Why we do what we do...

In short? Because it makes us happy!

Still, even after two years of boat life, occasionally, when we tell people we live on a sailboat, we see the look of "why on earth would anyone want to live in such a small space, full time?" Or even when family & friends come see us & check out the boat. Not all, but some look around our tiny home and though they don't say it, you know that's just what they're thinking, by looking at their faces. It's times like these, that sometimes, I myself start to think, "are they on to something?" But then I remember, I'm not doing this to make anyone else happy, I chose to live in a small space because that's what is good for me/us, right now. For years, I lived everyday, for the future. What if this? What if that? Then a series of life events happened and one day I realized, that I not only didn't want to live the so called "normal" but I also wanted to live in the now! Enjoy every moment as they are happening, ergo, we live on a boat!

Yes it's small, yes it's different, maybe it's even weird to you, something that you can't manage to wrap your mind around and that's all fine and dandy because you don't live our life afloat, we do. And guess what? We're not done yet!! 

In fact, we've recently narrowed down our search for our next boat and are really starting to make progress in making a final decision. We are keeping the next boat under wraps a little this time, but that's mainly so you don't have to suffer through all the many, "we made a decision" & "we changed our minds" posts. 

What I will tell you about our next boat is this. It will be:

-->older

-->bigger 

It's okay, you don't have to understand why we do what we do! Having done both, we don't get how you'd want to mow grass for the rest of your lives. Our backyards may look differently, but we enjoy ours just as much as you do, well maybe a little bit more!! ;) 

Our tips for liveaboard newbies:

Being at a marina means we see a lot of peeps come and go! Some are seasoned sailors and some are liveaboard newbies, just like we used to be....though some days, I still feel like a newbie!

When we moved onto our first boat there were two ladies here that welcomed me and taught me everything they knew about living aboard a boat....and trust me, there is so much to learn and know. It goes way beyond just learning to live in a small space! They are out cruising now, but I have tried really hard to pass on what they taught me and things I've figured out that works or doesn't work.

In no particular order....

Remove all most cardboard | I've heard several reasons for this one, like bugs are attracted to the glue that hold the box together and/or bugs like to live in between the folds of the box. In any event, I'm not cool with bugs taking up residence in my tiny home, so I remove almost all cardboard from the boat. And what does remain, gets checked often for any unwanted visitors

While we're on the bug topic: peppermint oil is great for keeping spiders away | I'm not really scared of spiders, but I also don't want to live with them. And because we are living full time at a dock, there are always spiders around. So I use peppermint oil to keep them at bay! I have a couple battery candles in the cockpit and I pour the oil on the tops of the fake candle trays, but you could also use a cotton ball or a small lid to hold the oil. 

Detergent as a head/tank cleaner | when we go to the pump out we like to rinse out the tank with liquid detergent (and water) after pumping out the stuff that needs pumping out. So after you've pumped out your tank, pour a healthy amount of liquid detergent in the tank and then fill with water. Now pump out the soapy water mixture and you're all done! We also pour a little detergent into the head after pumping out to help clean the bowl and keep smells to a minimum. 

Vinegar | this stuff is basically liquid gold when you live in a boat! Ok not really, but it is super versatile and used almost daily! 

Bleach is a big no-no | boats have lots of rubber hoses and bleach will eat away at the hoses and overtime you'll have a much bigger problem than a dirty boat. So when you think of bleach, think only for laundry! As long as you're doing laundry at the marina or laundromat and not in your sink!

Get to know your area | we will be here for a couple more years, at the least, working and saving money towards our cruising departure. So it is important to know the area you're in and where to get the best deals. I cook most every night on the boat, but when we do go out, we like to catch a good deal! Different area restaurants usually have weeknight specials and we know where to go for the $2 tacos or the $6 ribeye steaks!!  So learn your area and figure out where you can eat out on the cheap! 

Free table | the liveaboards at out marina (and several others) usually have a  designated area or table where you can get rid of anything you're not using anymore and in turn, pick up something you may want from the table. Just be sure to find out where said area is, I've heard a few peeps say they didn't know that was a free table, left what they were working on to go grab something from the boat and came back to find their stuff gone. :/ Yeah, not good! 

