Uncategorized – Riveted

Thanks for the Cocktails!

Laura Domela — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 03:29:24 +0000

To whomever anonymously paid for our drinks tonight at Downriggers in Friday Harbor with the “Thank you for the blog” message: Thank YOU SO MUCH. That was such a sweet thing to do and we only wish we knew who you were. Please, if you see us again, come say hello. You’re why we love doing the blog in the first place. We hope you enjoyed your evening as much as we did. Thank you! xo

Photo above: Airship on a cold night in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

P.S. Dinner and service at Downriggers was great, and we’re so glad they’ve reopened. This place has been one of our destination eats since long before we had a boat. So nice to have them back!

Hey Ladies!

Laura Domela — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 15:43:01 +0000

You guys remember Margaret, from our flotilla to Alaska last summer? She was crewing for Mark Bunzel, our flotilla leader from Anacortes to Ketchikan? This is Margaret, being awesome at Fury Cove after our crossing of Cape Caution:

Margaret asked me a few weeks ago if I'd co-teach a seminar with her at the 2016 Seattle Boat Show. Margaret is a very experienced mariner and sailing instructor and I'm a new (but enthusiastic) power boater (with lots of pretty photos), so the combination was natural, right? :)

This seminar is on February 1 — "Women's Day" at the 2016 Seattle Boat Show, which I have to say was initially a bit of a turnoff to me. I told Margaret that I would probably never take a seminar just for women, and maybe that sounds bad to you, but hear me out. I like to do things. I like to do things men can do. My gender doesn't feel to me like it should come into play. I have a pilot's license. I tow our Airstream. I can take a boat to SE Alaska. It bothers me when everyone assumes Kevin is the skipper of our boat just because he's a man, or that he's the one who does all our navigation, or the only one who knows how the diesel engine works, or the one who knows how our electrical systems are designed (well, okay, I'll give him that one…for now).

However, I really REALLY like inspiring people, and I especially like inspiring women not to hang out being afraid of doing things like towing their Airstream, or docking the boat, or grilling the meat or whatever. So I agreed and decided it would be fun to share some of my stories about how I dove in and learned all the stuff I needed to learn to feel comfortable handling our boat and navigating the Inside Passage to Alaska. I told Margaret I'd never taught anything, but she assured me she could handle the whole thing if need be, but that she'd love to have me and my stories and my photos to help inspire women who were new to boating or worried about how difficult things would be to learn, etc., and so I agreed.

But then Kevin broke his (right) arm, and suddenly my responsibilities for the next few weeks increased quite a bit. I'm driver and nurse and cook and also helping Kevin write the articles he needs to write, and so on. We've got a post-op appointment and a hand therapy appointment flanking the first weekend of the Boat Show now, so I told Margaret I needed to bow out. Luckily, she found another (probably better) co-teacher in Linda Lewis and I know they'll put on an interesting, informative seminar on February 1st.

So, if you're an aspiring badass woman boater (also known as "a boater"), and you want to hang out and learn and be inspired by some other badass women boaters (also known as "boaters"), I recommend this full-day seminar on February 1st at the Seattle Boat Show. It's $100 and you'll learn a ton and probably laugh a lot and meet some great people. (You'll still see my pretty photos of cruising to Alaska and around the San Juan Islands, because I'm sharing those with Margaret to use in the seminar, so I'll be there in spirit pictures.)

All Day Seattle Boat Show University Class for Women:

The Seattle Boat Show University is offering an all-day class for women sailors and power-boaters, presented by experienced instructors Linda Lewis and Margaret Pommert. A Woman’s Perspective: 101 Practical Tips for Safe and Fun Cruising is for both women who skipper and those who are ‘first mate’, and will cover topics most requested by women, including docking, avoiding seasickness, and what you need to know about marine engines and systems. This course is Monday, February 1, from 9am to 4 pm. Cost is $100. It will be a fun day of learning, laughter, and new women boater friends!

p.s. Women's Day at the boat show is free for women with a pass that you can get here. Some seminars on Women's Day are free. Here's a link to all of the free boating and fishing seminars on Women's Day.

