Nirvana Is In Florida .. FINALLY!

After reviewing our blog, I realized that my last post was about our solar panel project. Since then, we actually left the dock in Louisiana! Leaving the dock wasn't easy, and realizing that our teak bowsprit was rotten just days before leaving didn't help! We were determined to not let this setback stop us from leaving, and with the help of a friend a new bowsprit was built and installed within a week! The new bowsprit was made by gluing pieces of Mahogany and Ipe wood together and then varnishing. Actually, it wasn't near as easy as it sounds, but that's the basics of it. We are so thankful for our friend's help. Without him, we may have been set back for many more weeks .. thanks Martin! 

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After finishing the bowsprit, we needed to install our new Mantus anchor .. it's a beast!

 After installing the anchor, we tackled a lot of last minute projects. There were so many things that needed to be done at the last minute, like storing our truck at my Dad's place, filling up the jerry cans, hauling our dinghy from storage & getting it inflated and placed on the bow, filling up our boat with groceries, and all sorts of random things. We were exhausted the night before we left, and our heads didn't hit the pillow till around 11pm that night. We didn't even have time to hang out with our dock friends for a farewell drink! But, we were already leaving a few weeks later than anticipated and we weren't pushing back our departure date for even one more day. So, our dock friends watched while they drank for us! 

We got everything done and were up at sunrise the next morning and ready to go.

On November 18th, we finally left the dock and headed East! It was a beautiful day, and it felt so good to FINALLY be headed somewhere new. We'd been waiting for this day a long time! It's weird, because I always planned about writing about the days leading up to this experience, but we were so busy making it happen that I just didn't have the time. Let me just say ... it was so surreal to actually leave the dock, and so exhilarating! Here's a quick video taken just minutes after leaving the dock ...

 We went through the Rigolets bridge, and then began our journey into unfamiliar territory. We entered the Mississippi Sound and stayed in Gulfport, MS the first night. Our first day was fun, with calm seas and blue skies! 

On the second day, we motored to an anchorage in Pascagoula, and on the 3rd day (my birthday) we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed the company of dolphin while drinking coffee in our cockpit. I couldn't capture the dolphin, but there were a lot! It was so peaceful, and I couldn't think of a better way to start my birthday!

After we pulled up the anchor, we passed Dauphin Island and crossed Mobile Bay, which was like glass. We had a perfect day, being often escorted by dolphin and as an added bonus ... the "Blue Angels" were practicing overhead! Ken said he ordered them for my birthday .. LOL! That afternoon, we pulled into Lulu's alongside the ICW to celebrate my 53rd birthday, and the fact that we were now in Alabama .. and exactly 10 years ago we bought Nirvana! It was a birthday that will never be forgotten! The first photo below is just after crossing Mobile Bay and entering the canal of the ICW.

The following day, a water pump that we ordered the day before arrived (already dealing with the unexpected) and Ken was able to replace it without any problems. Luckily, the guy working at the marina gave us a ride to the hardware store and to Wal-Mart .. yes, the boating community is great! After two nights at Lulu's "Homeport Marina", we were on our way to Pensacola.

The passage from Lulu's to Pensacola was pretty interesting. It started down the ICW canal, which had a busy highway to our starboard side for a while. The highway was later replaced with beautiful homes along the way, and the area looked very similar to the canals back home. We then entered an area of really cool sand dunes. Once again, we were escorted by dolphin and treated to another "Blue Angels" show! I tried to capture this on my cheap phone, but just couldn't.

When passing the sand dunes, it was a pretty narrow passage. We were glad to have our chart plotter to stay on course! BTW, our "chart plotter" was an app (Aqua Map) on our iPad, and I'll be writing a post dedicated to it soon because it was so cheap and so easy. I swear, it's so much better than our expensive Lowrance and we love it! Below is a pic of it taken just after leaving Lulu's ...