Cook with pork sausage instead of hamburger meat | on our last boat {baby Irie, if you will} we had the teeniest, tiniest freezer. This is where I made the switch and I began cooking solely with pork sausage. I quickly found out that I was throwing out more hamburger meat than I was using....and that stuffs not cheap. The benefits of using pork sausage are the many different flavors, the cheaper price, the fact that it doesn't have to be frozen & lastly, 9 times out of 10, there's no grease to drain off after cooking it, so less work!! 

Thinking outside the box | living on a boat means you have to get pretty crafty when you need a trash can in the bathroom. Especially when the only flat piece of real estate on the head floor to hold this is approximately, three inches by ten inches. Yeah, inches!!! The good news is, those plastic cereal containers with a lid that includes the flap lid part {where a normal person would pour the cereal from} are usually the perfect size to make into a trash can for a tight spot! Just make sure to always use a small trash bag as a liner and never try to reuse it for food, ever!! 

I know there are so many more, but this is a good start for now! 

So tell me, what are your tips & tricks??

Weekend raft-ups and more!!

My apologies for the super long gap in blog posts, lately! With me going back to work, life has become a bit more hectic than I was used to. Gone are the days where I wasted the day away, lounging by the pool, soaking up the sun and where the only work that was being done was, me, working on my tan!! Truth is, I was ready to go back to work. Not only do I enjoy contributing to the income, I also want a bigger boat and that my friends, is what I work for, everyday...well, three days a week, anyways! What a novel idea?? "If you want something, you work for it!" Someone should clue in the millenials with that fine wisdom!! 

Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun and an extra long weekend for us. I had five days off work & Joe wound up using a vacation day so he could get four consecutive days off and it was like a mini vacation!

That Friday, we slept in, then got the boat ready to go anchor out and met up with new friends. We rafted up with two other boats (we're in the middle)  as you can see we have our "project" dinghy upside down on the bow. We were basically given the inflatable, but it needs a lot of work. But you can't complain when it's free (another piece of advice for those millenials). It's exactly the type of dinghy we have been looking for and we're not afraid of a lil' work so that is why I have affectionately dubbed it as, 'Project'! In fact, that may very well become its name! 

This was our wonderful view for a couple of days!!! We had never really rafted up for more than a few hours before, but this was great!! Being able to just step aboard your friend's boat and hang out was pretty cool!! 

And, I broke my own rule about only swimming in clear water, where I can see what's beneath me. Ahh well, it was worth it and I only felt something brush past me once or twice...it was probably better that I couldn't see what it was. 

We had planned to stay there for two nights but the winds had picked up and I doubt it would have been a comfortable night on the hook, not to mention that we don't have a generator on board, so it would've meant another night with no air conditioning. So, we opted to go sailing and head back to the marina. It was a good sail and we even saw a couple of dolphins! I don't know what it is about those magical creatures, but I never tire of seeing them!! 

On Monday, we headed back out with a different dock neighbor and went and anchored out in a nearby cove. The water there is a lot cleaner and less salty...still can't really see what's lurking beneath, but we did a little swimming there as well! 

All in all, it was a good time and we can't wait to do it again!! 

Last but not least, here's hubs showing off his mad docking skills....yes, he's driving the boat backwards, literally! One of these days I'm going to video how we dock the boat, seriously impressive how good of a job he does with "parking" our thirty-six footer!!! 

New dock lines for Irie

If you remember from my last post, I told you all about the crappy weather we had on our Spring Fling trip to Port Arthur. Well, one line snapped....

And the rest of them look like this, or worse....

So when we returned from our trip we made all new dock lines for the boat! Luckily for us, we had found a bundle of line that was just over 300' long for $60 bucks at the boater's resale shop awhile back. That was way too good of a deal to pass up and we knew we would need it eventually....looks like "our eventually" has showed up! 

Can you believe the marine store wanted twenty-something bucks each, to splice the rope themselves....they said, it was "labor intensive"? Um, no thank-you, we'll do it ourselves!

Ripping the duct tape off my legs wasn't near as eventful as when Joe ripped the pieces off from his legs! Hahaha, if only I would have snapped a photo of his bald spots!! 😂

Getting the line ready to splice it....

Not too shabby for my first attempt....

Joe using his mad-sewing skills...

And viola....the end result!

All new dock lines!!

A closer view....

And, we made up a couple spares....because apparently, you can never have too much rope, I mean line, (but really, it's rope)!! 😉

Our first vacation on our boat!