The Boat University seminars cost $, but they're very reasonable and there are so many good topics to choose from. Here's a complete list.

p.s.p.s. We're planning to head up to the boat show after Kevin's post-op appointment, so we'll (fingers crossed) be there for the last half. We hear the Nordic NW/Nordic Tugs booth has a nice display happening, with our Waggoner Guide Airship cover shot and all! We gotta see that!

Airship at Night

Laura Domela — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 01:18:40 +0000

A fun night shot of Airship on the way to dinner tonight. (We went up to the Dockside Bistro and it was very good!)

Museum of Glass

Laura Domela — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:52:25 +0000

This morning before we left Tacoma, we popped over to the Museum of Glass (since it's only about 20 steps from the marina, and wasn't open Monday or Tuesday). The highlight of this place (for me) is usually watching the artists work in the Hot Shop (the glass studio inside that big silver cone-shaped structure):

Looking to the top of the cone from inside:

The artists were working on a vase commissioned by a bank (I forgot which bank) to give to a valued employee. Nice gift!

We wandered through the galleries, and we had two favorite things: (1) these glass "stones" by artist Meg Holgate in the exhibition called "Coastal Alchemy":

As someone who often picks up shiny rocks at the water's edge, I was super into these. It's good that they were under glass, because I REALLY wanted to touch them!

The other thing we loved was this exhibit called "Kids Design Glass Too" where kids made the designs, and then the glass artists realized those drawings for them:

Kind of perfect, aren't they? (I wish I'd have photographed one or two of the drawings, but they looked JUST LIKE the sculptures.)

It was a fun, quick, museum stop before we headed south to the Narrows.

Our Air Fleet

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 15:27:04 +0000

As we said, we like to go places. Here’s a bit about each member of the Air Fleet:

AIRstream

We pull a 2010 27′ FB Airstream International with a 2012 Ford F150.

Many more photos of the interior (and its various stages of decor) can be found HERE.
All the “Airstream in Nature” photos from our travels can be found HERE.

This is our Airstream’s floor plan:

AIRplane

We have two partners in ownership of a 2007 Cirrus SR22 G3 Turbo GTX airplane. Kevin’s been flying since he was a kid, and I got my private pilot’s license after I finished art school (2001 or so).

Here’s a link to our “Flying Trips” category from the blog.

AIRship

In September 2014, we added a boat to our fleet! Airship is a 2013 Nordic Tug 34 and we love her!

Here’s a link to some initial interior pics and here’s our initial “We Bought a Boat!” post (with a few more exterior pics).

This is the floor plan of the Nordic Tug 34:

And if you are interested in the NT34’s specs, here they are:

BIKE FRIDAY FOLDING BIKES

We’ve got a couple of Bike Friday folding bikes that go perfectly with each member of the Air Fleet. Read all about the bikes here in our post for bike nerds.

They fit nicely in the back of the airplane…perfect for exploring a place once you land:

Of course they go with us on road trips in the Airstream:

We’ll be taking them along cruising when we’re on the boat as well.

We even took them to Italy in May 2014 and rode them from Venice to Florence!

In Eugene, Just Working

Laura Domela — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:07:39 +0000

We're in Eugene, just working, and waiting for a few tweaks being done on our bikes over at Bike Friday. Not too much to report. We may try to go do a ride this afternoon/evening on the Covered Bridge Scenic Byway Trail and if so, we'll take photos and post about it. It'll be way more interesting than posting about work, which is all we have to post about today. (But hey! Armitage County Park has good, fast, free Wi-Fi! Woohoo!)

Gray Morning at Sea Perch

Laura Domela — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:09:06 +0000

All that incredible sunny weather at the coast and wouldn't you know the day we're heading back into Portland it's all gray and drizzly?? Perfect! We used it all up!

We waited for the high tide to recede a bit and then went for a walk on the beach before leaving our lovely spot at Sea Perch RV Park.

