There is something distinctly 'not right' about this house, but who knows how it was...this is an abandoned house left over from Hurricane Ike.

This Pelican soldier is at the Seabrook Memorial for soldiers of foreign Wars. The memorial itself is very thoughtfully designed and a special place to give thanks to those who served this country in wartime and lost their lives.

 

 

I'm about to take my camera out and photograph the ordinary things around us. This is going to have to become a habit, I'm afraid, as it isnt my nature to take these kind of photos. I will remember to post some of the less than pedestrian variety too.
Signing off for now...

Some more photos from our little jaunt into Seabrook and along the Galveston Bay waterfront there.

We were standing under the Kemah bridge watching the fishermen and then this trawler came around the corner. The trawler dock is just a few yards to the left. All the birds
were obviously waiting for the return of the fishing boats as they swarmed the boat the minute it turned into the docking area. These are brown pelicans and white herons, egrets and small black head gulls.

This was the scene before the fishing boat arrived:)

This restaurant, Pier 8, is where we went with our Broker Len Garofoli in March. We had the BEST fish and chips and fried shrimp there. We havn't been back yet, but will go there before heading out of the Houston area. There are any number of Crab, shrimp and Crawfish restaurants in the immediate vicinity, none of which we have been to. We dont fancy eating fried food...yet.

 

The photo below is of the Seabrook Sailing Club, founded in 1934. You know why it is up so high? Doesnt matter if the bar-b-q gets washed away!

 

 

If you look to the right of the Rt hand Pelican, you will see the end of the Barrier Island (just to the left of the Sailboat)

the separates Galveston Bay from the gulf of Mexico.

 

 

The house below looks rather incongruous, but is up on stilts for a very good reason. This is by no means the highest off the ground...some homes are two stories above ground level. When you see what is left over after Hurricane Ike, you can understand the need to build so high. Some homes along this road have built their own dykes and berms around their properties, but somehow, I dont think that will change the fact that the tidal surge will still inundate their properties.

 

 

 

This home is fairly typical of the coastal homes around here.

 

 

 

I will give up saying how hot it is...suffice to say...nothing has changed on the weather front.
Waz has never eaten at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) before, so we decided to venture forth down to the local kemah branch for a tall stack.(6 pancakes vs short stack =3). I knew what to expect, so ordered hash browns and sunny side up eggs with toast..which i didnt eat. It didnt look that apetizing, to be honest.
We marvelled at the syrup choices with Waz choosing the classic (maple flava). He wasnt impressed by the pancakes, deciding we make better ones at home.
Today being a 'kind of' day off for us, we then went tiki touring with our cameras to take some tourist-type pics..seeing y'all want to see what and where and how.
We returned to the Seabrook side of the highway (this sign is just 100 yards from where the boat is) and went out along the Galveston Bay.

The sign to the right is on the highway just down the road..Fireworks at the Kemah Boardwalk every friday night, June through July. We enjoyed them last Friday night, and look forward to sitting on the flydeck, watching again, this friday night.

 

These Fishermen are sitting almost opposite the entry to our Marina...which is just behind those metal pilings on their right. The waterway they are fishing in, is the channel which takes you from Galveston Bay, into Clear lake.

 The photo below shows just how shallow it is  50 yards from the waterfront. The fellow in the water didnt have a floatation device on, so we wonder what happens when he catches a big fish??? The poles sticking out of the water are the remains of a pier that was torn apart by Hurricane Ike. The aftermath and remains are all along the coastline.

