This Is Nola

My "sister" came to visit last week. Which meant lots of gifts and spoiling for the girls and an awesome excuse for us to get a baby-sitter. During her stay we had a pretty incredible 72-hour period that further solidified New Orleans as "Home". We went over to the Treme Creole Gumbo Fest and got caught in a second line. Mixed reviews on that from the kids. Jasmine has always loved a brass band but the mass of people made Violet really anxious. It's like she forgot about last Mardi Gras already. The Treme Creole Gumbo Fest is always a good time, hanging out in Armstrong Park, sitting in the sun, listening to music eating food...yea it's a bit of bliss.

riddle of the day: if a band has 3 Tuba's how many pieces are in the band?

She always scores the best seat in the house

I've developed a love for brass bands since I moved here. Especially the tuba, it's just impressive to see this huge brass horn dancing through a crowd of people.

I've also discovered a love for Alligator. Sorry National Geographic, but those prehistoric buggers are delicious! And someone at Woody's managed to find a way to put them in a burrito?! Alligator to go? Why yes please.

Woody's Fish Tacos

Finding your kid can be like "where's waldo" sometimes

obligatory Bike Porn

Jasmines Birthday!

Jasmine turned 4 on the 15th! Which means that this post is super late and that my little girl is growing up! So in honor of her birthday a little photo montage of some of my favorite Jasmine moments...

Jasmine's First Week home...she was almost an entire month early and was so tiny
which ironic because she is so freaking huge now

Jasmine has always been cooler than you...always

My Travel Buddy always ready

We took her on her first sailing adventure for her birthday since she seemed to be into boats and is always excited when she comes by the marina. Also we had gotten a set of child sized PFD's and it was about time the girls got used to to them. A little while ago we had tried them out to see if either of the girls would freak out while in the water and they did wonderfully...

      

We went out on Grace a 50' Columbia and really just a pretty boat. I figured that since it was a fairly big boat meant that it should be pretty stable and easy for the girls to move around. It has a flush deck so there would be space to sit etc etc. It seemed like a good plan. I'm sure that the other 20 or so people who were out for the evening sail with us said the same thing before they left the house.

Yea what was that saying about, "best laid plans...something something...think again dummy"

I saw the forecasted weather 15+ kts from the north and sort of shrugged it off, Grace big boat can handle big north driven swells. Right? Eh not exactly. Yes, the boat powered through the waves without much effort however that power meant a serious amount of heel which tossed people, parents, and my future sailors around quite a bit on the deck. The cupcakes that Tiff made were catapulted to the salon floor. At one point I saw people passing Dramamine out like tick-tacs. Jasmine and Violet did fine until the boat really started to heel over and water blew across the deck. Jasmine apparently has developed a bit of a sense of fear and it kicked in then and she demanded to be taken below deck. Violet, who has not developed the same fear made every attempt to get closer to the source of the water.  Thank God my wife is patient with me. I feel like maybe I forced this trip on the girls because I really want them to have something, anything in common with me besides a general love for cereal as a snack. That caused me to disregard the weather and my common sense. The good thing is that basically anytime we get the girls on a boat it will most likely be a much smoother ride. Jasmine did seem to enjoy some of the ride mostly in and out of the protected harbor. So maybe it wasn't that bad. Only time and experience will tell I suppose.

She really was extremely excited about the boat ride

 

She did spend a fair amount of time impersonating my grandmother and inspecting everything on the boat before we left the harbor. She also got to take in a pretty amazing Lake Pontchartrain sunset which is something the sailing community cherishes here.  So yea, maybe it actually went fairly well. I guess the only way we'll ever know is ask her if she remembers it in 20 years. I know I will.

Our Children Share Our Genetics, Here's The Proof

My buddy, Mr. Kibler posted a picture of his daughters homework. This is proud parenting

I would have loved to see what the teacher's face was like as she/he read this.

