Loveliness

This pic just felt good today :o)

Gearing Up For The Urban Assault Race

It's a big day in our world ... we received the quiz that will determine our starting position in this year's Urban Assault Race in Austin this Sunday! This quiz is t-o-u-g-h, riddled with questions that require you to spend excessive amounts of time playing on the race sponsors' sites, & scouring Google & blogs. We're doing it & are amped!

This year we have some rock star teammates joining the action:
- Wench & Stench = Kim & Skip
- Gutter Bunnies = Candace & Greg
- Wonder Twins = Amanda & Ryun
- Cowgirl & Indian = Dana & Vijay
- Bikin' Believers = Christie & Matt

Reluctantly Returning

We woke up to our last morning aboard Thalia today and with heavy hearts we dingied ashore to return to land life. What a treat it has been to share this experience and we are so grateful to Lisa & Kirk for their generous hospitality, enlightening conversation & patience with our endless questions about their incredible lifestyle.

Spent the afternoon in D.C. walking the National Mall & Memorial Parks.

Meandered through the Smithsonian & caught a 3-D IMAX show

At just about the farthest walking point from where we parked, we got caught in a pretty rough thunderstorm. With a mix of running, walking to catch our breath, & laughing at the ridiculousness of it all - we returned to the car soaked like wet puppy dogs. Changed clothes, stopped for dinner, headed to the airport & slept like babies the entire flight home.

Downtown Annapolis

We spent the day exploring the "sailboat capital of the world", downtown Annapolis with Kirk and Lisa. We strolled through the local shops, made our way past "Ego Alley" and they treated us to lunch at McGarvey's along the city dock. We lounged on deck this evening with a stack of "TravelTopics" questions, learned more about each other, enjoyed the conversation and read as the sun set.

Sailing Along

Another glorious day of sailing The Chesapeake Bay! We have so much respect and appreciation for Kirk and Lisa "showing us the ropes" (pun intended).

Exploring and Discovering

We woke up with daylight, shared morning greetings and breakfast, and even borrowed the dingy to row over to a little island we could see across the way. We spent the rest of the day learning, asking a zillion questions, and listening with intent to our Captain and Admiral :o) Tonight, we anchored up in the Chester River. We took this pic of the moon looking up through the windows of our state room. A day and eve well spent!

All Aboard

An amazing beginning to our sailing excursion of the Chesapeake Bay! We started the day with a fun breakfast at Chick & Ruth's Delly in downtown Annapolis before meeting up with Lisa & Kirk at Weems Creek. We dingied out to tour the beautiful "Thalia" and put away our small amount of gear.
We then all dingied back to shore & headed into town for lunch & to Trader Joe's to stock up on "provisions". Once we returned to the boat & settled in, we set the sails & headed out past Thomas Point lighthouse toward our first night's anchoring near near High Island up the Hrode River.

I particularly enjoyed settling into our "state room" aboard "Thalia", sharing great conversation and a restful dinner in the salon, and lounging in the cockpit and deck taking in two spectacular shooting stars and seeing the orbiting satellites blazing across the clear night's sky.

Setting Sail

Aerial view of Annapolis, Maryland

We flew out with wide-eyes this evening for a vacation of sailing the Chesapeake Bay with our friends Lisa and Kirk. They were incredibly gracious to host and introduce us to their lifestyle living onboard their incredible and quite comfortable sailboat, Thalia.

Cosmic Break in the Day

Today was b-u-s-y. Every second was productive at work and we'll spend tonight packing for sailing Chesapeake Bay tomorrow. One highlight of the day was the Cosmic Stir lunch at Cosmic Cafe.

24 Hour Liquid Fast

"Fasting is redirecting our attention normally spent on food to focus our hearts and minds on Christ and his plan for our lives." For more on Week 1 of One Prayer, click here.

Partio Before The Fast

We enjoyed a Mexican feast and fellowship at FC's Summer Patio Party this eve after Fusion Service. Today begins a new global series, One Prayer, that will last one month. Each week we'll be challenged as a whole church body to do what it takes to focus on this One Prayer.

"Through prayer walks, fasting, service projects and other opportunities, we will focus our hearts and lives on what God's plans are for us, our communities and our world."

Gearing Up for Urban Assault Ride

Do you miss the days of Big Wheels races, scavenger hunts, and Slippin' Slide parties? A great group of us are returning to Austin to take on our second annual Urban Assault Ride! To rally our teams, we hosted a Bike & BBQ Kick-off this morning at White Rock. Can't wait for race day!

Fabulous Tulip Fields

Mom snapped this pic of Skagon Valley's sea of tulips during her gal pal trip to Seattle. I can only imagine standing in awe of them so they're now on my '09 destination list.

Working in NOLA

Delish team lunch at Cochon (Cajun, Southern cooking)

Heading home through the NOLA airport.

Working in NOLA

Loved the Chihuly chandeliers in the entrance of our hotel. Spent most the day in BP meetings.

Team dinner at Acme Oyster House in The French Quarter.

Team Tabasco

In NOLA for a few days, thinking about hot sauce. Here are some agency colleagues that work on the brand before heading out to dinner at Pat O's. (Yeah, Bill was pretty much our body guard during the trip ;o)

Drifting Beautifully

Andy Mckee | Drifting

I've Seen It All

If you've lost your pet bunny (or released it from an Easter gift captivity ;o), someone is caring for it in the White Rock area and awaiting your call.

I Heart Fireflies!

They're like nature's sparklers! During our bike ride around White Rock this evening, the fields were filled with twinkly fireflies. I could have watched them for hours and it would've been an ideal night for camping within them.

1 Degree of Separation

Candace, Steve, Trisha and I catching up at Sangria to celebrate how small the advertising world is becoming.

Dusk at White Rock

Pausing along our bike ride to take in my favorite time of the day.

What If?

I feel more interested in living aboard with each new sail.

Imagination

Love this! (via FFFFOUND!)

Happy Birthday, Matty!

It's a great day for celebrating! Today is Matt's birthday and when asked how he'd like to spend it, I wasn't surprised when we headed to the water. We met up with Tim and Diane to sail on their incredible, Coquette, at the Catalina 22 National Regatta Championship on Lake Grapevine.

Fellowship Church | Downtown

We spent most of the day at Fellowship Church. Started off with teaching K-5th kiddos that "To play on God's team, we must never give up on praying" and got in a bike ride during the afternoon before picking up Matt's BBBS little brother, Giovanni, for Fusion Service. Afterward, we hung out at the Italian-themed FC Partio for some fellowship and delish gelato.