If you like to sleep in bunks, then this unit is for you! We liked the wraparound sectional with the recliner chair and the lift-up coffee table. They have a nice swimming pool complex and lots of chairs. A DVD player would have been nice.

2 places to eat: The Pelican Club in Port A for the atmosphere. If the weather is tolerable, they have a great deck overlooking the harbor;

The Bakery Cafe (take the car ferry to Aransas Pass; turn left at the corner by the HEB). Great cafe food and homemade pies. It's been spruced up but not changed. It's usually packed on the weekends!

Saturday night we played a few games of pool at Shorty's (the oldest bar on the island!). Loads of beachy atmosphere. Band on the porch. Ceiling covered with caps. Too dark for photos....

We played Monopoly while it rained, and that was fun. No tears! We're all getting more mature!

Next year, we hope to sit on the beach under our tent for a longer time!

Weekend in the Hill Country

As often as we can, we try to spend time in the Texas Hill Country. We sit on the porch and look at the water, fish a little, shop a little, really trying to do as little as possible. Recently, we tried 3 restaurants for the first time. (Not all in the same weekend).

In Fredericksburg, we ate at Rebecca's Table, owned by chef Rebecca Rather. (She has a great bakery in Fredericksburg and several cookbooks.) We really enjoyed the ambience and the food was very good. DH had to send back a steak because it was too rare (really raw in the middle), which seems to be happening to us a lot lately. But I think we'd go back there for sure.

The other place we've been in Fredericksburg is August E's. Very nice with a medium-sized dining room and very comfortable chairs. Modern and chic decor. There is a sushi bar, but we didn't try any sushi. We had steak. Excellently prepared and delicious. Also, one of the best creme brulees I've tasted. They got the sugar crust right!

The 3rd new place we tried was in Marble Falls, a longtime favorite of locals and travelers, The Bluebonnet Cafe.
This is a piece of coconut meringue pie. They have 14 pies on the menu every day. This is solid cafe food, and in the RoadFood books. Also very busy, especially on the weekends. We hit it on a Saturday night sort of late, and the place was filled with families having picked up their children from area summer camps. We noticed several tables with pre-teens and young teens ordering coffee-do they drink that at camp??
And, yes, I ate the whole piece, except the crust. Everyone knows most of the calories in pie are in the crust.... DH ordered apple pie, which was also good.



We also went to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. If you want to know all about how the U.S. fought the Japanese in WWII, this is the place for you. There are dioramas with some animatronic people and planes, and a large building devoted to all the battles in the Pacific, with maps and artifacts. You can also tour Admiral Chester Nimitz's family home, which was the first building in the museum complex. For all the times we've been to Fred. this was our first time in the museum.

The plane pictured is the same model (B-25) flown by the Dolittle Raiders.
This group led the first U.S. air attack on the Japanese in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. The prop works and there are sound effects.

One of my favorite stops is the Super S Food Store in Llano. They have great mounted animals on the walls! Llano is big with hunters! Sometimes they have special displays, like the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. one. I hope he caught that javalina!
Happy roadtripping!

Dali, Waterfalls and Stone Barns

The Road Show has been in New York for the past week! I went to the Museum of Modern Art
to see an interesting exhibit of Salvador Dali's art and his films. There was an interesting section about a collaboration with the Walt Disney Company where Dali was to do the illustrations to a piece of music a la Fantasia. A lot of drawings were made,but only a few seconds of film were completed. People at Disney finally completed the film about 5 years ago. It's called Destino
and hopefully will be released in the future, although I don't know when. There's a new exhibit on prefab housing, but that hadn't opened when I was there.This photo shows tired people at MOMA.

I also saw art at the Rubin Museum, The Folk Art Museum, the Met, and the Neue Gallery. I especially liked the Himalayan exhibits, the art of Henry Darger, the balloon dog by Jeff Koons, and the turn-of-the-century German jewelry.

On Saturday, DH and I took a New York Water Taxi tour of the New York City Waterfalls. These are 4 artificial waterfalls constructed on scaffolds that are over 100 feet high. They are an art installation by Olafur Eliasson. I liked the one under the Brooklyn Bridge the best. The boat is a great way to see all the falls, and I would recommend getting a sunset tour. At night the falls are lighted, which we didn't see, but I heard that's the best way to see them.
We also got some great views of the NY Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

My gourmet adventure for this trip was to eat at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, in Pocantico Hills, NY. This restaurant is owned by Dan Barber, a famous chef and restauranteur, and is special because they grow lots of their own food, harvest it and prepare it on site. In the summer, they do tasting menus and we chose a 5-course meal. There are lots of amuse-bouches as well, and the servings are small, so you can eat a lot before you feel full. I'll post pics when I get them uploaded.
The service is great and the food was excellent! There was a small uproar at our table when 2 different desserts were served-we had no choice as to what we got. A few who would have preferred the chocolate dessert were reduced to begging from their neighbors and some wanted to have had both desserts on one plate. Luckily, a plate of truffles and homemade marshmallows presented at the end soothed some souls. Thanks to the hardy eaters who went on the adventure with me! You know who you are!

The RS heads home soon and will next post about a weekend in the Hill Country!