Last Tuesday we left the marina around 10am or so. Cruised over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel and headed for the Galveston bay. The winds were pretty minimal, but once we got out there Joe raised the sails in hopes we could do some sailing ....no such luck! We even tried to motor sail, but there still wasn't enough wind, so he dropped the sails and we motored all the way to Laguna Harbor. It was a good lil' trip and we saw quite a few dolphins on the way, which always makes me happy!! (they were too quick for me to snap a picture, but I posted a video I shot of them on our facebook page) 

Once you make it down to Galveston, Laguna Harbor is roughly one mile inside the ICW {Intercoastal Waterway aka 'the ditch'}. When we arrived, there were already six or seven boats docked for the night. To the left there was enough space for 2, maybe 3 boats to fit and then to the right there was an open spot big enough for only one boat, but it was kind of in the corner and would've been difficult to dock there. Naturally, we chose the bigger, easier option and had the fenders out on our starboard and were ready to tie up on that side. Trying to make the most of the limited space, the other tmca'ers radio us and tell us they want us to dock our boat in the spot big enough for only one boat. I don't even parallel park in a car, much less a 36' boat, but lucky for me hubs was at the wheel, so all I had to do was scramble to move the fenders and lines from the starboard side over to our port side. That was fun....I had six people on the dock yelling at me to, "hurry up" "move the fenders lower" "throw me your line".....by the time I had a chance to look up Joe had parallel parked our boat like it was something he'd done a hundred times before!!!

That's Irie tucked right in there between that big, beautiful (& did I mention, very expensive) power boat at our bow and another Catalina sailboat at our stern. Hubs did an excellent job docking our boat!!! Laguna is nice stop if you need to split up your trip, but without a car, there's nothing to do. The good thing is, it's all free of charge while they are still developing the houses. We enjoyed the evening, just hanging out talking to new and old friends. 

We got up the next morning at 5:30, checked the weather and talked to the boaters who were planning to go offshore. The winds were predicted to be 15 knots with 2-4' seas, we automatically added a little to their predictions, because you know, they rarely get it right {meteorologists have the best job security}! I was a little anxious at the thought of going offshore for the first time in our boat, but we both wanted to get out there, so we decided to head out with the three other boats that were going that way. 

We left at 6am and took the ICW back towards Galveston. Wanting to save a little time, we cut through a ship anchorage instead of going all the way over to the ship channel. Let me tell you, our boat becomes incredibly tiny when you come up along side this guy....just wow!

We made it to the jetties shortly after sunrise and that is when our story really begins!!

We've been told, sailing through the Galveston Jetties is like sailing in a washing machine. It was absolutely insane getting through there! The waves were coming at us from every direction (think the agitation mode in the washer) and they were between 10' to 12' high....this went on for awhile. I was sitting at the lowest spot in the cockpit with my back on the companion way doors and facing Joe, who was at the helm. He said, "this is fun!!" so I got up and looked one time and sat back down....looking at those wave motions must've made him delusional. We both thought, I would be the one to get sick so I tried not to watch the waves head on. Once we were past the jetties, the waves were only 6' to 8' high and the wind was 18 with gusts up to 24. Hubs actually was the one who got seasick...poor guy! I kept looking around wondering who was going to captain the boat now, and guess what, it was me, white knuckles and all! But we managed somehow and I'm really proud of how well our boat did in those conditions. It was an incredibly tiring day, and after fourteen long hours at sea we arrived at Pleasure Island in Port Arthur. It was still a bit breezy when we docked at the marina, but with the help from a few people, we got the boat tied up and were thankful we had made it. We both took Benadryl and went to sleep! 

Thursday came with a great news when my doctor called to tell me the biopsy I had had the week before came back benign...Yay, no cancer!!! What a relief!! ...The winds continued to increase so Joe and some other volunteers spent the whole day helping other boaters dock as they came in. 

Friday evening was a Hawaiian themed dinner so we dressed in our best aloha/island looking clothing and despite the rain and cooler temps, enjoyed a nice meal and luau!!!

