Christmas Whine Wine

December?
Eh ~ still not ready for that.

Parade of Lights this weekend?
Eh ~ not quite ready for that.

Christmas next weekend?
Definitely not ready for that!

But a two day wine tasting trip to Paws-O-Robles Paso Robles with Colin and Wendy and two dogs in my car?

THAT I was ready for!

December?

December?
Really?

What happened to August?

Tie Your Mother Down

So wind event (event - like a party?) of the decade is supposed to happen today and tomorrow.

NOAA headline:
Strong Santa Ana Wind Event With Damaging Winds Expected
Stron Santa Ana Wind Event with Damaging Winds Expected
NOAA discussion:
THE REAL INTERESTING WEATHER HITS OVERNIGHT WEDNESDAY. THE INSIDE
SLIDER WILL PINCH OFF INTO A CUT OFF LOW AND THEN MIGRATE TO THE
AZ/CA BORDER (GFS) CENTRAL AZ (WRF) OR THE SALTON SEA (EC) THE GFS
SOLN WOULD GENERATE THE STRONGEST WINDS THE EC THE WEAKEST AND THE WRF SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE.

Love the terms...
Pinch off?
Cut off?
Migrate?

Pinch off being my favorite.

Zihua Lighting in SoCal

Amazing lighting this time of year.
Reminds us of the lighting in Zihuatanejo in the late afternoons.

Makes the rain not so hideous.
Actually, I like rain.
Tropical rain though...
Not this cold stuff.

Love the East winds after ~ 72 degrees in the cockpit at 9:00 am!

Solar Panels In and Rockin'!

Free electricity!

Yeah, well after you pay for the panels.
The metal fabrication.
The wire.
Jim's time.
Free electricity!

Sick Minds...

So after exploring the lowlands in a hurricane.

Eating 47 lbs of peel and eat shrimp.

And having a "few".

We played games.

If you don't know how to play "Apples to Apples" google it.

And once you do or did, you will wonder about the people I was playing this game with.

Festering wounds, chewy?

I'm not even going there.

Electric eels, chewy?

Well maybe bad normal eels in a bad sushi bar...

New shoes, chewy?

Maybe to a dog...

Underwear?

Eeew.... sick minds.

Suzie & KIrby's Backyard Berries

Can't remember what these are.
Just loved the color and rain drop.

And the fact the hurricane didn't wipe them and us out.

Cool Charleston Bridge

Ocean Catamarans No More...

Seven years of owning this catamaran.
Seven years of "talking" about going to the builder's facility.
Seven years of checking their website.
Seven years of "let's go visit my brother in NC and drive down to SC".
Blah, blah, blah.
So seven years into this, just before we fly to SC Jim checks their website.
No more...
Gone.
Done.
No website.
Kirby maps it out and we drive in the pouring rain from island to island.
Over low lying bridges.
Through flooded streets.
More bridges.
More rain.

To this:

Closed Ocean Catamarans.

Skirted by Hurricane Irene

What is it with us and going on a vacation and having a hurricane come through?

This mass of clouds shortened our Bourbon Trail by a day and cost us a couple lost nights of hotel fees.

Ah well... adds to the excitement of being "someplace else".

So I was thinking not a good idea to be driving across a low lying bridge when this was coming at us...

By the time I moved the camera from my side window to the windshield, it was dumping.
And I mean DUMPING.

Kind of hard to get a tour of the local islands in this crap.

So... let's EAT!

And watch the rain outside.
We were on Saint Someone's Island.

Eating.
In the rain.
Driving across bridges.
Some higher than others.

Yay.

Dogs v. Swimming, Unattended Children and Drunks

 Gotta love a restaurant where dogs are allowed, but none of the following:

Someplace near Charleston, NC.

Where they bring buckets of ice water for the dogs.

And sometimes beers...

Fall... Fall... Falling into Winter

This always seems to be the hardest time of the year for me.

Watching the decked out boats with jungle gyms full of solar panels, wind generators and antennas galore exit the marina.

Ha!

I say that now...

Wait for the rains, cold and darkness of January and February!

But the beautiful mornings, golden lighting and stunning sunsets are like no other time of the year.

Back to North Carolina

Nothing like it taking me two and a half months to yak endlessly and boringly about a vacation...
Well if I think back, I never did finish up the Costa Rica trip on here.

