Life in the Slow Lane (The Pearl)

Looking Back at 2021

"The best thing about memories...is making them." -Author Unknown

In January we said good-bye to our home and our life in Port Lavaca and moved aboard Texas Pearl. It feels wonderful being free to come and go as we please with less responsibilities.

February was spent enjoying our Texas grand daughters. Most of our weather was wonderful...all but one week when south Texas experienced a true Arctic cold blast. We were lucky to be on our boat and self-sufficient as most of Texas lost electricity and water.

March was a repeat of February, but with better weather.

April was a wonderful month...we were on our way back to the boat and back to a normal life.

In May we reconnect with family and friends. Being in Ithaca is like coming home. We love all the things it has to offer.

June was filled with family visits, water activities and exploring. The weather in upstate NY in June is simply amazing.

July was an extension of June filled with more family outings, catching up with friends and enjoying beautiful days.

August was spent traveling...first to Vermont with family, then to New York City to visit my friend and a week in Pennsylvania to help take care of our grandwonders. Life is never boring while we are here.

September was our last family vacation...we stayed on the Hudson River in a wonderful house and enjoyed going to Legoland.

We were very busy in October. Storing our boat for the winter, keeping our grands while their parents took a much needed vacation and heading west to Colorado.

November was our transitional month. We spent a week in Colorado enjoying the sights before coming back to Texas and settling back on Texas Pearl. It was time to reconnect with our Texas family.

Rockport was a great place to be this December...plenty of sunshine and the temperatures mostly in the 70s. It would be hard to find a better place to spend the winter. We spent the month catching up with family and friends.

Merry Christmas

"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." –Epicurus

Merry Christmas and Happy New year. After selling our home in January and taking a trip to Pennsylvania to see Kyle and his family we spent a quiet winter in Rockport enjoying Eric and his family. We finally broke loose of our Covid isolation practices when we headed north for the season. We visited with cruising friends and spent time in Charleston. It felt wonderful to be with friends and eat at some of our favorite places again. Things may not be exactly the same, but it's getting there.

The summer was full of fun, family, hiking, waterfalls and exploring new places and revisiting some of our favorite spots. We truly love being in Ithaca in the summer. What's not to love, there are four state parks in our county and three beautiful gorges. We took getaways with Kyle and his family each month we were in New York. Most were around the lake, but in August we spent a week in Vermont...Bryt's parents joined us and we had a great time.

We stayed in the northeast until the end of October enjoying a bit of fall before we headed west to Manitou Springs, Colorado and then back to Texas for the beginning of fall in the south. As much as we enjoy Ithaca in the summer we love being in Rockport for the winter. It offers us all the things we look for when we cruise...nice weather, good restaurants, cute shops, a grocery store close by and plenty of activities to keep us busy, but the best part of being here...we’re close to our Texas family.

We have no idea what the future holds for us, but we feel blessed with the life we are enjoying right now. I hope all our friends and family have a wonderful Christmas and an adventurous New Year.

A Summer of Waterfalls

“There's no better place to find yourself than sitting by a waterfall and listening to its music” ―Roland R Kemler

We spent a lot of time this summer exploring waterfalls. Ithaca and the surrounding Finger Lake region were carved out by glaciers that formed gorges millions of years ago...leaving over 150 waterfalls within 10 miles of Ithaca. The waterfalls are limitless in the Finger Lakes. After it rains they appear everywhere...you can spot them driving down the road or cruising on the lake. Not counting the ones that pop up after it rains, we explored 25 different waterfalls. Many had multiple falls so we actually saw more than 25.

Ithaca Falls is one of six falls on Fall Creek and is 150' tall.

Taughnnock Falls State Park has three waterfalls the tallest being 215' tall.

Cascadilla Gorge is located in the heart of downtown Ithaca. The half-mile trail winds its way through the gorge, passing 8 waterfalls as the gorge drops more than 300 feet.