Rivers have water!

We had some heavy rains last weekend.

kids visiting for Memorial Day, chowing down on Tex-Mex...
note the rain outside the window!

I'm sure it did interfere with lots of holiday outing plans, but it had one wonderful result...actual paddleable water flow in rivers that haven't seen it in a long time. Even in rivers that we've never paddled before!

Blanco River from our takeout, between Wimberley and Blanco (town)

We had many choices of where to go paddling yesterday [YES, yesterday, Thursday! It was a first weekday paddle for me (other than on official vacations)...something to look forward to doing more often once retirement happens].

What made the decision relatively easy was that there was enough water in the Blanco River, in a stretch even Henry had never seen before. And was it ever a great choice! We had a wonderful time, and the river was simply beautiful. I took a lot of pictures to convince you of this. Here are a few:

There were challenges along the way: several narrow, rocky, rapids, some of which needed to be portaged. But they mainly just added to the fun of the afternoon.

Joan works on lining through a difficult section
(I was stuck on a rock at the beginning, so my camera stayed steady!)

my boat getting ready to be lined over a lovely little fall

advance visibility for some of the rapids was poor...but what great background scenery!

Henry waits downstream, with lost boats, after Robert and I went swimming
(he and Joan had chosen wiser courses)

The cliffs where I stopped to snap the picture above of my boat rescuer were some of the most striking elements of the Blanco River scenery. Here are some more shots of them:

Robert relaxes by an impressive cliff

cliffs and ferns

gliding by

Usually towards the end of an 8-mile (estimated) paddle I'm ready to take out. But yesterday even I was a little sorry to see the bridge up ahead, signalling the end of this very pleasant outing.

I'm a little sore today, but it was worth it. So nice to be able to take advantage of fleeting high water when it's available. I think retirement might be pretty sweet....

Beaching it

Last weekend I was hoping to try my hand at sea kayaking.

When most people think of kayaks, that's what comes to mind: Inuits or Pacific Islanders paddling from island to island. But what we think of around here is river kayaking (related to, but, not contiguous with—at least in my experience—whitewater kayaking).

We had a chance to experience the other kind in a safe, scenic environment, but the weather didn't cooperate. The forecast called for windy weather, but we didn't realize exactly what this meant right on the coast. What it means is, it's fairly hard to stand up, not to mention cook dinner on the beach! Not the kind of headwind you'd want to be paddling into.

So we defaulted to plan B, which consisted of sitting around and shooting the breeze (couldn't resist! note the windbreak some of our friends constructed)...

...eating and drinking...kind of a lot...(made possible by the windbreak)...

...and generally enjoying the salt sea air (even though it was moving at a pretty high velocity).

The place was Padre Island National Seashore (again, the less popular and famous, but much closer and less developed, north part of the island). Our attempted kayaking destination was the islands in Bird Island Basin, on the Laguna Madre (sheltered) side of the island. And even though we couldn't go out ourselves, we saw plenty of fellow-creatures in the water:

the Basin's shallow, protected waters are good fishing grounds for everyone
(but note the chop!)

apparently Laguna Madre is a world-class windsurfing location;
I saw cars from Colorado, New Mexico, and even Massachusetts!

There was interesting micro-scenery, too, if you took time to look down...and we had plenty of time!

And the sunset, over the King Ranch across the bay, was worth the trip...

Henry photographing the photographers

The wind didn't die down, as we'd hoped, with dusk, and some of our party bailed and headed for a motel in town. Another couple braved the elements in their tent....

...but we were glad we'd brought the van, and opted to sleep in there. It was a little cozy, but our tenting friends had a lot of trouble sleeping with the wind noise, and we were better off in that respect...

---

The next morning we opted to take a look at the other side of the island. While the Laguna side is better and safer for kayaking, the Gulf side has a nicer beach for strolling.

Even though, as we discovered, (and as I showed you on Wednesday) a good-sized chunk of the beach is taken over by enormous amounts of seaweed...