The winds became increasingly worse all day and by Friday night we had sustained winds of 32 mph. One of the guys down from our boat clocked a gust of 52 mph from the top of his mast. The boat was rocking so much at this point we couldn't even sleep. I heard a loud pop noise on the outside of the boat, jumped out of bed, went and looked to see what it was and found that our spring line had snapped in two. We were lucky that only one line broke, but all of them are so chaffed and worn down, we will have to replace all our dock lines. This is what the snapped line looks like now. 

Joe and I, plus about six other guys from our dock stayed up all night watching the boats, tightening the lines and replacing lines as they broke. By 4am the winds started to shift a little and we were not getting hit as badly. We had triple lines at our bow & stern and one long line from our port beam about 60' across tied to the next pier over. We finally went to bed at 5am and got a little sleep. 

Saturday was pretty uneventful, but we gladly took that after the week we had been having! We actually got to relax a little and start having fun....

The Pirate Picnic was Sunday afternoon after a brief memorial service that morning! Against his will, I convinced Joe to dress up like a pirate with me so we could enter the pirate costume contest. I found a Spanish pirate costume online for me & he agreed to wear a white shirt and a hat...so, I did a little diy'ing and mixed & matched a few things and he took home the 'most authentic pirate' award, while I got the 'sexiest pirate' award!! 

Monday we woke up early to head back home. We left at 6am and decided to go via the ICW this time around so we could experience both routes. It was definitely a slower route, but it gave us time to enjoy the trip and see the sights, which were mainly cows and barges, but hey, we were ok with slow and steady this time around. Our friends captured this photo of us on our boat as the sun was rising behind us....isn't it just gorgeous?!

It was another long day back but we made it safely back to our marina around 8:30 that night and felt relieved to be back home....even though technically our home was with us the whole time! 😉

There's something to be said about a safe, protected harbor and boy, do we ever appreciate it now!!! 

And to think we thought, parallel parking the boat was going to be our big feat of the trip! Now I understand what people mean, when they say they need a vacation from their vacation!! It wasn't the most restful, relaxing vacation, but we did have fun! I'm glad we had the experiences and no, it doesn't make us want to sell the boat and move back to land {sorry moms}! 

Our first overnight anchoring!!! :)

For the first time in I can't remember how long, Joe and I found ourself on the cusp of a great weather weekend and we both had off work!!! It was the perfect trifecta!!! 

At about 8pm on Friday, he says to me, "you want to go out on the boat?" To which I reply, "sure! most people probably go out before sunset, but yeah, let's go!!" So, we untied from the dock, motored out into the channel, watched the most amazingly beautiful moonrise and decided to do a little night sailing!! It was perfect! Our first night sailing experience and we were blessed with a gorgeous full moon....it was so incredibly peaceful and I wasn't near as nervous as I always presumed I would be sailing at night!! It was so great out that night that we decided to drop anchor and spend the night out in the bay. 

        Sorry the photos are so grainy. :/

Everything was going great, Joe cooked us some dinner, we watched a movie out in the cockpit and then around 1:30am we decided we were ready for bed. But wait! I was having so much fun on our spur of the moment sail/anchor idea, that I forgot to get in my exercise challenge. (Ugh, why did I wait all day?) Squats are hard enough on land, but there I stood in our salon, trying very hard to keep my balance while at anchor & did all 112 squats for that day....I think I deserve extra credit for pulling that off. Next, it was my daily dose of ab workouts & I was done. I crawled into bed, and thought I was going to get some sleep. But because we just anchored out in the middle we were not protected from the big rolling waves each time a ship would pass by, therefore the trampoline effect began to happen. We laid there for a few minutes and both sat up about the same time and said, "this isn't going to work!" For any non-boaters reading this, sleeping in the vberth usually is not a great idea because the movement of the boat can make you quite nauseous. We thought about sleeping in the aft, but it wasn't much better so we pulled up anchor and motored back to the marina. We got the boat back into our slip at 2:25am and we're finally back in bed at 3am....what a night!!

The next day, we went out in the afternoon. Of course, there was no wind at all on Saturday, so we put down the sails & cranked up the engine and motored all the way out to Redfish Island. 

We made it there about 4 o'clock, dropped anchor and just relaxed a bit. I laid out while Joe took a nap. Then I cooked us up some oven nachos and we watched this incredibly gorgeous sunset take place!! 

I absolutely love how this looks. And     no, it was not photoshopped to be half color/half b&w

Obviously, we were awake in this next photo, but after two attempts with a super bright flash, we decided to show you, how great "sleeping" in the cockpit can be!! 

