Urban Epic - The Trinity Snow Kayak Run

One way to spend a snow day, that only comes around once a generation in the metroplex, is to seat yourself in a kayak and dump yourself in the Trinity river in Ft. Worth. With last Fridays 8-12 inches of snow, there was not a better time to take advantage of a swollen, swift moving river...it was, as John put it, "Urban Epic." Well, I literally dumped myself into the river about 30 minutes into navigating down it and discovered the added weight of water inside your waders. I have been on other adventures with the two other gentlemen pictured, Tres and John, and found myself in good hands when it came time to rescue my sorry frozen self from the river when my kayak got a mind of its own and scooted me out of my safe place. (yup, blame it on the kayak.)

John and I anticipating our frozen paddling fingers

Wet Clothes. Snow. River. Snow melt. Yup, constant shivering.

(we are standing on the Ridglea Country Club golf course)

Since the Trinity and I already knew each other in the most intimate way, I am looking for an easy place to launch back in and resume paddling.

This footage is of my friend and fellow adventurer, Tres. He is not only a mountain man, but a pack mule, a good man to have with you when you are in a wilderness jam, and definitely a boy at heart!

Did you see us play at half-time at the Super Bowl?

One of my greatest hobbies I enjoy outside of work is listening to a song I wrote, or helped arrange, come together with the inspiration of my fellow band members. Their collaboration to create the final arrangement, and the life the song takes on in that process, is what I enjoy most about the creative process of music and the final on-stage result. I met my wife through music. Jill was a local singer/songwriter that started out listening to the tunes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin with her Dad, when she picked up her 1st guitar in high school and began writing her own music inspired by her poetry and journals that she kept. Just how everyone starts, she played for friends then eventually open-mikes, then to her 1st paying gigs. Jill and I met in college at one of her weekly gigs in the stockyards in Ft. Worth and I was instantly struck at the raw simplicity of her music. We began to perform gigs together, with me playing back-up guitar and from there formed a band and started writing music together. Oh, and we got married amongst all that too! Now with two kids we still try to find time to write music after the kids go to bed, perform here and there, and still play the occasional wedding circuit! I thought I would let y'all know what we do in our spare time because we will be releasing some new material that we are currently recording from our little home studio that we finally put together.

http://www.myspace.com/jillbrewermusic

Take a look and enjoy!

Who ya gonna call?

The Ft. Worth Fire Department.

"These guys are brave, but their jackets don't fit me...I know firsthand!

Working on growing my mustache.

Liam took over explaining how much a firefighter has to carry when doing search and rescue in a skyscraper...I can't believe he remembered that!

The only station left in Ft. Worth where the firefighters slide down a nostalgic pole when the alarm sounds. The alarm just went off and Liam's 1st slide down was a little rough on the landing.

My family had the opportunity to visit the historic and fully operational No. 2 Fire Station on Cherry St. in downtown Ft. Worth. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Liam or myself! A career that always interested me, I enjoyed watching Liam in particular (Brooke slept the whole time) ooh and aah over the immaculate fire trucks, and watching the alarm sound to see the firefighters slide down the poles and dash to action.

Where is Daddy's hat?

Liam's second snowfall! This time he knew what was going on, tasting and laughing at the snowflakes - last time he saw snow it was the day of his birth. As for Brooke, her long eyelashes kept catching the snowflakes. Looks like more is coming!

Happy Labor Day...Umm, I mean Thanksgiving!

Cuddly Big Brother / Bewildered Little Sister

Commercial Honda mower...Liam wouldn't have it any other way.

The Sistine Chapel? Almost.

What better than on a 4 day weekend after eating turkey (and for Liam CRANBERRIES!) than to shed off that extra food by watching your children show you what kind of work they are capable of doing for you. Liam rolled out his favorite mower and mulched the leaves in the yard for us and then turned to showing us how using a tiny paintbrush is the most effective way to paint our chair rail feature. Finally, it was the end of the weekend and Brooke was left wondering what happened as Liam showed her that big boys still carry blankets and can be a manly man!

Have you seen a Puma lately...and I don't mean the shoes!

Over the weekend I did some back country camping in Big Bend National Park, hiking over 20 miles through the most unique and isolated terrain in Texas. Beginning in the Chisos Mountain Range I camped under the numerous visible stars awaiting the visitation of one of the many black bears spotted in the recent weeks. However, my nerves got a jumpstart when after watching the sunset, and completing my climb to the top of Emory Peak (pics below), I saw 20 ft off the trail a set of yellow eyes in the desert brush reflecting off of my headlamp during my night descent back to camp. Turns out it was a "adolescent" mountain lion just watching me and then slipped away silently. I made my way quickly back to camp, constantly looking over my shoulder and wondering if its mother was nearby. I guess that is part of the draw of a night hike, it causes one to rely on your hearing senses, making me wonder if a rustle in a bush is a nervous javelina or just the wind causing my adrenaline to quicken.

Big Bend recently earned the distinction of the park with the least light pollution in the lower 48 states, making it a joy to sit and soak up the clearly visible Milky Way, planets, and shooting stars that seemed to slice the sky every few minutes.

After traversing the famous South Rim (pic below) I turned my attention to my limited water supply and filtered water from one of the few stagnant pools of water in Boot Canyon (pic below) killing the parasites with a piece of equipment called a Steripen. Despite the algae, it filtered crystal clear, even though I flavored it with Gatorade...for my peace of mind! I woke up at 3 a.m. the next morning to cut my way down the switchbacks by moonlight (pic below) to the car and drove the 8 hour journey back to my family and understanding wife. Thank you Jill!

The cookbooks are coming...