Stealing From My Daughters Blog

I read this on Sharon's blog tonight and it sounded so true to me I had to put it into my blog as well. I am so blessed to have the family I have as well as the friends I have. 

I don't ever want to take things for granted, but I know that I am guilty of it!  I know I have health, wealth, love, peace, and faith.  I know that the loss of ANY of these would be hard....I appreciate them, I try to be thankful for them every day.  This reached out to me today.......

What's With This Weather

I heard that the Connector coming over the mountains has been shut down because of snow but to have a problem with weather in the valley is very unusual. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. The hail came down so heavily that at one point I couldn't see the lake.

Ruth's garden looked like it does in the dead of winter.

I know this won't stick for long. By wednesday it is supposed to be back in the 20's.

A Winnipeg Friend Escapes The Cold

Sandy dropped in for a whirl wind visit. Ruth and Sandy have been good friends for about 40 years. We have seen Sandy and her husband about twice a year since we moved out to Kelowna 19 years ago. The great thing about having old friendships is the laughter. We both enjoyed her visit. Here she was going thru the cabinets looking for a wine glass and settled on a huge water goblet. I teased her about her choice. All she felt she could do was laugh and smile for a picture.

Saturday morning I met the girls down at the market and joined them for breakfast . The food somehow tastes better when eaten outside from the vendors.

Next we went for a hike down Scenic Canyon Park along the river.

The spring run off has this car in the river almost totally submerged. We figured that kids likely pushed it off of the cliff which towers over the rivers edge.

They call this rock formation the Chinese Ovens because in the early 1900's when the Chinese workers built the Kettle Valley Railway thru the Okanagan they use to come down here to party with their families. They would cook in the big cave like holes in the rock.

On the way back up the canyon we stopped for a rest on Tracy's bench. The Iris plants we put in the ground around the bench last month all look like they are going to survive.

 It was a very nice hike.

This Made Me Mad.

So I'm driving out of Bottega the other day dragging my trailer when I decide to take a picture of a piano they put into the forest last year. I thought it looked cool. Take note of that tree about 10 feet ahead of me. It is right beside the road. I just noticed in this picture that it has a little red reflector stuck into the ground beside it. That should have told me something.

As I took this next picture I heard this grating sound. Yup. The sound of a trailer fender loosing a battle with a tree trunk. The road out of here is winding and tight. I was talking to Jamie the sound engineer at Botega later and he says that tree gets hit a lot. MAD now.

We're Back Home

I like flying Alaska.

So we left this at 8:00 A.M. I love being in Florida.

 Ruth was still a little tired so she made her self comfortable and was gone for a few extra hours. I should also mention that the woman beside Ruth had poured a bottle of perfume on herself. That is the reason for the blanket over her mouth and nose. She was fighting a headache all the way home. You would think that this day and age people would know better.

This was 5 hours later.Still lots of snow in the mountains.

The mountains outside Seattle are beautiful.

I thought it was very cool watching this plane fly beside us for about 5 minutes .

The Seattle air port had some live music happening. This was very cool. He was a jazz/Rock fiddle player . It made quite a setting with the runway as his backdrop.

This was the biggest rip ever. I wanted a burger but this restaurant didn't serve them. They did offer their texas chips for $6.00. I thought they were going to be french fries . Turns out that they were about 20 deep fried skinny potato slices. They were greasy and burnt. What a rip. Never again.

It is nice to be home in time to see the spring foliage coming up. The weather has turned and we are into spring.This is my favourite time of year. New life every where you turn.

The yard is going to look wonderful this year.

Getting Pulled Out

This is it. We are up at 6:00 A.M. and getting ready to be pulled out . I am excited. It felt a little surreal running around the boat this morning trying to get everything ready for leaving. I wish we were saying a little longer.So at about 7:00 A.M. I hear the lift machine starting up and getting into position for us. Our lift is for 10:30 but George says we can go whenever ready. I started the engines and pulled out of the docks.

 Ruth stayed on the dock to take a few pictures of our first pull out. Everything is a novelty at this early stage of the game.