After running for weeks, we were exhausted when we finally arrived in Pensacola mid-day. We decided to get some rest and dock near Pensacola Beach for a few days. The location was just what we needed! The beach was a short walk away, as well as "Happy Hour" and beautiful sunsets from our cockpit. See that sailboat on the outside dock facing the trawler? That's Nirvana! The very first photo in this post was taken from Nirvana one evening .. we loved the view!

After a few days of exploring the Pensacola Beach area, we moved our boat to a marina along the ICW in Pensacola for the holidays.

You see, we got a late start leaving Louisiana and we didn't beat the cold. Add to that the fact that not only one .. but two of our tenants gave their notice that they were vacating our rentals! For us, it made sense to stay nearby to repair and rent our rentals ourselves instead of paying a small fortune for someone else to do it for us. As much as we want to continue our sailing journey, we don't wanna freeze and we don't want it to cost us thousands of extra dollars when we're on a small budget!

So, we decided to rent a car and take the 3 hour drive back home to visit with family for Thanksgiving. Our daughter and her family were also in town from Colorado! Since Thanksgiving, we got our truck back from my Dad's place and we've been spending time between one of our vacant rentals and our boat in Pensacola. Luckily, our rental has a washer, dryer and refrigerator and the house doesn't require many repairs. We're once again sleeping on an air mattress, which brings back memories of our time in Puerto Rico! 

It's been pretty nice having a "condo" in Pensacola and a house in Louisiana to go back & forth to. In Orange Beach, we went to a fun Christmas parade that threw tons of candy. I liked the candy much better than the beads we get in New Orleans! We've also enjoyed the Christmas lights in downtown Pensacola and Perdido Key, as well as our traditional visit to New Orleans for drinks and tours of some of the well known hotels that are decorated for Christmas. The first photo is the famous Roosevelt Hotel lobby ..

and Fulton Street always has a huge tree and gingerbread display!

This year was our first visit to the Ritz Carlton to see their Christmas display. Their lobby was also beautiful, and they also had a gingerbread display creation of their own!

The best surprise at the Ritz .. free gumbo! It was really good too!

While waiting for warmer weather and our rental to be vacated, we decided to fly to Colorado for Christmas to see our "kids"! We enjoyed a beautiful "White Christmas" and I cried when they dropped us off at the airport. Our lil man will be two years old in less than a month!

We arrived back in Louisiana just in time to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends. Our other rental will be vacant soon, and we're hoping it's not in too bad of shape. The bad thing is that our currently vacant rental hasn't rented yet, but the good thing is that we have a comfortable place to stay during the Winter and while working on our other rental. When life gives us lemons, we make lemonade!

Ken's also picked up a few jobs while in Louisiana .. may as well make money while he can! We'll continue to make the best of our situation and enjoy both Louisiana & Florida. The views from our cockpit in Pensacola are pretty awesome and the sunsets are gorgeous .. I'll get a picture one of these times. Being next to the ICW, we often see dolphin too .. so rare in Louisiana! 

So what's our plans when the weather gets warmer in the Spring? We're not exactly sure. Since our rentals will always need to be dealt with (and a property manager would suck up our budget), we may decide to continue to stay closer to home. There's a ton of exploring to do in the Florida Panhandle, as well as in between there and Louisiana. We'll get it figured out!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!

Keeping Cool in Colorado!

A short path that took us to a waterfall in Grand Lake, Colorado

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been experiencing record-breaking heat in Louisiana. While sailing is a great way to keep cool, a trip to Colorado was just what we needed! Colorado provided us with gorgeous views and beautiful weather, but the best part ... our daughter, son-in-law and grandson now live there.

Since our "kids" moved away from us in July, this has been our second visit to see them. The first visit was in August, when we helped them load a U-Haul then followed them for two days in their vehicle to their new home in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Their place is located near downtown Ft. Collins, which has a really cool vibe and tons of boutiques, restaurants, and breweries.

The trip was quick and was more work than play. However, we did squeeze in a visit to a couple of cool areas during the evenings. We visited "The Exchange", which was a green space with corn hole games surrounded by restaurants. We enjoyed drinking a beer while watching our grandson run around! See the guy on the right with the orange backpack .. that's our son-in-law with our grandson. The guy to their right .. Ken.

