Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Outdoors’ Category

This is one of my favorite spots in the world. I’m spending a weekend at the Island House Condominiums in Padre Island, Texas. My family has been vacationing here most of my life and I’ve been swimming in this pool since I was 4 years old. I hope my kids will one day come to love this little piece of paradise like I do.

It’s starting to feel like fall!

After the sweltering heat that we’ve endured this summer, I’m welcoming the autumn season with open arms.

Fall always reminds me of new beginnings: starting school, starting a new job, entering into a new relationship.  These significant events in my life have almost always happened during fall, so the familiar smell of the air and feel of the breeze cooling you as the sun warms your skin perfectly always makes me happy and nostalgic.

Tomorrow, I’m attending the Harvest Wine Festival At The Plains and will happily be sipping local wines while enjoying the company of friends and the feel of the grass beneath my body.  Next weekend, I’ll be attending and “starring in” the autumn harvest themed wedding of two dear friends.  I can’t think of a better way to welcome the season!

Today is a perfect day at the beach filled with waves, sand, sunshine, watermelon, and surf fishing.  I wish this vacation could last longer!

Well it rained all day yesterday here in Chincoteague, but the good news is that’s all the rain the forecast is calling for while we are here.

Above are some rainy day pictures from the first day of our summer vacation.

Charlottesville must have angered the gods because yesterday we had one hell of a storm!

Yesterday, Charlottesville experienced what the meteorology world calls a microburst.  And it was the second microburst experienced by the Charlottesville area in less than three weeks!

I was driving from work to pick up Ben so that we could go to my Team in Training Batesville Store fundraiser.  Ben works in the heart of downtown Charlottesville which was the hardest hit area, so lucky me got caught in the middle of the maelstrom that came out of nowhere.

I was driving and chatting with my brother on the phone when I heard a message from the Emergency Broadcast System come on the radio.  I knew a storm was coming because I saw dark clouds and heard thunder, but I just expected it to be a quick passing summer storm so I didn’t pay too much attention.  Less than two minutes later, rain started pounding, large branches started beating my car, and huge tree limbs were blocking parts of the road.  I barely had time to turn on my windshield wipers when I heard a loud popping noise on my right.  There was a huge burst of flames from a power line in the field next to where I was driving.  I quickly put down the phone (the storm had already ended my call for me) and started to inch my way through torrential downpours, strong winds, and falling trees.

When I was almost to Ben’s office building, I heard another loud popping noise, this time on my left.  This one was even louder and came with a flash of blue light that scared the shit out of me!  I believe it was a transformer blowing.  When I got to Ben’s office parking lot, the storm was starting to die down, but the parking lot was covered in trees and a downed power line.

Ben and I spent the next two hours driving around Charlottesville trying to find a way to Batesville, and then giving up on the fundraiser and trying to get home.  Traffic was terrible because of power outages affecting traffic lights, trees blocking roads and intersections, and power lines down everywhere.  We saw one tree that had a root system at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter that had been uprooted and was leaning against a house.  We saw a light post that had been broken from its pole and was dangling near a power line.  We saw several trees and power line poles snapped in half.

I’ve never seen so much damage and I grew up were hurricanes and tornadoes are a common occurrence.

When we FINALLY got home, we were surprised to see the large poplar tree that is usually staring back at as through our fourth story windows on the ground.  We have worried about this tree falling and damaging our building many times in the past, but I am glad it is finally no longer a threat and did not hurt anything or anyone in its demise.

Here are some pictures of the tree’s final resting place:

I’m glad that everyone I know was not hurt and we all came out alive and safe, but I’m still wondering what is with all this crazy weather: 2 large snow storms in December and February each totaling more than 2 feet of snow, 2 microbursts in June that have caused tons of damage, and a June heatwave that I’ve never seen in Virginia!

If you’d like to check out more pictures from the storm, they can be found here.

Last night was a blast!

Cheryl, Jennifer, Kristen, and I headed out to the Charlottesville Pavillion to celebrate the first day of summer and see Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow play!

