Late Spring on Kent Island

June 4, 2021- June 21, 2021

I forgot to include this picture in my last blog.

Rachel is taking the picture of me, Lili, and Juan during our
 Rummicube game on the last night of my visit.

I’ve had a whirlwind few weeks! After a few days of preparation I flew from Baltimore (BWI) to Huston on Friday June 4th. My son and grandson picked me up at the airport and after a quick stop at their home we headed to Lake Conroe in Montgomery, Texas for a week’s vacation.  We rented a 2 bedroom/2 bath  condo with a full kitchen and living space. As a bonus there was a loft bedroom that I claimed right away!  The condo had a beautiful view of the lake and was a short walk to the pool complex.  The original weather prediction was for rain all week, but the weather turned out to be sunny and hot with only a few cloud bursts late in the day or early morning. Every morning Acen (my grandson) and I took a walk by the lake and around the resort, had breakfast, and headed to the pool for a day of fun.  His parents joined us later in the morning.  The snack bar at the pool had access to the country club restaurant and we ordered from the menu and had lunch delivered to us at the pool most days. Acen and his dad went fishing every evening at the lake and caught enough fish for one meal for Acen!  Needless to say it was a relaxing and fun week together that ended much too soon.

The view from our balcony - can you see the rain drops?

Acen and I met a friend on our morning walk.

Fun at the pool!

 

Fishing with Daddy.

My flight home was due to get into BWI at 8:50 but was delayed.  Bob and I didn’t get back to the boat until midnight.  This wouldn’t have been a huge problem except that I was due to leave for a sister get together at my daughter’s in Johnstown, PA. at 9:30 the next morning.  It was a tiring four hour drive, but it was so good to see two of my sisters, finally.  Although I have seen Becky a couple of times recently I hadn’t seen Laurie since before the pandemic.  My oldest sister Nancy did not make the trip but we all Zoomed that evening to make it a complete sister get together.  Getting to connect with family again is the biggest blessing of being fully vaccinated.  Jessica and her husband Joe were super hosts. Joe grilled kabobs while I made crab cakes for dinner.  Jessica added a fresh salad and it couldn’t have been better.  We talked and laughed the night away.  In the morning we set out to tour the Waterfall House (Frank Loyd Wright) in a nearby town, but when a fierce thunder storm erupted we decided to turn around and save this excursion for another day. We had no trouble filling up the few hours we had left together catching up on family doings.  The party broke up mid-afternoon and I headed back to Kent Island. 

Jessica and Joe on their front porch

Becky and I just before we left for home.
Laurie had left earlier.

It was great to be home again with Bob and Lola, but I miss being with my extended family.  Bob had been busy with boat projects while I was away. One project was cleaning, waxing, and polishing the cockpit.  What he has completed looks great.  My job now was to reinforce the snap closures on the backrest for our cockpit cushions.  After cleaning the cushions thoroughly I removed all of the the snaps on the cushion covers and reinforced them with a small piece of sunbrella fabric.  Bob was all set to re-apply the snaps when we realized that we did not have the right tool to make the holes in the sunbrella before attaching the snaps.  Amazon is our friend - so Bob ordered the tool and it arrived a couple of days later and the project was done!  Next on my list of boat projects was to create hatch covers for our small midship hatches.  It only took me one afternoon of measuring, cutting, fitting, and sewing.

What do you think of the new hatch cover?

I had been having difficulty with one of my teeth and I made an appointment to see my dentist one afternoon.  Bob had thoroughly cleaned the sail cover that morning and wanted to get the waterproofing done before we left for the dentist.  We finished half of the waterproofing before we had to go…we completed the other half when we returned that evening.

At the dentist, after an x-ray and some tests, I was informed that the tooth that was bothering me was dead and needed a root canal.  So off to another appointment to be examined by the endodontist who specializes in doing root canals.  He also discovered a resorption in the front of the tooth that would need to be repaired.  I’m scheduled for my root canal at the end of June - fun, fun, fun.