We also visited one of the many breweries, "New Belgium". The brewery also had a nice green space with corn hole games, food trucks and of course ... great beer! Once again our grandson had a great time running around and putting the bean bags in the holes.

We spent one day exploring the mountains nearby .. so beautiful!

The second trip was just this past Friday morning, and we arrived back on Nirvana this past Tuesday afternoon. This trip was strictly for fun, and we flew from New Orleans to Denver with our son-in-law's parents. Since our kids have a small home, we rented a condo in Fraser where all seven of us could stay together. Fraser is located next to Winter Park and near the Rocky Mountain National Park, which allowed us to explore both areas.

When we stepped off of the airplane in Denver, we immediately noticed the change of weather. We left feel-like temps in the 100's and were now in the mid-70's with low humidity .. heaven! On the way from Denver to Fraser, we stopped in Golden for a tour of the Coors Brewery and some of the best pizza we've had in a long time. The brewery tour was fun, and we enjoyed the charming town.

On the way to Fraser, we enjoyed beautiful scenery, and even saw a moose and her baby!

The next morning we headed to Winter Park Resort, which isn't just for Winter! The resort was filled with mountain bikers, who took the gondola up the hills with their bikes then rode down on bike trails. Some of the trails were pretty steep, and we enjoyed watching the bikers ride down the hill. Next time we'd like to try one of the easier trails, or hike up the hill and ride the gondola down after drinks and a snack.

From Winter Park, we headed to Grand Lake, Colorado which was also gorgeous. There is indeed a lake, which is "grand" and is Colorado's largest natural body of water. The lake is surrounded by campgrounds, marinas and a quaint little town.

Our "kids" with their parents ...

After strolling through the town, we drove about a mile to a little trail with a waterfall at the end. The beginning of the trail was very welcoming. We loved all the beautiful fall foilage throughout our trip!

The trail was pretty easy, and our grandson insisted on walking the trail himself. There were a few challenges for him, and I'd say "Slow, Slow" as I held his hand. He was so cute, saying "Slow, Slow" every time he faced a challenge. At 20 months he's quite a trooper! The waterfall was really pretty, and the photo doesn't really capture it's beauty.

 

We hung out at the condo that night and soaked up our time with the kids. The next day, Sunday, we drove to another condo in Ft. Collins. On the way, we drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park, where we saw lots of elk and yes .. more beautiful views! From there we drove through Estes Park, another cool town, to Ft Collins. Here's a map that kinda shows our route from Denver to Golden (between Denver & Boulder), to Fraser (next to Winter Park), to Grand Lake. Another day through the Rocky Mountains then through Estes Park to Ft. Collins .. such a great road trip!

We arrived in Ft. Collins just in time for dinner, then spent our last day (Monday) strolling through the town, which "Main Street" in Disneyland was mirrored after. I wish I would have gotten some photos of downtown Ft. Collins, as it really is a great town .. full of boutiques, cafes, art galleries and breweries. It's really pretty with flowers everywhere along the streets, and everything is so clean! As much as we hated our kids moving away, I think they're gonna love their new home town. Their home is just a bicycle ride away from everything!

We hated to leave our kids and this lil guy on Tuesday ... can you blame us? We don't know when we'll get to see them again, which made it really hard to leave. Our lil man is growing so fast, and we already miss him and his parents so much. Hopefully they'll come visit us somewhere on Nirvana!

It's hard to believe, but the weather quickly changed in Ft. Collins after we left. Yesterday, it snowed! Here's a photo of our kids' backyard. I hope they can handle driving in the work in the snow. We're not used to such things in Louisiana!

We're now back on Nirvana and although the weather isn't as nice as Colorado's was, we're no longer in brutal heat. We escaped just long enough and now temps are in the 80's .. perfect for getting some projects finally done.

We've already started working on some things, and we're geared up for sailing further South soon!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!