We started out the evening at my apartment with a quick glass of wine and then headed to the downtown mall.  You may remember me writing about Ventana a few months ago and their very unique margaritas.  Well Ventana was offering a discount to all Sheryl Crow ticket holders so we decided to stop in for a pre-concert cocktail.  I finally got to try the cucumber margarita.  It was delicious!  It wasn’t as good as the jalapeno margarita, but it was definitely the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer day.  Jennifer tried the strawberry margarita and Cheryl had the habanero margarita which I tried the last time I was at Ventana.

After drinks, we headed to the Pavillion for the music.  We enjoyed some awesome Star Hill Lucy as we chatted and listened to Colbie Caillat play.

When Sheryl Crow took the stage, we got to hear all of our old favorites and some new ones too!  We danced and sang and had a great time and even bumped into some more friends!

Overall, it was an awesome first day of summer.  We definitely started Summer 2010 off right!

As a blogger, I am always wanting to subscribe to other people’s blogs and support my fellow bloggers out there on the interwebz!

I’ve been meaning to write about my friend Dana and her blog for a while, but I kept forgetting.  Well Dana just posted a new entry on her blog, Dana’s Garden, and with it being the first day of summer and all, I thought it might be the perfect time to share with yall!

Dana’s blogs combines two of my favorites things: blogging and gardening!  She has rented out a space in a community garden here in Charlottesville and built it from a pile of dirt and weeds into a beautiful and productive garden!  I wish I could do what Dana is doing, but I don’t have much of a green thumb and I think my self-determination is lacking too.  On top of working a full time job, being involved in softball and kickball leagues, and working part time as a Pampered Chef consultant (click here if you’re in need of some AMAZING kitchen utensils), Dana has managed to bring her garden to life with broccoli, peas, green beans, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, and much more!  Dana is the inspiration that I might just need to take a stab at my own garden next year!

You should definitely check out Dana’s blog, especially if you are in to gardening!  She’s also a photographer so she’s got some spectacular pictures of her progress in the garden!

Summer makes me feel young.  The sun makes me feel happy, and today, the first official day of summer, is the day with the most hours of sunlight.

I’m celebrating by going to an outdoor concert to see Sheryl Crow and Colbie Caillat this evening with some awesome ladies!

In honor of the true beginning of summer, I wanted to post one of my favorite summer pictures.

This was taken by one of my best friends and partners in crime, Sarah Travis, a couple of summers ago while camping at Spy Rock in Nelson County, Virginia.  From left to right sit Ben, Me, Ian (Ben’s younger brother and Sarah’s fiance), and Sarah.  We had a great time that involved hiking, climbing, watching the sunset, building a bonfire, roasting weenies, and watching the stars.  This will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorite camping trips and summer days!

Here are a couple of other pictures from that evening (also taken by Sarah).

I hope everyone kicks off their summer right and enjoys some fresh air and sunshine today!

These are from Ben’s mom’s garden. I absolutely love hydrangeas and the many colors they come in.

All of the different shades of pinks, purples, and blues just make me so happy!

If I ever get married, there will be lots of hydrangeas for sure!

YAY for the weekend…it’s the first one in a month that I won’t be traveling!

Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling, and I had a ton of fun in Washington D.C. at the zoo, in Warrenton for the wine festival, in Texas for Megan’s wedding, and in OBX for the girls’ weekend, but man was I EXHAUSTED from all of that flying, driving, and getting up early so as not to miss a single thing (my motto when on vacation is I’ll sleep when I’m dead)!

Tonight we are having dinner with good friends at Outback and getting to meet little miss Erin (technically I met her at the hospital when she was born, but only through the glass).  Tomorrow is my company’s picnic which I helped plan as a member of the Events Committee.  I love company events like the picnic and holiday party because its so nice to get to talk to people outside of work in a very relaxed setting and meet their families.  On Sunday, we are heading to Ben’s parents’ place to celebrate his mom’s birthday!  I found her the most beautiful, unique gift in OBX last weekend and can’t wait to give it to her!

Besides all that fun stuff, I plan to do some more unpacking and clean up around our tiny little apartment, spend some time with my kitties, get some quality outdoor time, including a 6 mile run, which is part of my half marathon training, and maybe even lay by the pool.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing weekend!