We also took a trip to Kunkletown, PA to visit our new kitten at six weeks old. Originally we had thought we wanted one of the all black females, but we were charmed by the exuberance of the female brown tabby of the litter and chose her.  After a couple of days of reflection on our choice we decided that the sweet and shy black kitten would actually be a better fit for our family and changed our reservation to the larger black kitten.  We are looking forward to bringing her home on August 9.  

How could we resist that adorable face?

But we changed our mind and here's
our soon to be new family member, Kali.

Linda, the friend who does most of my machine quilting, let me know that the quilt I had left with her was completed.  I picked it up on Friday and finished the binding over the weekend.  This quilt was inspired by the southwest with it’s mountains and beautiful sunsets.  I will be shipping it to my youngest child on Tuesday who lives in New Mexico.  

I'm sitting in the cockpit hand stitching the quilt binding.
You can see the backing of the quilt, but not the top.

As you can imagine it is difficult getting a complete
picture of a king size quilt on a boat. 
This photo features the braid style piecing.

This photo shows the borders.
Do the colors say Southwest to you?

Till my next blog - Thank you for reading my blog.

 

 May 18, 2021 - May 31, 2021

The last two weeks have been very eventful.  On Tuesday Morning I picked up the ten ft. UHaul truck I rented to drive out to Oak Park.  Bob and I loaded all of the items I was delivering to Rachel from our storage locker and I was ready to hit the road…..except, I had accidentally locked the truck keys inside the cab. Bob suggested that we drive back to the gas station where we rented the truck and get their extra key.  Unfortunately, it is not the policy of UHaul to keep an extra key so that was a dead end.  Our only recourse was to call a local locksmith.  Once the arrangements were made we waited for the locksmith to arrive.  He was there in about 30 minutes and had the door unlocked in five minutes.  I left Annapolis at around 10:30 am and stopped in Pittsburgh for the night at my sister Becky’s house.  It was great to see her and her husband AL in person again.  it’s hard to give hugs in a Zoom meeting.  Al grilled lamb chops on the grill and Becky made a cucumber and tomato salad and rice.  We ate the delicious dinner and relaxed watching some TV.

On Wednesday morning, after loading the truck with baby things given to Rachel from Allison (Becky’s daughter) I left Pittsburgh heading to Oak Park IL. It was the hottest day of the year so far and I couldn’t figure out how to work the air conditioning. If I had stopped the truck and looked carefully at the controls I would have seen the snowflake symbol which I should have turned the control to. After seven hours of bumping along in the hot truck ( I have a new found appreciation for what the pioneers experienced in their covered wagons) I arrived at Rachel and Juan’s apartment.  Besides being happy to be out of the truck I was super excited about seeing them and my granddaughter Lili. I was surprised at how tall Lili has gotten, she is definitely growing up.

During the week, I was able to peek in on Lili’s remote school sessions.  As a former educator I was very interested in how the process worked. Since her school is doing hybrid learning with some students in class and some remote the teacher is filmed teaching and the video is live streamed to the remote students. Lili is thriving on remote learning.

 

We had fun eating, playing games, walking, chatting, watching survivor reruns and movies, and making a lemon mobile for the baby’s room. 

Lili helped us pick out all the materials for the lemon mobile.
On Friday and Saturday Rachel and I worked on creating the mobile.

The mobile looked great when Juan hung it above the crib.

I was also able to photograph the quilt I made for Rachel last fall.

On Sunday we had Rachel’s virtual baby shower which I had planned and hosted.  My sister Laurie set up the Zoom meeting and my daughter Jessica helped me with the planning.  I had sent a box of refreshments (pink lemonade and Herr’s Old Bay Crab chips), games, and an acrylic cup to all of the attendees ahead of time.  We had a few technical glitches in the beginning but, between  Rachel and my great niece Hannah we got things running smoothly.

These are the items I shipped to everyone to enjoy during the shower.

                                                                 The games were in the envelope.