 

 

Baking:
I hadnt used the new little convection oven for anything other than last night's Turkey Enchaladas and bagels a couple or mornings ago, and thought it time for me to try some muffins and see if it is efficient and the product comes out well. The oven being only the end part of any baking, of course.
Fresh raspberry muffins....Well, the end result of these is hard to describe. Im usually pretty good at detecting flavors and what is wrong with something, but this almost has me stumped. Let me try to explain the results.
Firstly, I had bought some organic plain flour at Marshalls. the use by date was a way off, so thought it might be fine. It is obviously high gluten content, because the muffins are VERY elastic. I also used unsalted butter, though added salt to compensate. The melted butter didnt look like NZ butter, of course, but looked different enough for me to remark on it. I also noted that I need to add Canola oil to my shopping list, as I sometimes like to back muffins with that.
The only thing I can describe the muffins tasting like, is Mochi cakes. These little 'cakes' are made with pounded rice. they are made for japanese celebrations with sweet azuki beans in the middle..yumm! but these muffins are 'nothing' kind of food. Back to the drawing board. I will toss the Marshalls organic flour in favor of some cake baking flour from the supermarket, I think.
Although I lived in Hawaii for 20 yrs, it is 8 yrs since I left, and my knowlege of all things food is a little rusty. I also didnt recognize a good many brands in the Texas supermarkets, so will have to ask some questions of those who know, me thinx.

Yayay! I found it...in the draft folder...this one comes before the next one, if you know what I mean...
it's the one I thought had dropped off into the great wide yonder.

You know you are on the wrong side of the road when there is a vehicle coming straight towards you on the same side of the road!!!! Ok, so it only happened once, and in a momentary lapse of concentration...and I only turned the windshield wipers on ONCE when meaning to turn on the indicator...Im getting better, and hopefully I wont kill us on the wrong side of the road. It takes a lot of concentration to take intersections wide especially when there are no other cars to follow. I can understand how so many European and Amerian/Canadian visitors kill themselves on NZ roads when driving, especially on roads where there are no other cars.

Today dawned bright and beautiful again. It was hotter at 7am that it was yesterday. I took my 500mls of room temp. water up on the fly deck this morning, hoping to catch some of the breeze. Warren stayed in bed in the airconditioned master stateroom. We went for a walk around the extensive Marina and looked at the other boats(there are in excess of 650 boats in this marina, to give you an idea of the size), the bird life and the fishermen in both kayaks and bass-type boats. I will have to take my camera and take some photos tomorrow, though I have no means of putting the photos onto this blog, right now. We still have to find the appropriate connecting cords for that purpose.

Great Jumping Fish!! Yes, the fish (Bait fish known as Shad ) around here jump..I mean 4ft in the air and they skip, just as you would skip a stone or rock over the water. Very funny to watch, and much time can be wasted watching them:) It is also fun to watch the rivalry between the great Herons, the Egrets and what looks like a Bittern. I will have to find a book on birds and fish, so we can identify them.
The fishermen said they caught a 9 inch 'Red' Snapper in the lagoon nearby, this morning.

I think it is going to be another scorcher of a day, seeing it started out so warm.

Looks like we will have to go and buy some towels that dry. The towels and sheets that came with the boat have seen better days, and the twoels in particular are more decoratie than practial. They have a wooly side which does not dry at all and the looped side does little in the way of drying either.
Warren is using the sheets for rags in the engine room. We bought some new ones that suit us better and smell 100% better than those others.

We also need a printer, today. Conducting all our business over the internet and paperless  is fine to a point, but we do need to print some things up for the record. We are finding the USA to be less inclined towards paperlessness, which is a bit challenging.
We were also surprised and a little peeved to find that the Marina does not have recycling!!! How can that be? there is so much packaging on everything we buy and we had collected a large bag full of recyclables to put in the appropriate containers somewhere.I  hate putting all of that plastic into the dumpster, knowing it is going to landfill.
I will do my best to find the cord connecting the camera to the computer, today, then we can add some photos here.
More later...
Later....On one of our evening walks (11pm-ish) we were leaning over a bridge and watching the small Shad breaking out of the water. Obviously there was a larger fish underneath them, but this was like fireworks on the water. Seriously...HUNDREDS of tiny fish swooshing out of the water in a starburst patern...then a couple of feet later, doing it all again. Occassionally we saw the larger fish, but mostly it was multiple starbursts all over the water in all directions...delightful to watch, though I am sure not so for the fish swimming/jumping for their lives.

Dont you hate it when you write a whole screed and think you have posted it, to find that it fell into the great wide blue yonder?
We have been having internet problems! Tried everything, but the computer kept dropping out. of course this happened every time I posted something.
We now have a Wifi antenna and we haven't dropped out since:)  So, I am more motivated to write here once again. I cannot remember what I wrote about that fell into space, so will take up where I imagine I left off.
We have been in the USA one week tonight.
The sales literature and the agent who sold us the boat felt obliged to keep telling us that the boat had been owned by an Engineer. Well, I think they must be a bit like carpenters and electrician who cant be bothered, or dont have the interest in maintaining their own homes etc, coz the longer we live on this vessel the more we find what said 'engineer' didn't maintain...everything!!

We met the fellow who is going to compound, wax and buff the whole boat (outside), today. We had previously dealt with Gary over the phone from NZ. It was a pleasure to meet him and discuss what the boat needs to bring her back 'like new'.  According to Gary, this vessel has been sadly neglected.
We swapped notes on the level of neglect...he on the outside, and we on the inside. It seems that every time Waz finishes one chore, there is something else 'going wrong' that needs immediate attention.
The last one was the Master en-suite loo (head). It has been making slightly disturbing noises for a few days, then 24 hrs ago, it quit altogether.
Before that the forward head didnt work. It now works, but the master one doesnt. we have ordered parts which will arrive on Friday, all going well.

I took a drive to the local Randalls supermarket this morning. On my own. I wanted the time to peruse ALL the shelves and find products that will travel well, not need refridgeration, and will store for extended time. I was happy to see many Safeway brand items which I used to purchase when I lived in Hawaii for 20 yrs.
Happily I came back with half a dozen bottles of a NZ wine that was on special...and if you bought 6, you got an extra 10% off! :)

Life Jackets are on sale at West Marine, so Waz and I are going over there when we have finished our cup of tea. we like that most of the stores are open until 8 or 9pm, at this time of year.

Not sure why Texans like living in thi awful heat...and funny that, because so many of them ask us why we left a gorgeous country like NZ to come here!!! weeeeeeeeeeellll. we own a boat!!and it lives here for a short time.

We are still waiting for the fabrication fella to bring the Eisenglass surrounds for the Fly-deck. We are enclosing her to give us further living space under cover, and to protect the furnishings that are otherwise sun bleached and not in great shape...like so many other things here.
We know this boat originally had surrounds on the fly deck, and the zippers on the bimini (sun top) show that there were...so heaven only knows where they are or what the former owner has done with them. We have photos from a couple of years ago with the upper deck fully enclosed.

Well, it's time to go get those life vests... talk to you soon!'

Fortunately it is only three months since I drove on the 'wrong' side of the road, so getting back in the driver's seat was not the learning curve is had been in February, after a break of two years.

First order of business, after the car pick up, was to re-acquaint ourselves with the Marina and the people we had been e-mailing with in regard to docking the boat for the next month.

Next stop was the boat. She was back where we had left her. In the interim, she had been fitted with Forward Sonar, new zincs and assorted other essentials, at the Seabrook Marina, and returned to the sales dock we bought her from. Having been closed up for a while, she was a bit 'ripe' on the inside but the weather wasn't conducive to opening her up to the 'fresh' air....there simply was none and it was hotter than hades.

The number of 'jobs' to do is pretty daunting, but I guess a list is easily conquered, if you have one.

First order of business is usually food shopping. we went back to Target, only because we could get other things there too. Not the best selection of anything, but it meant we had food for at least two days, and fresh produce was the order of the day. Cant live without LOTS of fruit and veg. We will miss the quality of both, in NZ. We haven't found any 'loose' carrots in our two food shopping forays, but are hopeful we will find them somewhere.
We found a Randalls supermarket that gives a much better selection of produce et al but is further away.

Friday am: I was determined to get rid of the stale smell in the boat by opening the windows and doors to let the breeze flow through. We had set the alarm for 7am with this in mind, to make the most of the early morning temps. before it got too hot and the aircon was required.

It appeared that the smell wasnt just the stale inside air. One of the aircon units was in desperate need of cleaning, so that required a fine brush and vacuum cleaner. The former was easily accomplished, but the latter not so. We had bought a shop vac. before leaving Houston for NZ, in March, but it is no longer on the boat...no sign of it. We can only presume, rightly or wrongly, that one of the people working on the boat in our absence thought it belonged to them or their company, and took it home/to work with them. This necessitated yet another trip to Home Depot~! It's not  a huge purchase, dollar-wise, but is another $40, if you know what I mean.

By 11.30am today, it was evident that we needed to put the aircon back on, smell or no smell, as we were leaving the boat to go 'shopping'  for goodness knows how long. At 11.30 the outside temp. was 90F, but by the time we got home at 5.30pm, it was 97F. Phew, was it hot! and the humidity must have been around 70% at least. We wont go out tomorrow without half a dozen bottles of water in the cooler !
Today's purchases included bins for storage. I needed to be able to contain winter clothing etc under the guest queen bed. As luck would have it, there are Ziplock brand bags that are big enough to contain such things. These bags are excellent for any number of soft storage items, and there are now three of them under the bed, along with the suitcases (soft duffles) and overnight bags.

We found a Lowes store not far away in Webster, and armed with a lengthy shopping list for the hardware store, we ventured forth. We purchased most of the items on the list before asking for help with the remaining ones.
Tools were also on the shopping list, and the gentleman (a former Marine, it turned out) who accompanied us around the store couldnt have been more helpful or knowledgeable. We are still looking for a 12 volt chest freezer for the cockpit hold, but know where to find that now. It will have to be an online purchase.

I also ordered my new computer! With such limited space, it isnt possible to house a desk top computer, so we have to make sure we have similar capabilities in a laptop. I dont remember all the details of the computer I ordered from Costco, but you can be assured it is what Warren wanted:) I guess it has all the bells and whistles. I just know I will have to learn to use Windows 8!

We are making the most of the delicious summer berries, cherries, peaches and nectarines. Fresh fruit salad with our meusli and Greek Yoghurt for breakfast is fantastic. The blueberries went into the dinner salad tonight, along with baby tomatoes, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, apple and some blue cheese and walnuts. I cooked a couple of turkey breasts which were succulent and left enough over for another one or two meals. I am enjoying cooking on the induction cooker with one pot, a tall sided Analon frying pan with cover. No fat is needed and nothing sticks, but cooks perfectly.
We finished the day, after the dishes had been washed and put away, with a cup of English Breakfast Tea, sitting topside on the fly deck, and watching the 20 mins of Fireworks at the Kimah Boardwalk. We had almost front row seats, interrupted only by the Kemah Bridge. Looks like we will have the same show tomorrow night too...apparently there is a fireworks show every friday and saturday night through June and July! woohoo!:)
And so, to bed.

I am sitting here in the salon of the boat with the windows and door wide open to catch a breeze, should it visit. It is a very humid slightly overcast 90F today. Yesterday it was a very clear 95F, but the humidity was also present.

In the couple of weeks we had left in Tauranga, we tidied up our lives, made note of all things legal and did what most do when faced with a long absence...eat the food you want to eat, go to special places and enjoy the company of good friends and family.
We made the long trip north to Whangarei to visit Warrens 92 yr old father who is in excellent health, though with failing eyesight. We also caught up with his brother and sister.