This is my Superbowl VOLVO OCEAN RACE

I wait for two years to watch these boats sail nearly 40,000 miles, 9 months, 5 Continents, 4 Oceans. This is my Super Bowl, this is my World Cup, This is my Tour D' France,

Last time around I was in for Puma, this time around I'm behind Team Alvimedica. Charlie Enright, Mark Towill,  Armory Ross are my player favorites. I am giddy with excitement.

That said in case you are new to this craziness I've posted a link here for you to get caught up with. It's a three part series from CNN it should just play all three back to back for you.  

COUNTDOWN TO VOLVO 

Seriously though, I'm excited. This is the culmination of two years of reading the message boards, following behind the scenes drama. Nail bitting stuff seriously. The big change that the media will focus on is that the VOR is now a one design race. What does "one-design" mean? It means that instead of a 7-10 boats built and designed by different firms by different yards, one design was chosen and one boat yard was allowed to build the boats. This makes it easier to raise funds for a cheaper race campaign and in theory lets the team that gets the first boat practice while the next 6 boats are being built. 

That is a major change to the premise of the race. At the surface it says that the sailors are going to be the ones tested and less so on the boats since all the teams are using the same boat.   BUT I AM NOT SO EASILY FOOLED! 

My theory: the yard that is building the boats, Farr Design, has a great history and a solid track record. I personally love some of their ocean cruising designs. But they are building 7 boats! The last boat to come out is definitely without a doubt going to be better than the first. There is just no way to avoid it. The processes are adjusted and kinks fine tuned in the building system to streamline production and create a better product. Its the nature of the beast! 

Interestingly enough though....and arguably (everywhere just look to the forum and builders blogs) The first team will have had their boat for something like 18 months (don't quote me) by the time the race starts. Which means they'll be able to practice to their hearts content and work out all the human factors well before the last boat is finished...in theory. 

Here's the catch: The first boat finished went to the ALL WOMEN team SCA the last boat finished is going to the team who's skipper came in 2nd in the last edition of the race. How's that for engineered balance.  Knut Frostad is definitely scheming in his Volvo Home office. 

Someone else that is probably scheming but in a far more sinister fashion is Juan Kouyoumdjian and his team. They are the massive sore losers in the one-design plan. Juan K has designed boats for the couple of editions of the VOR and has put more than one boat in each race. Believe me when I say, he lost a LOT of money in this deal. Here's the thing though, his designs, they have a tendency to break. But maybe thats not his fault. Maybe it's the boat yards fault. Maybe the crew pushed the boats, dare I say it, TOO HARD?

Here's the juice, this is going to be a sick race. New tech is going to allow us to have live interviews with the crew mid race, there is going to be high definition video and graphics. Think of all the graphics that go into explaining where the 1st down line is in football or the arc of the kick in soccer, or the wind line in golf. All of that is going to be added to Volvo this edition... and it's going to be nutz!

oooo I got goosebumps... there's rumblings that we might fly out to one or two of the stops on the race.

photo credits: volvo ocean race 2014-15

Family matters | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15

Being a Husband is hard sometimes...being a Dad is even harder. I get the feeling sometimes that our society has made it seem as if there are no good dad's out there anymore. Like we are all deadbeats that don't take care of our kids and let them grow up to be criminals. But I think the reality is that there are a lot of dads out there busting their asses to be the heroes their kids can look up to. But the mainstream media portrays us differently.  Here's a good dad that inspires me to be better. 

Changes and Updates

Some of you may notice in the coming days, even last night, that the format and style of the blog is in a state of flux. I am currently working steadily to tweak and fine tune the blog. A couple reasons for this include making the blog more visually appealing, ad friendly ( trying to make pocket change), and generally easier navigate. I hope to add links to companies that I can shamelessly promote as well as products that I love. Maybe a map of places we've been and a few other things. I really want to be able to focus the writting on travel, sailing, and being a dad who enjoys his family. I might toss in the obligatory food photo or some other nonsuch from time to time too.  Change is coming and I hope it's for the better.