Here are all of the participants in the shower.
first row - Laurie, Hannah, Sarah, Lili, Juan, Rachel, me, Jessica, Aliya

                                                 and Roland

                                                  second row- Amilia, Allison, Wendy, Jennifer and Bella

                                               third row- Maureen, Becky, Nancy, Acen, Brandy, and Karl.

The shower went well and it was great to see most of the family all together.  I think we should plan some more family Zoom events.

I took lots of photographs after the shower all taken in the baby's room, of course.

Lili, Rachel and Juan

Lili, Rachel, and me.

Juan and Rachel

On Monday afternoon I flew from Chicago to Baltimore.  I was surprised at how normal everything seemed.  Except for the mask wearing it was just like any other flight I have been on.  

It was good to be back home on the boat. Bob had made every effort to have the boat clean and uncluttered with boat project paraphernalia.  But, of course, the boat projects and chores started the next day. Also, I started the Keto diet that Bob had started while I was gone.  At first the diet was a struggle, but we have developed some great recipes this week.  We have also found that using Carb Smart tortillas in place of bread or other high carb foods makes the diet doable.

This was our first attempt at making pizza
using a low carb tortilla for the crust.  It was delicious.

This week I completed the project of cutting down the thickness of the navigation station seat back.  It went from five inches to two inches thick. I helped Bob construct a screw jack to use in removing the leaking auxiliary fuel tank. Walking every morning, doing laundry and cleaning were some of my other activities.

The modified backrest makes sitting at the navigation station
more comfortable, but it will take us a while to get used to its appearance.

We had been looking forward to the pool opening on Memorial day weekend, but Saturday was cold (51 degrees) and rainy and Sunday wasn’t much better.  :(  On Monday we awoke to sunny skies and a weather prediction of 70 degrees by the afternoon.  Still a little cool for swimming so we decided to go to Annapolis to do errands and buy groceries.  Of course, that meant eating lunch out.  We chose Lemon Grass II since we could easily stay on the Keto diet if we skipped the rice and dessert.  By the time we got home it was pleasantly warm and people were enjoying the pool and hot tub.  Maybe I'll go to the pool tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my blog and stay safe.

Spring on Kent Island

 May 3, 2021 - May 17, 2021

The big news from the last two weeks is that I was able to visit Jessica (my oldest daughter) and her husband Joe in Johnstown, PA. I left the marina on Wednesday, May, 5th and returned on Monday the 10th.  Jess, Joe, and I haven’t been together since last September and it was so good to see them.  Since I arrived on Cinco de Mayo Joe and I met Jessica and a few of her colleagues at a local restaurant for happy hour.  The special drink for the evening was a pineapple margarita which looked delicious, but I opted for my usual - Titos vodka and club soda.  We had some appetizers and the best one was the roasted brussels sprouts - so yummy.  Even though Joe and Jess had to work during the day I was able to use Jess’s sewing room to cut out several garments I have been anxious to sew up.  As you can imagine, sewing on the boat works well, but there just isn’t a big enough flat surface to cut anything out.  One day Jess worked from home for the morning and we went out to lunch. I went to her office to help her with a few chores after lunch.  I also, went to the nearby Staples to print all of the games for the baby shower I am hosting for my second daughter, Rachel. I purchased the boxes for shipping the refreshments and the games and put everything together to ship out  the next day (another job that would have been difficult on the boat).  In the evenings we had great dinners and just chilled.  On the weekend we attended two woodwind quartet concerts and a youth orchestra concert.  It was wonderful seeing live music again.  On Saturday night Jess invited all of the musicians in the quartet and their spouses to her house for some snacks, wine, and beer.  It was fun preparing for the get together and even more fun meeting and chatting with some very interesting people. What a great visit and I actually got to spend Mother’s Day with one of my children for a change.

Back at the Marina Bob had started on some boat projects.  The big one was painting the bottom of the dingy.  Since the weather prediction was for clear skies and no rain we wanted to take advantage of the great weather and complete the painting.  Bob had painted the heavy wear areas while I was gone so the first day we applied the first full coat. The following day we planned to apply the second full coat, but ran out of paint.  Unfortunately, Bob hasn’t been able to find any more of the paint so we called the job done.  

The attempt we made to remove the leaking auxiliary fuel tank turned into a big fiasco.  The tank is under the Nav station seat and as usual with indoor projects it seemed like the whole boat was torn up while we were working on the removal.  After disconnecting all of the hoses and other connections (about 2.5 hours of work) the tank would not budge.  Apparently, the tank was calked on the bottom and nothing Bob and I tried moved it a bit.  Finally Bob decided to close everything back up and skip the removal and repair of the tank. Bob usually fixes anything that is broken on the boat no matter how difficult but, since we probably won’t be needing the tank anytime soon he decided to let it go.

The weather has been delightful. I think cold weather is behind us.  I have been able to walk almost everyday along the Cross Island Trail and now that the CDC has relaxed the mask requirements I am free to walk without a mask outside.  I’m loving it!

This coming week I am driving a 10 foot UHaul truck to Oak Park IL to take some family furniture and other items that have been in our storage locker to Rachel. I’ll make an overnight stop at my sister Becky’s house in Pittsburgh. I haven’t seen her since last summer. I’ll also be with Rachel for the baby shower I am hosting for her.  That will all be in my next blog post.

Thank you for reading my blog. I promise I’ll have some pictures in my next post. 

 April 19, 2021 - May 2, 2021

I imagine the reason I am so taken by watching the emergence of spring this year is because I haven’t experienced a Mid-Atlantic spring for five years.  Actually, this is the first year since my retirement that I have experienced all four seasons.  The change of seasons is lovely and I have missed the special beauty of each one. 

This is my view from my galley window. 
I call the photo" Reflections on Kent Island."

The weather was so nice one Sunday that I got my bike out, pumped up the tires, and took a long ride on the bike trail.  I rode all the way to the western  end of the trail.  It was easy going with only a few inclines.  As the weather gets warmer I’ll do more biking than walking. The next Sunday I rode to the eastern end of the island.  After exploring one of the marinas I took a wrong turn and wound up crossing the bridge over Kent Narrows and landed on the Eastern Shore.  Using google maps I safely found my way back to Castle Harbor Marina after a 1.5 hour ride.  Again it was a pleasant ride with just enough ups and downs to make the ride interesting.

It’s good to be back in the “saddle” again.

We suffered through several cold nights and chilly days these past weeks, but the weather is slowly warming up, thankfully.  There for awhile I thought “It will never be warm enough to swim” every time I passed the pool.

Great News - Bob completed his radiation treatments on Thursday and we celebrated with a great lunch at Carol’s Creek Restaurant.  Our waiter, who we have known for years, even comped us an apple tart for dessert when we told him we were celebrating Bob’s last day of treatment.  

I came into the treatment area (for the first time),
met the nurses who had taken such good care of Bob,
and watched him ring the “this is my last treatment bell.”

 

Now that we don’t have to go to Annapolis everyday we have started on some boat projects.  Along with the regular maintenance tasks (garbage disposal, filling water tanks, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc.) our days are filled up.  I haven’t had much time for quilting.

I have my visit to Jessica and Rachel all planned.  I’ll leave Wednesday (5/5) morning and head to Johnstown to spend Mother’s Day with Jessica. Then I’ll pick up a U-Haul truck and leave for Rachel’s in Oak Park, IL to deliver some items we have been storing.  I’ll also be with her for the virtual baby shower I am throwing her on 5/23.  I’ve never been to a virtual shower.  My sister Laurie is helping by setting up the Zoom meeting for the shower and Jessica will help me plan the games, etc. 

The first week of June I have a trip planned to a resort near Houston to spend time with Karl, my son, and his family.  Looking forward to finally getting to see my family!

Thank you for reading my blog.  Stay Safe!

Life at Castle Marina, Kent Island, MD

 March 29, 2021 - April 18, 2021

Spring has definitely sprung here on Kent Island since my last blog post (sorry it’s been so long between posts). On my (almost) daily walks I have been serenaded by song birds of various species.  Robins are everywhere and so are blooming flowers.