We took some interior cushions and made a makeshift bed and slept outside! It was an absolute wonderful feeling sleeping under a blanket of stars with the moon shining down on us! It was a little bit of a tight squeeze, but we made it work. And I am so glad that we did because this was the first thing I saw when I woke up:

I jumped up and went and got my fancy-pants camera and spent the next 30 minutes capturing one of the most magical sunrises I've seen in a long, long time! There's just something about a sunrise over water that will make me set an alarm to make sure I'm awake for!! 

These clouds were just phenomenal to look at

We also saw quite a few ships pass by us. Being this close to something so big & mighty, sure makes a person feel small!

And, I wouldn't be my geeky, sailor self, if I didn't get at least one shot that included a winch. I don't know what it is about that big hunk of metal, but man does it ever look good!! :)

We plan to do a lot more night sailing as well as anchor out more often!! After all, that's half the fun of living on a boat and we don't have to spend money on a weekend getaway!!

Our boat is no longer nameless!

Bah badah dam........{clearly, I don't know how to type out a drum roll} but you get the picture! 

And speaking of pictures, here's a picture of our now *named* boat!!!! 

Okay, so we always knew what her name would be, it was just waiting eight frustrating weeks dealing with an unprofessional jerk to finally get the work done. But enough about that idiot {for now} there will be a thorough review somewhere on the Internet to warn others of my experience. [Yes, it was that bad!] Anways,  I think the quality of the graphics turned out really well!!! And if we could've dealt solely with the girl that actually installed it, we would've had a lot better experience....moving on, before my heart rate increases anymore! :/

This photo really shows how badly we need to wash the boat....try not to look too hard at that! :)

Yes, we stayed with the same name as our old boat {I hear the new owner is changing the name anyways (yay!)}. So, we'll be the only Irie again, at least at our marina. I'm sure there's another boat named Irie, somewhere out there. 

We went through numerous name ideas, but kept coming back to 'No Worries' {which is what Irie means}. We thought about actually naming her No Worries and then we thought about putting it in Afrikans because I grew up in South Africa. But the constant pronunciation assistance would be a pain... or we could go with Hakuna Matata, but everyone would've thought we had a weird fascination to The Lion King. So, that brought us back to No Worries or Irie.  Then my brother said, "you need a name that means something special to y'all." 

Our life afloat began in Kemah, TX on a boat named Irie and we have done our best to incorporate and live a 'no worries' lifestyle ever since. It wasn't hard to then decide that we would name this boat Irie as well and have our port of call be Kemah, Texas. 

Here's a closeup of the palm trees decal,  

I really like how well they turned out!! I wasn't so sure {at first} about the vines hanging down and wrapping around the trees, but it looks great on the boat!! 

So, there she is....what do you think? 

The story behind the {almost} shiner....

I feel like I should start a "You know you live on a boat, when:" segment to the blog, or maybe just the Facebook page. 

A few week's ago, I told you how my scrabble words were all boat terms, this new entry Is even better! 

If you saw my amateur video clip last week of the walk through on our new boat, I briefly mentioned my near hit & miss. Well, here's the whole story on that almost black eye! 

Apparently, when I dream, I really live in the moment. One night I was dreaming we were at a restaurant and Joe's coke got knocked over and was about to run off the table into my lap, so I quickly stood up {in my dream}. But in reality, I sat up really fast in bed and smacked the side of my face and corner of my eye into the roof/wall/window of the boat. 

While it was sore for a few days, it never actually discolored my face, which I was very happy about. But man it hurt so bad I was sorta shocked it didn't bruise. In case you were wondering, that is not the way I ever want to wake up again. Ouch! 

So, that is one of the reasons why we are now sleeping in the vberth. But really, hubs is the main reason we made the cabin switch. See, I made him sleep up against the wall in the aft cabin and there are apparently a few more obstacles on that side of that bed, so he was always hitting his elbow or knee or both. 

After a couple of nights in the vberth I was convinced that he was right {don't tell him I said that} about this vberth being bigger than on our last boat. So hopefully we won't have any disputes about it, like last time. :/

Ahh, the joys of living on a boat! :)

And because I don't like posting a post without any pictures...here's a shot of last night's sunset {that you may or may not have already seen} but I think it's beauty is worth repeating!!!  

Nobody puts baby in the corner.....or me in the v-berth!

We had been on the new boat for only a week when we noticed we were getting a lot of moisture in the aft cabin, partly due to all the rain we've had lately, I'm sure. 

We pulled everything out of the aft cabin, so it could air out. I put a few moisture absorbent contraptions in there and left the fan on to help circulate the air better! Since we had the berth all cleared out, we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead & order the not so cheap, Hypervent Marine product to put under the cushions. 

In the meantime, that meant we had to sleep elsewhere. Hubs asked if I wanted to sleep in the the v-berth & my answer was, "Nobody puts baby in the corner!" {I was actually quite proud of myself, because I am the type of person that normally needs about a day to come up with the perfect rebuttal}. So, we decided to make up the bed in the salon, it was comfortable enough, but it would've been better if it was about a foot longer. Because both of us are pretty tall, we couldn't quite stretch out all the way, unless you slept diagonally, and then the other person was really squished!!

The Hypervent arrived!! And now it was time to measure & cut it to fit these weird bed shapes. 

I bet you didn't think our bed was so big, but here's hubs measuring the foot of the bed....while all you see are his feet and legs....he may have also been checking the engine as well, got to make the most out of your bed being torn apart! 

Here it is in place under the cushions! Of course I forgot to get pictures of the measuring, cutting & installing because that was a two person job and I was busy being the 2nd person, but it's not rocket science, just measure, cut & install. :) 

This is what it looks like on the underneath side. That white plastic-type stuff helps to keep the air flowing & cut out the moisture under the cushons to avoid mold from growing. 

Lastly, here's what it looks like close up! Keep in mind it will raise the height of your cushions, but not by all that much. 

We had just enough to do both cabins and we have already noticed a huge difference in our war on moisture! 

So what have we been up to? Well...

We have been super busy lately! I guess that's what summer is all about, right? A whole lot of nonstop busy and plenty of go, go go....but that's why I love summer!!! 

We had lots of family come down to see us this summer, which is always really nice....it makes moving away from home not seem so bad. 

Joe's sister and her husband & kids came in for their annual Galveston beach camping trip, so we took them out sailing 

one night, watched the fireworks and then hung out at the beach with them!!

These adorable lil'cuties {two of my nieces that I used to watch before we moved down here} came and spent one night with us on the boat! They loved it and we loved getting to see them!!

My brothers two boys came and spent two weeks with us on the boat!! Lots of swimming took place and their new favorite about coming to stay on the boat is, swinging off the bow and landing in the water! 

What else has been going on? Let's see, hubs has been working a lot and I have been looking for work. I applied & interviewed at a doctor's office where the dr said he had over 200 applicants for that one position. On the one hand I'm lucky to have had 2 interviews, but on the other hand it's tough finding a job when there's this much competition and even harder when most of the jobs require you to be bilingual. Ugh!! That's sorta discriminative, ya know....when you won't even be considered for a job (that you are well qualified for) on the sole purpose of not being bilingual, I call that, languagism! I thought we lived in America where we spoke English and got jobs because we not only spoke the language, but because we were qualified for them! But hey, what do I know? Well, other than another language!!  🙄

In other areas, we still can't decide on what sailboat we want next, so we haven't listed our current boat, yet. Plus, I told Joe that I want to try to wait until it gets colder to sell this one, because if there's a chance that we are homeless again (like last time) while in between boats and have to stay in a hotel I'd rather do that in the winter time. Besides, we are not cold weather sailors anyways and barely take the boat out, unless it's warm outside so it just makes sense. 

Although that being said, I don't know how much longer I can take. While I truly love our newer boat, there's nothing to be done on this boat unless we want to make improvements. Which I can't justify putting money into it if we already know we are going to sell it. Hubs and I are both project people! And while I don't really want to do a whole refit on our next boat, I do think we both would enjoy a boat that needs a little work done. 

It has been raining here for the last few days, and though I know we need the rain, I am having major sunset picture withdrawals. It is cloudy from the time I get up until I go to bed and that just doesn't bode well with me....I need my sunshine!! We did get a brief glimpse of blue sky the other day, but it was just a false  advertisement. It was back to all clouds in no time. 

Oh well, our life afloat is still pretty amazing, even on the cloudy days!!

Until next time.....