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast and one of our vacation reveler's boat being right in the projected path, we had to head back to the coast early.

Which meant giving up one night in the haunted house.
And one night in the trailer park campground.

And now to find a place to go with such short notice!
Well, yay for iphones.

So off to Henderson, NC we went.
Home of the painted bears...

Uh, home of the painted bears?
Ohhhhhkaaaay...

And home of the really cute couple doing a puzzle together on a park bench.

And a really cool cabin in the trees we rented for a night!
This being our bedroom!

And our shared with "Mollie who once again got the couch" bathroom!

And our way cool deck for vino and cerveza and checking The Weather Channel on our phones.

Unfortunately, we were kind of in and out as we had to get back to Charleston...
Maybe another time.

Happy Birthday Weekend!

Another year!
Another celebration!
A bunch more wrinkles!
Happy Birthday to my husband JIM!

The dog brought him a card in bed:
Front said: RUFF
Inside said: That's what life would be without you.  Happy Birthday from the dog.
Which yes, life would be ruff for her without him, because she would be dead.
YAY for the saved rescue dogs!
And now back to vacuuming up dog hair...

Happy Birthday Jim!

Don't Forget Maker's Mark!

I always thought this was some average bottle of booze.

Not that I would know, never having bought one or drank any of it.

Just some random bottle sitting on a shelf mumbling "buy me, buy me".

Well after visiting their beautiful facility with lovely grounds.

Nicely painted buildings.

Cool decor.

Awesome, interesting tour.

We saw where the bottling is done.

Including the labeling

AND...

The hand dipping of each and every bottle into their trademark red "wax".

Way cool!

Beautiful tasting room and gift shop!

And we liked the tasting rooms where the tourguide was permitted to taste too!

Flashback to Four Roses

Yes, more bourbon...

By this time we didn't feel the need to go on the tours, but the tour guy talked us into it.

WaY CoOl!

Very different than the other tours, with this one including the inside of what I would call the factory part.

After we went through this one, we wished we had done the one we missed...
Where was that again?
Anyway, another pretty place.
Another interesting tour.
More bourbon.

More monkeys...

Yay ~ Halloween!

I love Halloween!

We don't go out.

We don't go to parties.

I just like the ridiculousness of it.

The decorations.

Decorating the dog.

Engineering and creating my costumes which I haven't done for a few years.

Yes, the candy.

The pumpkin lobotomies, which we haven't done for a few years either.

Basically the ridiculousness of it.

Weekend in Carp

My view yesterday while celebrating in style.

Inundated our friend's house in Carpinteria.
Three birthdays...
Cherryl, Dave & Jim ~ all within a week.
Twelve people.
Five dogs.
A Mexican feast.
Margarita.
One, I had one.
Chocolate sundaes.
Two, I had two.

Fall in Ventura

Agggggghhhhh "Fall" frightens me.
Means the dreaded "Winter" is right around the corner.
Rain.
Wind.
Cold.
Dark.

But it is the most beautiful season Season? Do we have seasons in California? here.
Clear, crisp mornings.
Island and hill views.
Clean air except when the State catches on fire.
Beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

I can't stop it, so I may as well enjoy it...

Other Kentucky Stuff

Beautiful architecture!

Well, not all of it.

Just the upkept stuff.

Well, not that one either.

And some cool license plates.

I think we all liked that one.

And a one stop shop to address your hair problems, eyeballs and cause of death.

Wild Turkey!

And on to distillery number 2459 4!

And that only one in the US rare bridge with a curve on each end?
Leads right up to Wild Turkey!

It really was incredible driving across this bridge over a full-flowing river, with the old now un-used railroad bridge alongside and seeing the buildings of Wild Turkey.

In fact it was so incredible, we drove back across it, turned around and then went across a third time.
Really.

Then on to our next tour and tasting.

My thoughts about these "run of the mill large alcohol producing businesses" completely changed after each tour.

This one had humor.

or maybe we had humor...

And a small tasting room.

In fact we had it to ourselves.

Us and the very into his job pourer / educator / tourguide!

And a bunch of bottles...

Don't forget those.

Oh, and fresh lemonade!

Which is what I enjoyed...

Butterflys and monkeys too.

And turkeys.
Everywhere...