Interesting colors in the sand this morning:

I thought this impromptu rock lineup that the tide just uncovered was nice:

Next stop: Bike Friday in Eugene to check out some upgraded folding bikes.

Sea Creatures on the Oregon Coast

Laura Domela — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:05:23 +0000

1. First we ate some sea creatures for lunch at the South Beach Fish Market:

We had razor clams, prawns, and halibut fish & chips.

2. Then, we headed over the Oregon Coast Aquarium to look at some sea creatures behind glass.

Behold, the giant octopus:

Sea nettles, and moon jellies:

Colorful anemones:

This one was about 10 inches across (or more):

I always wondered what sand dollars looked like when they were alive. They're purple, and fuzzy:

We were there for the 1pm feeding of the otters…always entertaining!

Backlit bat ray, taken from the tunnel in the "open waters" section of the "Passages of the Deep" exhibit:

Non-pictured sea creatures we also saw: puffins, sharks, sea lions, harbor seals, tons of starfish, halibut, a bunch of sea birds, and a really ugly but cool wolf eel (as he lunged for a fish!).

3. We stopped on our way home and picked up some sea creatures to eat for dinner. We got a couple pounds of clams that I plan to cook up with some garlic, white wine, and saffron, along with an arugula salad and that'll be that.

The sun is out and we're continuing the rest of our work day from camp:

A good day on the Oregon Coast!

Our Airstream in Nature

Laura Domela — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:54:45 +0000

Here’s where we keep our collection of travel photos of our Airstream looking pretty in the environment.

Athabasca Glacier, Canada

Icefields Parkway, Canada

Bodega Bay, CA

Calistoga, CA

Porto Bodega Marina, Bodega Bay, CA

Skamokawa Vista Park (WA) dry camping

Hobuck Beach, Makah Bay, Olympic Peninsula

South Beach Campground, Olympic Peninsula, WA

Stub Stewart State Park, Oregon

Skamokawa Vista Park, near Cathlamet, WA

Champoeg State Park, OR

Price Canyon Recreation Area, Utah

On the road somewhere, no clue

Southwest corner of Kansas

Biloxi, Mississippi

Grayton Beach State Park, Florida panhandle

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, Port St. Joe, Florida

Long Key State Park, Florida Keys

Curry Hammock State Park, Florida Keys

Somewhere in the Florida Keys

Passing Pigeon Key, Florida Keys

Curry Hammock State Park, Florida Keys

Bluewater Key Resort, Florida

Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

On the Kentucky River, Frankfort, Kentucky

Churchill Downs parking lot, Louisville, Kentucky

Hwy 101, Oregon Coast

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Rapid City, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Missoula, Montana

Lookout Pass area, between Missoula, MT and Spokane, WA

Lake Pleasant RV Park, Bothell, WA

Armitage Park, Eugene, OR

Champoeg State Park, OR

Stub Stewart State Park, OR

Sea Perch RV/Campground, Yachats, OR

Bob Creek parking lot off of Hwy 101, Yachats, OR (shooting for Coastal Living Magazine)

Highway 101, Southern Oregon Coast

Nehalem Bay State Park, Manzanita, OR

Skamokawa Vista Park, near Cathlamet, WA

Stub Stewart State Park, OR

Billings, Montana

Bahia Honda State Park, Florida Keys

Champoeg State Park, Oregon

Rainy, windy, sunny. Rainy, windy, sunny

Laura Domela — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:25:51 +0000

The weather is totally fickle today. It'll be completely gray and raining, and then all of a sudden: sunny!! Then, super windy, the rain starts again, repeat. So here are a few interior shots I'm adding to our "Look Inside" album. Thought I'd put 'em here in a post, too.

We took the trail and hiked down to the recycling center a little bit ago. See how nice this trail is? It's only about a mile roundtrip…downhill there and uphill back.

Pretty mellow here at Stub Stewart again today…nice place to be getting a ton of work done!

Oh wait, now it's sunny: