Tall Ship Elissa

I realize that our blog has become an outlet for my photography lately. That's because nothing too exciting is going on in our lives right now. We're just spending time working on Storyville and working at making a living. We would love to get out on the water more often. It's really a challenge to balance work, boat work and having fun. Somehow we manage. Life is good!

Here are some pictures that I took a few days ago when Colleen and I toured Elissa. She is the official Tall Ship of Texas and was built in 1877.

Yellow Rose of Texas!

Bird Pictures

Some of my recent bird pictures

If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. ~Jim Richardson

Weekend With The Boys

We had a great weekend. The weather was windy and warm and Jessica and David spent the weekend on the boat with us. They brought our new grandson Caleb and our soon to be grandson Kaden. Caleb was born on January 22nd so he is six weeks old now. Kaden is 20 months old and Jessica and David are beginning the adoption process and hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly. They have Kaden full time now so their hands are definitely full! Check out the pics:

Grandchildren are a grandparent's link to the future, and grandparents are the child's link to the past. ~Author Unknown

Miami Boat Show

We had a great time at the Miami Boat Show last week. We went with our friends Steve and Colleen. We took a drive down the Florida Keys to Marathon on the first day and then we spent three solid days trying to see everything there was to see at the huge boat show. We were exhausted, but it was lots of fun.

Sign at restaurant in the Keys

Colleen is ready to get the shot!

Cool statue in Miami

Miami skyline from s/v Toucan Dream

Me with Bob Bitchin (of Latitudes and Attitudes Sailing Magazine fame)

Who has the room key???

Chris Blair

Robin Blair

Chris and Robin are friends from Kemah. We ran into them at the boat show and they invited us to spend one morning on their catamaran s/v Tucan Dream. They are anchored out in Miami for the boat show and will soon be leaving to cruise in the Bahamas and beyond.

We had a great trip and as a bonus Troy won a watermaker that retails at around $5,000.00. It will be great on our boat so we are really excited about that. Also, I won honorable mention at the Miami Boat Show Photo Contest called Discover Boating. Here is the picture that won:

It's a picture of Patrick's boat s/v le Esprit Libre on Trinity bay on a foggy day.

Troy's Scan / A Day at the Zoo

First - the important news! Troy had a CAT Scan this morning and received the wonderful NED (no evidence of disease) report. We are so happy and relieved to get one more clean test under our belts. He will have another PET Scan in three months.

Colleen, Patrick and I (three practicing Non National Geographic Photographers) met Shawn, Kayla and Tori at the zoo on Sunday and we had a great day practicing with our cameras and taking lots of pictures of the animals, including Miles the 9 day old giraffe.

Lots of people talk to animals.... Not very many listen, though.... That's the problem. ~Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh