THE COUSIN'S CRUISE

Just over two years ago, the day after our 50th Wedding Anniversary, we went out on what we have since come to refer to as "The Cousin's Cruise".  Some of our children were on board plus a number of our nieces and nephews.  We didn't cruise very far.  We just went well out onto the lake, played with water toys, swam off of the boat, sun bathed and generally relaxed.   

 

Nieces and Nephews and Cousins everywhere you looked.  It was wonderful. 

 

 

 

 

  



Twins  Micheal and  Rachael

                                                                     Lisa and Lynn

Leon with Dan at the helm.




Tracy Elizabeth and Deanna

Lynn and Lisa with Wendy and Murray

Rochelle, Jaqualyn, Rachael and Micheal playing with the inflatables

Tracy Elizabeth and Bonnie catching up on lost time.

 




Wendy and Leon getting ready for another skier or wake boarder. 

It was a wonderful day

 

 

 

And I love the picture that Murray took,  that I opened this blog with, of all the Nieces and Nephews and Cousins on board as we came in to dock.

 

 

 

 

IT WAS A GREAT WEEKEND AND A GREAT DAY

 

 

 

 

 

ONE I'LL NEVER FORGET

 

 

 

 

 

OUR DOCK MATE IS GONE

 

 

Suddenly on Wednesday, Bob Inkster got the suggestion from Ed that it would be a good time to pull "Somerset" if he wanted to have it back in the same area of the hangar that he likes.  So no sooner said than done. 

Bob quickly packed up his dock stuff, delivered it to the hangar.  Then he and Dan decided the winds were favourable that evening and they were gone from the harbour by 5:30.  And settled in to Gimli harbour by 6:30, ready for pull-out tomorrow. 

 

The weather is certainly not worth hanging around here for.  If Dan and I had known the weather was going to be this bad, this soon, we would have booked "Thunderbird's" pull-out earlier too. 

 

 

 

ONE MORE WEEK AND WE WILL BE IN THE HANGAR AS WELL



 

 

THINGS MISSED IN A SHORT COLD SEASON

So, what have we missed out on this year, with the season being too short and too cool and rainy. 

 

 

First off is "A cruise north".  Each year I like to take a week or two and head up north, just to get away from the harbour .  Have a little adventure, or see something new. 

 

 

Secondly is "More socializing".  Only the first couple of weeks, that we were here in late July, was the weather conducive to being out and about and then it turned sour. 

 

 

There also didn't seem to be many activities planned and some that were planned got cancelled.   

 

We also didn't get around to much "Swimming off of the boat".  The weather just has not been what is needed for that.  Sea-Enna indulged, but it was too cool for me.  I only went in once. 

 

We never even got our Dinghy down to use. 

 

 

I also never got any of my canvas sewing done.  I had two canvas sewing projects planned for this year and just never got around to either one.  And I certainly can't blame the weather for that. 

 

 

 

 

OH WELL, I GUESS THERE IS ALWAYS NEXT YEAR.

 

 

 

 

OUR MARINA FALL SUPPER

Each year at the end of the boating season, here at the marina, we have our "Fall Supper". 

 

 This gives us all a last chance to see each other and socialize, before we all go our separate ways for the winter season. 

The hardiest of the bunch, tough it out here in Manitoba, there is even one boater that goes even further north, to work up in northern Alberta, but that's exceptional. 

A lot of us retired boaters head south. A few to Florida, some to Arizona, and one couple are regulars in St. Lucia. 

But as for us, we head down to south Texas.  Two and a half days drive straight south and we are in our little piece of heaven called Paradise Park in McAllen Texas.  http://www.paradiseparkinc.com/ 

The Rio Grande Valley is a very popular winter destination for Manitoba and Ontario retirees.  Some days it seems like the Manitoba and Ontario license plates out number the Texans. 

We had a great wind up dinner.  Good food and good company and some of us ended the evening with a roaring campfire on the island. 

THE END OF ONE SEASON AND ON TO THE NEXT

OUR PULLOUT DATE HAS BEEN BOOKED

We went out to the hangar on the 11th and booked our pullout date.  Now comes the acceptance of the fact that our boating season is coming to a close for this year.  We are being pulled on Sept 24th. 

 

Our Marina Fall wind-up Dinner is on this Saturday, the 13th so we will have one more week to kick around the harbour here, then the next week we will make our way up to Gimli for our pull out. 



This is always a sad occasion for me, but I am starting to think about being back in Texas again.   We have some exciting changes coming for us there, that we are quite looking forward to. 



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TIME FOR A NEW BILGE PUMP - DIY

After all of the rain this summer our bilge pump has really been working overtime.  It is even starting to get a little iffy.  Having to be "wacked"every once in a while to get it going again. 

 

 

So Dan put that on his todo list.  And today being windy and cold he decided to occupy himself by installing the new one. 

 

 

 

 

 

THERE ARE ALWAYS CHORES TO BE DONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALL IN ALL IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD WEEKEND

Friday we got all our chores and shopping done.While it rained off and on with bright sunshine in between.  On the weekend we had lots of sunshine, but it was a little cool and windy out on the lake.

 

Dan's brother Dwight came out for another visit before he heads back to Florida.  Bonnie and Brad and Kaden were here as well. 

So we did a couple of cruises on Saturday and Sunday.  Too cool for swimming, but we had a nice visit. 

 

You can sure tell that fall is moving in as the geese honk their way across the sky when the sun starts to set.  And we wake up to a very foggy harbour early most mornings.   

 

But we did get out for a couple of cruises that we all enjoyed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO THE NEXT TIME WE SEE DWIGHT WILL BE IN TEXAS