Have taught more people to windsurf than I care to remember. Number 1 is get lessons, and learn to do it the easy and correct way from the first minutes on the water. We sold boards and gave lessons, and had our clients sailing in minutes and they could enjoy the first hours on the water. We watched macho guys try and fail, but taught their girlfriends or wive’s in short order. Women learn quickly, as they listen and don’t have the strength to do things wrong or the hard way.

Steady winds and smooth water are also keys to developing the early skill set needed for waves, higher winds and shorter boards and water starts because the boards are too small to float you.

Rent first, and several times to know you really want to take on another money sucking, time needed, traveling, and equipment rich sport. Then go have the time of your life. Kitesailing will be the next chapter after, with even more money, equipment, and hours of fun.

There are some very good places to eat, pick up the local tourist info newspaper.  Mico brewery, pie store, chocolates, wine tasting, and more.

The huge German resturant on the west end is Friedheim’s Bavarian Inn. 

We have also enjoyed the Garrison Brother’s Distillery in Hye TX, the first Bourbon Distillery in TX.  Tours, worth the time, cost and the samples are to be remembered.  Hye is just east of Stonewall before Johnson City on 290, Garrison’s is south about 3 miles of the Post Office, tasting room and general store.

We really enjoyed the jack up oil rig museum Oceanstar, at Pier 19, one block off the Strand.  It’s a great self guided, mulit media, 3 story example of a jack up rig, and the way the oil industry works off shore.  The videos, models, and displays are well worth the time.  Getting on the tool deck, standing by the towering derrick, and also watching the cruise ships back out were well worth the price.

When we got stopped and parked the coach this afternoon in Denton, Dave stepped out the door and with a sigh of relief said: Aaah. It’s warm.

We had a great dinner with Christy and Kelsey at the LSA burger company. Very cool. Excellent burgers. Dave and I split one and split the fries, the orders are big. Theme is Texas everything.

Kelsey is one of my favorites- bright, quick and always always enthusiastic. Major in marketing, a perfect niche. Christy is a long-standing friend. We caught up a bit in the middle of Kelsey’s busy days of college and extra curricular activities. Kelsey is just like her mom, the one in class who makes the rest of us mere mortals seem like complete slackers. Shes involved in 20 million things on and off campus and gets straight A’s while taking a bigger course load than most. Christy has just as many projects- finished and ongoing.

It seems to me that everyone I know is frenetically busy. Running faster, jumping higher. These are the olympic years. And I am all applause
and secretly hoping they get enough sleep.

After dinner we went to Recycle, used book store. Perfect dessert.

We left Clare in the coach while we went to dinner.
When we got back Dave says to Clare: you don’t know how it pains me to leave you.
Same here.