 So I lined up perfectly. I was quite proud of my piloting.

 I ended up a little cockeyed because of the wind. 

 I learnt a lot today. Because I am in an enclosed wheel house I have no concept of the winds outside. The problem with that is I can't compensate for it because I don't feel it. I need a flag on the bow.

I got into the slings and up I went. You can tell by my expression that this scared the crap out of me.

I didn't like looking at those little cables lifting a 40000 pound boat with me on it.

I was glad to get off the boat. I kept thinking about that UTube I saw of the yacht being lifted and the strap broke. Not a good thing to be thinking of while being pulled.

 It was nice to see it coming up without me on it. They pulled the bow up to to cement and let me step off  before contuining.

This guy is very good on his controls.

I am so impressed with this machine and his ability to drive it with such accuracy.

Check out how the wheels all turn independently to take the boat to where ever they want.

They did a high pressure spray to the bottom . This is normal procedure before summer storage. Ruth and I decided to have them repaint the bottom this spring . It should be done every few years.

Next they pumped out the holding tanks and did a good flush on them as well.

It seems to have passed inspection so we are headed back to Fort Lauderdale and home in the morning.

It seems strange to have to leave the boat out for the next 6 months . We can't wait to be coming back.

Pull out tomorrow at 10:00

So we went for a fabulous walk this morning in down town Stuart. These little guys are everywhere.

They have this great boardwalk along the water that we followed for a few miles after breakfast. Ruth loitered here watching some guy hunt for clams under the walkway. I really don't think I would eat anything out of this water.

There was a lot of water fowl along the shoreline.

We stopped at this old museum for a tour. I love American History. They document such interesting things . We unfortunately take everything for granted so it is important to see how hard the people who opened up this continent had to work.

We got back to the boat and started to prep for summer storage. The first thing on the list was to get a dehumidifier and set it up for some high humidity. Apparently these machines are very important in Florida. We both found it very humid and summer isn't even here yet.

I took these pictures out of our window as they put Bob's boat on the dolly and moved it down the road across the cannel into his summer spot. It's so cool how they can do this.

We  are both  so sorry that tomorrow is this close. We have had a great time here at River Forest these last few days. Neither one of us want to leave but we have things to do back home. We spent the day prepping the boat for pull out and summer storage. I think everything is done so we will get up early tomorrow and pack. Load the boat onto the lift and head back to Ft Lauderdale. This is way more fun than the Harley's. We have seen North America at 70 MPH.  Now we are going to see it at 15 MPH. Yahoo.

Settling In To Florida

We both like it here. The weather is great. The people are friendly and once we get set up I don't think it will be all that expensive. I keep saying "It's not a dress rehearsal so let's do what we enjoy". I love going for walks around here. Ruth has gone on a few morning hikes with Rose who is a good friend of Heather's.We knew her slightly when we lived in Winnipeg so it is nice for Ruth to be able to go for her morning walks with her. I am becoming her recreational walker.

The area where our marina is has huge green spaces.

I was looking for Gators everywhere but all I saw were strange Southern Birds.

It is quite a hump to get out to the boats. I carried some supplies out one evening because I couldn't find one of their dock carts . Believe me when I say that will be the last time I do that.

Ruth saw a Manatee hanging around the edge of the shore one day. I wish she had my camera for that.

We are both starting to brown up. I love the fact that it's hard to quit smiling.

My new hang out.

I feel like a dwarf in front of Bruce and Heather's boat.

I was trying to make it look like I was holding the boat up in the air but somehow I don't think anyone would believe that.

So our first real ride in the boat was yesterday when we brought it down the ICW to River Forest Yacht club where we will pull it out on Tuesday for storage until next October when we come back. It took me two tries to get off the Inter Coastal Waterway and into the marina thru this entrance. The wind was blowing and I had a little trouble getting the boat under control BUT I got it done the second time with no trouble. It was lots of fun. The trip took about four hours.

It's a beautiful Yacht Club with some great boats. 

We are the only one's staying on board . I think the other owners must live close to the marina.