T-Day weekend

 Going to wrap up the next two days in one post here.

Saturday was almost a rinse and repeat of Friday.   Lazy morning, although I went for a spin on the bike before the girls got up.  We made breakfast burritos for breakfast.

Nothing like cooking bacon with a view and cup of coffee!   Beautiful sunny morning and the temps were close to 70 at the start of the day.  Still a North wind, but it had clocked around a bit from the NW the day before and had the good grace to back off alot so only about 8-10 now.

I had to dump the bacon grease somewhere, so I poured it on some deutritus we had thrown in the fire ring.  I didn't know ibis liked bacon, but who doesn't?   They were jumping in there and pulling out greasy paper towels, etc.   I ran them off and flipped the grill over which took care of that isssue.

We made breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese, onions, bacon and salsa.  They were yummy.

The welcome sign was out as my sister was coming with 2 of her kids for the day.

The campsite all set up.  This dent in Naya's car was not her fault as someone merged into her.  

My sister arrived around 11 AM and we swung into action fairly quickly.  With the 3 of them and the 4 of us and 3 seats on the craft, it was going to be shifts.   The three girls (Lucy abstained) went second and my sister and nephew went with me.

My sister and nephew are not very experienced paddlers so my sis was on her own in the kayak and Michael and I went on the SUP (configured as a sit on top).  Today we launched from our campsite and beat into the wind up around the little island and then a similar route to the day before.   For me it went quickly as it was shorter than the day before, although I did most of the paddling and my nephew basically went for a ride (which was fine).

At spot number 1 as we were leaving the sand bar, I saw a big splash over by the big island.   It was a dolphin (saw one at first).   As a motorboat was traversing between us, I used him as a blocker and headed straight toward the dolphins (I now saw there were 3).   We got within about 40 ft or so and at one point 2 of them turned and headed in our direction, but they got about 25 feet away and turned off, keeping their distance.

My nephew was excited as was my sister (it was cool, not going to lie).   We paralleled them for a bit but they kept diverging from us as we needed to head toward our site and use the wind to help get us there with minimal effort.

We beached with no issues and got ready for lunch.  We had a nice picinic lunch of sammies and snacks and then the girls were off for a lap.   I had briefed Naya on the route and they did the same loop and saw the pod of dolphins as well.

Departure was a small production.

Parental supervision of the young adults lol.

And off they go!

Rounding the corner.   That is Scout Island as a backdrop.

While they were gone, we put my nephew on a bike as well as my sister.  Probably over a decade since either had ridden a bike.   We did a few laps around the campground and when we got back, the girls had already returned.   They powered through it in probably half the time.

It was past 3 by now and my sis and family packed up and headed home.  The girls went to play frisbee and I tried out the hammock.  It was nice with the shade and breeze.  Lucy rode her bike up to the bait and tackle shop to buy a bottle of wine for our steak dinner (I bought 2 bottles and forgot them....a theme on this trip).

View from the hammock.   The sites were a nice size with plenty of room. 

I was super impressed with this photo from my Google phone.   Such a clear pic (zoom in on it).   This was after we cooked a London Broil and baked potatos on the fire.  It was delicious.   No stars as a high cloud deck came back up from the SE just before sunset.   We burned alot of wood and had a good time hanging out by the fire.

SUNDAY:

I woke up a little later but still well before everyone else.  I went outside and it was warm and humid and completely still.  The river was oil glass like a summer morning.  I woke Lucy up and prepared the SUP.  We were on the water by 8AM.

  

As there was no wind, it was time to paddle the other way!   Keeping in mind we had to be off the site by 11AM and that the girls might want to paddle, we kept to circumnavigating Scout Island (and the little one).  We were gone about 40 min or so as we piddled around looking at various birds and jumping fish.   Not a breath of wind the whole time.

Got back to the site and the girls were less than interested, so I got right to cooking breakfast.

As mentioned we didn't have a good to go list and forgot alot of stuff.  Like cooking spray for the waffle iron.  The waffles cooked,  but it took Coral 20 min to get them off the griddle.   We made the rest as pancakes on the grill above and used the all of our butter (about half a tablespoon left).  I also forgot pancake syrup.  We were a mess lol.We also lamented not saving bacon grease to lube the pans with....oh well.

We finished and started cleaning up.  I had already packed the bikes the night before, broke down the SUP and started converting to travel mode.   

We were off the site a couple min after 11 and when we pulled up to the dump station, it was a 4 deep wait.   I said nope, and headed home.   

The Pineapple drove like a dream and we were home in under 3 hours.  Traffic was thick on Thanksgiving Sunday and glad we didn't leave later as I'm sure it got worse.

Sure is nice having a sewer clean out next to the docking station.  Pulled her up and dumped the tank.  The macerator was probably the single best purchase I made on this rig (other than the purchase) to date.   I can dump and be gone in about 5 minutes.  No stinky slinky for this guy!

When I got a new roof last year I wasn't paying attention to the rain gutter guy and he went about 3 inches past the end of the house.   I was sketched about it for months and months and finally figured I would pass just under it.

Wrong!   I had a little too much air in the bags and was backing up and heard CRUNCH!  I thought I jacked up the rain gutter and my roof, but luckily only the LED marker light took the hit (rain gutter also fine).    

Now that I have a new gate and the neighbor put up a new fence I have a little more room, so it shouldn't be an issue moving forward.

You can see how tight I park it to the wall (5-6 inches).

We blast off again for a quick 2 nighters in mid December!