Family Fishing Trip

For Christmas, my dad gave us a guided fishing trip for the 4 of us & we finally cashed in on Easter weekend. We headed down to Seadrift, TX Thursday after work & woke up early Friday to head out fishing. We were all decked out in our gear & ready to fish!



It was H's first time ever wade fishing & he was excited about it! We bought waders and boots, and Dad let us borrow his spiffy rod & reels.



Our guide was awesome & he had us on fish pretty darn quick! H got the hang of it in just a few minutes and was reeling them in and sticking them on his stringer.



I swear our guide was casting about 20' further than us into the sweet spot and was pulling in a fish for ever 3 or 4 times he threw out his line.



He mostly helped out Brenda & I and would take our fish off the lines for us.



We were catching lots of red fish and quite a few speckled trout. About 1/3 of them were big enough to keep.



We had a blast! Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, not too sunny...just a great day of fishing, catching and family.



I know my dad is *the* fisherman, but I have few photos of him in action!



Looks like somebody is giving the fisherman a run for his money!



There was another group out with a guide from our outfit and they tried to get on all the fish we were catching.



Nothing like a great stringer of fish...we'll be eating well for a few weeks!



Brenda got big fish of the day award.



Life is good when you are out on the water!



I couldn't find my camera recharger since moving, so I took all of these with my 4 year old waterproof camera that I kept tucked away in the pocket of my waders.



Fish in the cooler are a great sight!



Another fish for me!



Here's our haul...not too bad for a few hours fishing.



We had such a blast & H is every excited about fishing more now, and we are going to try to pick some more dates on the calender to go as a family.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Our house is done (for now) and we've actually living like normal people in it.

The Langham Hotel - Auckland

Back to New Zealand blogging & my last Auckland post before moving onto the South Island. I made all our reservations and picked out all the hotels on this trip, with much advice and direction from Trip Advisor forums and reviews. I really wanted to avoid typical international mega-chain hotels and stay at something with a little more local flavor. The Langham in Auckland was the most notable hotel & we decided to check it out.



The room was pretty typical hotel room & a little bit dated.



There was a sense of style and elegance in all the decor and accents in the room- I just loved this pink and brown floral motif that was found around the hotel.



We had a nice view, but not towards the harbor but we did manage to spot a little wine bar.



The interior of the hotel was lovely and we found the staff extremely friendly and helpful.



There is quite a nice bar & lounge area that attracted a good crowd in the evenings for drinks.



All in all, the hotel was nice enough but nothing special. It didn't feel unique or extraordinary, but we still paid a upper mid-range price for the room. I wished we'd either stayed at the nice Hilton or at a smaller boutique place in the city.



I don't have any bathroom photos, but the bathroom in our room had been nicely redone & was more updated than the rest of the room.



The grounds around the property were well landscaped and I loved taking in all the new types of plants and trees.



I think that you could, in theory or about 20 minutes, walk down to the wharf area, but we typically took a taxi down to the area for a few dollars.



Probably one of my biggest complaints was the breakfast. It was expensive- even the buffet. I just can't eat enough food to even justify half of the price. We ate all of our other meals around town, but the food for breakfast seemed to be good albeit pricey.



Just a few more random shots around Auckland- I loved all the clocks & I have such a different relationship with time while on vacation.



And let me just finish out with Auckland by sharing this sushi buffet. It was not at the hotel, but just one place we stumbled upon one night. They had sushi displayed and you just went and picked up whatever piece you wanted. It was neat and different.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: In beautiful, hilly Asheville, North Carolina and Tennessee tonight and tomorrow.

MIA

Time is flying faster than I could have ever imagined. Everyday I keep thinking that I'll have a few minutes tomorrow to work on my blog, but each night comes without a chance to catch up.

I know I've been officially MIA for many days now. I am still alive and (sort of) well. Last weekend, we celebrated our birthdays & my best friend flew into town. That necessitated a mad rush of finishing as much as possible around the house before she arrived. Throw in a few work trips and tons of take-home work, and add to the mix unpacking our kitchen which we're finally done remodeling, and I have ZERO time for blogging! I'm very happy to report that we've reached a milestone in our house- we can park in the garage and every box is unpacked. There are still tons of things to do on our list & I'm still way behind at work, but I'm at least seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm headed out of town for work again tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, and then turning around to go camping on Friday. In other news, Mia was spayed last week & has recovered just dandy. My mother's couch, which she ate, has seen its last days. It looks like the summer is lining up with a lot of potential for more travel & we finally made it to iFest last weekend.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I survived turning 30! And I have a few great tales to tell about it if I can ever get back into the blogging groove.....

Auckland Sky Tower

Like the big picture? The Auckland Sky Tower was BIG!



On our way back from our full day tour, our guide dropped us off downtown and we headed to the Sky Tower. Late February was perfect time for us to catch all decorations for Chinese New Year.



The glass bottom elevator was quite nerve wracking for H, but I thought it was very cool.


Looking back towards the ferry dock & cruise ship in port.



Yea, we got a little sun burned out on the water the previous day enjoying the wine festival.



I loved how the hustle and bustle of the city was nestled along the water's edge with the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the background.



Lots and lots of boats all waiting to go out and play.



We've been to lots of tall buildings in the last few years, but we particularly enjoyed the views in Auckland- there's just something so beautiful about being surrounded by so much water



I was actually really surprised that H would stand out on the glass bottom portion- he wouldn't even go close to it in Chicago.



We could see lots of people playing games in the park & even a happy dog running around.



We really tried to find this place, unfortunately without much luck, once we left the Tower.



All in all, a very pretty and very green city with lots of trees and landscaping.



Auckland was an interesting city to me, knowing it was the largest one in all of New Zealand. At times, it felt much larger than 1 million people and at times, much smaller.



Not many rooftop pools here- just a helipad.



I'd highly recommend this activity for everybody. We didn't partake in the catwalk on the outside (along that decking) or do the bungee jumping, but we saw a few brave souls take the plunge.



Any and all afternoons on a vacation are the prefect time for a little ice cream treat. There is a little cafe and bar up top, but a fairly small selection & we were full from all the earlier wine tastings.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Mia did her first full "big dog" run yesterday- she ran 3.5 miles on leash at the park with us!

New Habits

Publish Post

Since moving to the new house, the dogs periodically sit right at my feet under my desk on the carpet.



Granted, the have their own couch about 8' from me & it's a tight squeeze for both of them to fit down there...



This arrangement was too cute, although I couldn't actually get up out of my chair to properly photograph it.



Silly puppies...this is usually during the day when the workers are in the house making noise and they are on edge about it. Otherwise, they are comfortably curled up on their couch when they are sleepy.

Photos taken March 2010, Mia ~9 months old

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My 2nd paper is officially published now & I am off to Midland today for work.