This was really interesting stuff. I'd never seen so much all in one place...here are a couple of closeups:

According to the informative displays in the visitor center here at Malaquite Beach, Padre Island is in just the perfect place to catch a lion's share of the Gulf's seaweed (and also its trash, unfortunately).

But the area looked pretty clean to us...your tax dollars at work, presumably. Here's a look at the impressive dunes near the visitor center...

...and the attractive center itself...

So although our best-laid plans were thrown a spanner, we still had a very nice weekend at the beach. Maybe next time the winds will be more cooperative and we'll get to try kayaking on salt water.

Wordless Wednesday: weeds and waves

Public art

One of the highlights of my Mall-exploring in DC was strolling through the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden, a lovely park-like space between the Gallery and the Museum of Natural History.

one of my favorite pieces in the Sculpture Garden

And I've been extra-sensitive to the glories of public art lately.  On my very own campus back home, a veritable garden of new sculptures has been sprouting. It seems that an artistic Marianist Brother has recently passed away and his collection of works is being sprinkled all around the campus.

All more or less abstract, most of the pieces are really delightful, and I took a little stroll the other day to snap some of them for you. Now, being a rather old institution, of course we have some rather traditional statues on display...

...albeit occasionally with less-than-traditional decorations (click to enlarge so you can see Mary's headdress here).

And then there are some pieces that are only semi-avant-garde:

this delightful St. Francis has quickly become a campus favorite

But most are playfully abstract...

...even if some of their materials are easily recognizable as real objects...

This burnished silver beauty reminded me of the tree that so entranced me in Washington:

So let me return to the official Sculpture Garden to show you a few more shots of that tree (I really couldn't stop taking photos of it!)

the impressive building in the background is the National Archives

close-up of some of those amazing branches

The tree probably wouldn't have looked as impressive without the sun's reflections, but, as you can see, I was very lucky in the weather for my sculpture stroll. Here are a couple more DC pieces:

this could be a monster movie poster, no?

and this could be a conspiracy clue!

I've always thought that public art is a very good way to spend tax (and tuition) dollars. Don't you think it makes otherwise ho-hum spaces so much more exciting and fun?!

At the Mall

Normally, I don't head to the mall for recreation. Shopping as a leisure-time activity rates, for me, somewhere near root canals on the desirability scale.

But I make an exception when the Mall in question is of the National variety.

National Gallery of Art and blossoms

Nothing beats strolling around this wonderful space that's part park, part museum smorgasbord, and part urban playground. On my visit to DC last weekend I spent Saturday museum-ing, but enjoyed my time outside between museums almost as much as seeing the exhibits inside.

fountain in the sculpture garden

The Mall is right in the middle of everything tourist-worthy, and its logical layout (accompanied by frequent map signage) makes it easy to stay oriented. 

However, as I've learned from hard experience, the maps make it look like a much smaller space than it really is. On one visit I thought, "Oh, I'll just stroll from the Washington Monument down to the Lincoln Memorial, then it's just a short walk across the bridge to Arlington." Hah! I almost didn't make it, and my legs and feet ached for days! But I was much more appreciative of the size of crowds that have filled the space (like here in 1963) after hiking the length of it.

Tip for visitors: it takes a lot more shoe leather than you think to cover even one end of the Mall. Here's a shot I took from inside the Museum of Natural History, showing two domes: the National Gallery dome and the Capitol, that look a lot closer together than they actually are:

Speaking of the Capitol, in an editorial aside, wouldn't you think if you went to work in such a gorgeous building every day, you'd been inspired to do a better job?

But back to sightseeing (DC is a much more enjoyable place to visit if you just ignore the politics that goes on inside those lovely buildings).

Most of the museums on the Mall are part of the Smithsonian system, whose original buildings are still the most picturesque:

There are all kinds of sights around the mall, in addition to the fabulous architecture...

petrified wood outside of the Museum of Natural History

advertisement for the MNH's biggest draws

And the "sculptures" above aren't even in the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden. I took a lot of pictures there, and will show some to you next time.