My 1st Sailing Trip

I went on my first sailing trip last Saturday. We have a friend here for work from England and asked us to join him and some friends on a day out sailing off Kemah into the Gulf of Mexico.

I had the opportunity to drive the boat! I was behind the wheel for at least half an hour. It was so fun! There isn’t any photos of me behind the wheel as Adam was busy drinking and serving drinks but here’s one of Adam.

Adam behind the wheel.

We were out for about 4 hours. Before we drove home, we stopped at Kemah Boardwalk for dinner.

View of the boardwalk and the sea from where we had dinner.

Sunset at Kemah.

It was a really nice day. I am now looking forward to more sailing in Turkey next month!

 

Camping Weekend 25 – 27 July 2008

It has been awhile since we have been on a camping trip. The last was probably in 2006 in Canada. Adam and I were determined to go on a camping trip again, so I went ahead to plan one, invited some friends to come along and we had a fabulous weekend!

We went to Huntsville State Park, 1 hour drive North of Houston. We packed our jeep up with a kayak, 2 mountain bikes, sleeping essentials and loads of food and drinks.

Our home for the weekend

Our kayak which was also the mode of transportation to the swimming area and had been used every morning for fishing.

Gazebo and 'kitchen'

We camped by Lake Raven. We were told that we can’t swim in the lake, there are aligators in it. We didn’t really believe them. The thought of going skinny dipping at night did cross our minds but we figured sitting by the fire, enjoying our drinks would be a better way to spend the night.

Probably it was a good idea we didn’t go into the water, we saw 2 alligators in the lake by our campsite the following morning. Yikes!

Alligator in the water! Can you see its back?

During the day the guys went mountain-biking and the girls just laze around doing nothing much. After lunch the guys will start drinking and the girls will paddle to the swimming area for a dip.

The boys starting a fire.

Julie with her water gun. We filled it up with cold water from the coolbox to shoot the boys.

Other than the hot weather, we all had a great time. We are trying to plan another camping trip but with everyone’s travelling schedule, we are not sure if it will happen.

 

Kayaking at the Buffalo Bayou

Adam and I would like to have a more active lifestyle. We now plan to do some form of sports or exercise over the weekend. We did some kayaking while we were on holiday in Austin and Fiji and we absolutely enjoyed it. We would like to do more of it before we decide if we should each get a recreational kayak of our own.

I Googled kayaking in Houston and came across this company that is assigned by the city of Houston to organise kayaking trips along the Buffalo Bayou in downtown so we signed up for it and went on Sunday.

We were scheduled for the 11.30am trip for a group of 8 people. We got there and were given a brief of our trip up the bayou. We got into the water by 11.45am. Some shots we took.

After paddling for 3 hours, we reached our destination all tired with soggy bottoms. Got into the car and decided that the best thing to do is to get a cold drink. Yes, the pub it is then!

We went to a British pub, the Richmond Arms and had some drink and snacks. I ordered the American Snake Bite which is a mix of Guinness and Cider (not American at all, I know but that’s what it’s called). I liked it! Adam thinks it smells nasty and didn’t even tasted it but I liked it. I think my drink looks really nice too.

That was a great Sunday. We will do it more often. What have we planned for this Sunday? Mexico City!

 

Diving Anyone?

Anyone planning a dive vacation or want to learn to dive? If you do, I will recommend that you go to Scuba Dynamics in Hartamas.

No, I don’t own any shares in this place. I came across this shop by chance a few months back when I started planning our dive vacation in December. Then I was looking for a shop that can plan my entire trip for me based on what we wanted in a dive holiday.

I did my homework before I contacted several dive shops but this place impressed me. The owner, Henry, replied my email and did a great job in trying to understand our preferences and he did have some good recommendations. (Mind you, some well known shops around KL either did not reply to my email or recommended some crappy resorts!)

Based on our requirements, Henry came back with an estimate which is $800 cheaper than what I have estimated it would cost us if we did the bookings on our own!

Having chatted with Henry many times, I find that he’s a very nice person and very helpful. His business is not all about making your money, which is very important to me.

I have to say that I am confident that this is a much better place to learn to dive and go with on dive vacations than the one I went with once (and never again).

 

Camping @ Martin Dies Jr. State Park

Over the weekend, we went camping with 4 other friends at Martin Dies Jr. State Park. This 705-acre park, between Woodville and Jasper (2 hours drive north of Houston), is actually on a 15,000 acre reservoir (The B. A Steinhagen Reservoir)

Our campsite is next to a lake and the scenery is just beautiful! One note of caution though, there are alligators in the lake. We see many signs along the park which reads ‘Do Not Feed / Touch Alligators‘.

A friend of mine spotted an alligator coming up for air in the lake! The park ranger assured us that there’s no incident of alligators attacking human, they are only interested in dogs. Since most of us really wanted to see an alligator, there were many times we were tempted to throw someone’s dog in the lake… when that failed, Natasha suggested tying me to the edge of a pier as bait and Adam happily agreed!

We spent our days taking dips in the lake, mountain biking and getting dirt on ourselves at the biking trails, eat and drink and watch the sun sets.

We brough alot of food and drinks. For breakfast, we have bacon, eggs, sausages, sauteed mushroom, muffin, coffee cakes, cinnamon rolls, toasts, fruits, coffee, tea and milk.

Lunch we have cheese sandwiches, cinammon rolls, cookies, beer and vodka.

Dinners we barbequed steak, pork, bratwurst, burger, chicken and have them with salad, and alot of alcohol.

The sunset is just beautiful. On Saturday, we watched the sun set by the lake with a cheese platter and red wine.  Awesome!

Though sleeping in a tent isn’t the most comfy experience, I enjoyed myself nonetheless. A brilliant weekend getaway. Who says camping is torture?