Seabrook After Ike

Seabrook is a beautiful coastal community about 20 minutes from our home. Jason and I like to spend afternoons taking a walk or birdwatching at a park in Seabrook.

We were so sad to see the terrible damage that was done to the houses in that neighborhood, and also to the fishing pier on the bay.

Labor Day Weekend

My parents came to visit us over Labour Day weekend. We had lots of fun with them. One day, we went to see a 3-D Imax movie about the Grand Canyon. That was sooo great! Now, I'm really wanting to go to Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico! We went on family vacations to all those places when I was little, but now I'd like to see them from my adult perspective...and take some photos. We also walked around the Houston Rose Garden and Japanese Gardens.
We also toured NASA while my parents were here. We all realy enjoyed that. You can see photos and read more about our day at the Johnson Space Center here.

My Mom's birthday was the day after they left our house, so we celebrated with cake! I took a delicious store-bought cake and added fruit to it...yummy!

Next, we took my parents to Kemah Board Walk. This is the wonderful place where Jason and I had our first "real date"...and also where he proposed to me! It is FUN! You can watch boats coming in from the bay, eat, shop, listen to live music, take a whirl on the carnival-style rides, or just stroll hand-in-hand along the board walk overlooking the bay.

On another day, we found some great bargains while shopping on The Strand in Galveston! I had been wanting to go down there, so this was a special treat! We really enjoyed walking along the streets of the historic district, and browsing through clothing, home goods, and pearing into art galleries. Horse drawn carriages passed by a few times, and we could see the trolley tracks crossing the street in zig zags. The trolley still runs, too, but we didn't ride it this time.

Our visit with Mom and Dad also included an afternoon at the driving range. Jason took a golfing class while he was at Southern. His parents got him a nice set of clubs while he was going through that class, and he still has them in our closet.

We decided to have a little adventure...and my parents were game...so we headed out to find a driving range. The first one we came to was closed, so Jason knew of another, and we headed over there.

I hit a golf ball with a real golf club for the first time... COOL! I have played putt-putt golf many, many times! Hitting the balls onto the driving range was lots of fun!

Climbing Mt. Tallac - Lake Tahoe

One of our most incredible experiences during our Lake Tahoe trip was our climb up Mt. Tallac! It was a wonderful hike, and we enjoyed it very much! It was a steep trail, so it was categorized as "difficult/strenuous" in the trail guides. We weren't too worried, since we have both been hiking and climbing mountains before--especially with my brother Daniel. We started out about 11:00 am after a hearty breakfast at IHOP.

The trail was rocky in some areas, and quite dusty. There were still some areas with snow coverage, but not very close to our trail.

We passed Cathedral Lake as we approached the mid-way point of our climb.

Cathedral Lake in background (above) . We enjoyed the mountain valleys and beautiful wildflowers.

Our lunch spot had great shade, and a superb view of Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake.

Views from our lunch spot! (above and below)

As we climbed higher, there was a false summit. Once we got even with that false summit, we passed some hikers on their way down, and they told us we had at least another hour of hiking. We thought we were almost there...ugh!

Well, we kept going, and made it to the top. The summit was a little scary for me, because it was like a huge pile of jaggedy rocks. One side had a rocky shaft, too--which would be about 1,000 feet straight down a cliff. That part made me nervous. And, there was a group of girl scouts up there near that shaft, and a girl dropped her hat near the edge--she actually grabbed it, too before it went over the edge--but her scout leader told her that she shouldn't have done that, because it was just too close to the edge. That made me really want to get out of that section.--yikes!

Here's a picture of where that shaft went straight down!! (above) We got to the summit, and took a few photos, but my camera battery died, and my spare batteries did not work. But, we got all we needed and wanted, I think. The views included all the mountain lakes in the area and also many mountains all around us.

I was enjoying the summit views, but also eager to get off that scary pile of rocks. On the way down, we saw a bear with four cubs! That was incredible! Neither Jason nor I had ever seen a bear in the wild, so we got to see our first one together! Awesome!

Eagle Lake near Lake Tahoe

Distant view of Lake Tahoe at sunset.



Emerald Bay -- view from the winding road that took us to the trail head of Eagle Lake.

Here is a photo of us from a lookout spot along the drive up to the trailhead of Eagle Lake.

On Sabbath afternoon, we spent a long time at the Adventist Church eating a delicious potluck dinner, and talking with two young adult couples we met. After that, we headed to the trail head of Eagle Lake. The drive up to the trail head was amazing, and somewhat nerve-racking. There were sections of the road that went straight down for hundreds of feet--and no guard rail. The views up there were incredible! You could see Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, and the mountains along the edges. The sun was getting low in the sky, so it was a really beautiful drive and hike.

We were not sure if we would make it to Eagle Lake and back before dark, but we decided to try anyway. They were calling for a new moon that night, so we knew that we didn't want to be on the trail very long after sunset. When the moon is new--there's not much moon. We saw Eagle Falls along the way--but it didn't have much water right now, since most of the snow has already melted off and flowed down, down, down into the lake (thus the chilly lake water).

Eagle Lake

We made it to Eagle Lake, but the lighting was kind of dim, so the pictures we took of ourselves with the lake are blurry. I think my camera battery was also getting really low, so that might have been a factor. Eagle Lake was a beautiful spot nestled amidst the mountains, and it was the perfect 1 hour hike for Sabbath afternoon. (about 1 mile one way).

Kayaking to Emerald Bay of Lake Tahoe

Our kayak adventure began on Friday morning as we headed out to the kayak rental place we had found a coupon for. It was on a pier, and we were excited to see stacks of kayaks on the beach.

Our goal was to kayak to Emerald Bay and back in 4 hours. We were getting ready to sign up, when I asked the friendly staff how far Emerald Bay was from there. She immediately said that it was a day trip, not 1/2 day. Yikes! I guess that's not an option... Well, we asked her what there was to see in the area, and she said we could kayak down to the casinos and back... Or we could just stay closer by the pier and kayak around the beach area. Neither of those options were appealing to us, so we decided to pull out our kayak rental list, and try another place.

By then it was getting a little late, and we were worried that most placed wouldn't have 2-seat kayaks available. We decided to try Camp Richardson --which is a big resort and camping area that has every type of activity, rentals, classes, and who knows what else! (The Adventist church in Lake Tahoe will be having their campmeeting at Camp Richardson--a perfect spot for it)

It was a huge place with families walking and biking around everywhere. We headed down to the docks, and found that they had a bright yellow 2-seater available.

We hopped in, and headed out.

The winds were pretty strong, and the water quite choppy.

We stopped once to rest and enjoy the view.

We made it to Emerald Bay, and enjoyed the beautiful waters there.

We had to started heading back to the docks pretty quick, because our rental was only 4 hours.

We stopped to rest once on the way back also.

It was a gorgeous journey...although very tiring on the arms and shoulders (especially for me). But it was great, and I do hope to kayak again soon!