 Life has a habit of throwing curve balls, and the thursday prior to us leaving NZ we were thrown a good one. My youngest child e-mailed me to say that the boss wanted him to move to Auckland ASAP. We knew this might be a possibility, but he had also declared that he wanted to stay on in Hamilton, and we thought he might be able to do so. Much frantic internet searching for apartments and room-mate situations followed.
It was decided that we would take the child (well, he is almost 22) to Auckland with us on the Saturday (15th June) and would take a look at some places to live over the weekend. The room-mate situations turned out to be grotty and not at all desirable as well as grossly over-priced. Having seen some of what was on offer in that department, he made the decision to get his own one bedroom apartment. For those not acquainted with the Auckland real estate market....demand is high, prices are through the roof and the condition of the properties leaves a lot to be desired in certain $ brackets.
The child returned to Hamilton on the Sunday night bus, not having found anywhere to move to. Warren and I promised to take a further look for apartments on the monday and tuesday if we were able. Bear in mind that we were leaving for the USA on tuesday night!
Phone calls were made and only one was returned. As luck would have it we were able to view a city center apartment at 10am tuesday, AND, as luck would have it, it was perfect. Too bad the child is moving into an apartment sight unseen, but he will have to trust the parental units on that one. He moves in this weekend with the help of his boss. Phew!

Having moved out of the apartment in Tauranga on the friday, after the all-clear from our realtor, we stayed in nearby Mt Maunganui with special friends and enjoyed their company  and wonderful hospitality for that short time. We are hoping they will come over here and keep us company!
Saturday and Sunday nights were spent in Auckland at the lovely home of the Hostesses with the Mostess, Lisa and Carolyn. They are our Home Away from Home. Of course we cannot go on without mentioning the company of their little dog with the poor dentition, Ewok!
Sunday evening we were joined by L and C and our immediate family for a farewell dinner.
It is good to know all family members are well taken care of, especially our seniors.

We decided not to sell the car on the internet, afterall, as we were able to use it until the afternoon of the day before departure. Taking it to Turner's Auctions was the most sensible thing to do, for us. We just hope they sold it at yesterday's auction!
Our last night in Auckland was spent at the Copthorne Hotel on the waterfront. We had a stellar view of the old Ferry Building from our room on the 7th floor and enjoyed watching everyone hurrying too and from work, morning and night, knowing we were escaping all of that:)

Tuesday dawned sunny and bright, but by mid-afternoon the rain front came over and we left the hotel in an Airport Shuttle, in a downpour. The shuttle driver drove so crazily fast and that along with the swerving in and out of the 3pm traffic made me extremely nauseous, not to mention nervous.
Easy check-in at the airport with our carefully weighed duffle bags (Boats need soft bags onboard) and time for a Japanese meal (light food) before going through the departure procedure.

The plane had left the gate and was about to taxi, when the Captain told us they had a fault in one of the engines and would be returning to the gate. This was after we had sat in the plane for 45 mins. or so while they decided what to do. We all disembarked and waited in the departure lounge for a further 2 hours while another plane was readied for us. We were given $10 food certificates each, which we made good use of, as by now it was 9.30pm.

We finally got off the ground at 10.30pm. This was cause for some consternation with us, as we had allowed 4 1/2 hours for Warren to go through the Immigration procedure needed at LA airport, in order to enter the USA on his Immigrant Visa. Kudos to Air NZ for the way they handled all this, and for booking us on the next flight available to Houston. As luck would have it, we made the original flight with about 10mins to spare...they were already boarding! We arrived on schedule at Bush Intercontinental Airport at 10.50pm the day we left:)

We caught a taxi (the cheapest option) from Bush to our hotel in Clear Lake...50 mins of sheer hell...this driver bested the Auckland shuttle driver, driving consistently 20-30mph OVER the speed limit, and terrifying me out of my wits...I have to mention here that the normally very cool Warren was also not impressed with the driving.
We were grateful for a good night's sleep at the Microtel and woke at a normal hour for breakfast (included) and then a short walk to the nearest Starbucks...the only place you get something resembling a good NZ Latte! A call from our rental car company made us scurry back to the hotel for our pick up.