Kent Island has a Cross Island Trail where I take most of my walks
It is quiet (except for the birds) and serene; a great place to enjoy mindfulness.

A bridge on the trail crosses this wetland.

Fragrant Orange Blossoms are blooming along the trail.

Irises are blooming outside a building at the marina.

On Easter Sunday a crew came into the Marina and completely resurfaced the olympic size pool and the wading pool.  In the following days a water tanker truck brought in 19 tanks of water to completely fill the pool.  Throughout the week pool chemicals were adjusted and the water is now sparkling clean.  Can’t wait for the weather to warm up!!!

I think I'll be spending lots of time here this summer.

Bob’s treatments are going well (only nine more to go).  The treatments themselves only take about 15 minutes, but with his prep and the travel time it seems like the treatments have taken over much of our lives.  The first week we were here our trip back to Kent Island took at least an hour, but now the traffic moves right along and we are back at the boat in about 30 minutes.  Most days we eat lunch in Annapolis.  When we do come back to the boat for lunch I have been trying (successfully I might add) new recipes. It’s always good to add some recipes to my repertoire.  I've made some great sugar free desserts, too (Dutch apple pie, coconut cream pie, yellow cup cakes with chocolate icing). What should I try next?

Basil Watermelon margaritas are a new drink recipe we tried.

We are enjoying the change of pace here at Castle Marina and Kent Island.  It's so different from the hustle and bustle that was always around us in Baltimore and Annapolis.  Plus, if we get tired of the quiet we can easily drive to Annapolis or the beach!

I've started making plans to visit my children after Bob's treatments are over.  Seems like forever since I've seen them.

Thank you for reading my blog.  Stay safe.

City Dock, Annapolis to Castle Harbor Marina, Kent Island

March 22, 2021 - March 28, 2021

Annapolis was bustling with locals and tourists for our last week at City Dock. The weather was beautiful and spring like except for a mid-week heavy rain storm.  Bob had his daily radiation treatments and I was able to walk almost every morning.  I enjoy being outside at this time of year watching the flowers bloom and the tree leaves bud out.

Since our vaccines were fully effective on Tuesday I scheduled a hair cut for Wednesday afternoon (first one since October).  It’s good to get my hair back in shape.

Both the quilts I shipped out last week arrived at their new homes.

My grand daughter, Lili, with
the quilt I created for her.

My son, Karl, holding up the folded quilt I created.

Karl displaying the label I always sew
 to the back of the quilt indicating
 who I made the quilt for and
 the date it was completed.

On Friday afternoon we drove our car over to Castle Harbor Marina on Kent Island and a friend from City Dock picked us up at the marina and drove us back to the boat.  We stopped into the Pour House Pub for Happy Hour while we waited for our friend to arrive.  When he got there he sat down and had a beer, too.  We exchanged some interesting stories about cruising life. 

On Saturday morning we left City Dock in Annapolis around 9:30.  It was a perfect day to be on the water with a light breeze and plenty of sunshine.  We motored under the Bay Bridge, across the Bay, rounded Love Point (the northern tip of Kent Island) and continued up the Chester River. We arrived at the entrance to Castle Harbor Marina just before noon. Unfortunately, it was just past low tide and we went aground.  A dock hand from the marina came out to try and pull us off the low spot to no avail.  We got the boat turned around and headed back out into the river to wait for the tide to come up.  At 4:00 pm we tried to enter the marina again. We got to our slip easily without touching bottom once.  We got settled in and enjoyed the quiet evening in our new marina. It looks like our summer here will be quiet and laid back.

The Bay Bridge from the northern side.

Love Point with the Bay Bridge behind it.
Love Point has an interesting history read about it here
. https://www.secretsoftheeasternshore.com/love-point-on-kent-island/

We slept in on Sunday and walked to the Pour House Pub for hamburgers for lunch.  The food was great.  It’s nice to have a good restaurant with in walking distance of the boat. We will explore the area more later.

Stay safe and thank you for reading my blog.