Lake house is getting soooo close

A full five months after we purchased the lake house, we're down to the last few items on a massive to-do list. And it's finally feeling like our place. We need to haul our travel pics from the hill country house to hang in a couple transition areas. Then there's the office. We've still got to trailer our desks and chairs up here. And I can't forget all of the seasonal decor bins in my garage - fall, Christmas and Easter - that need to be moved so I can decorate for my favorite holidays. Below is evidence of my work at the lake house this month. In this instance, it's a tiny little tweak.

I found the green faux fishing lure (above) at a decor store for the bargain price of $2, so I hung it atop the vintage fishing creel in our rather wasted space expansive entry hall. I also added a few things to the garage entry area, seen below. The whimsical animal prints from our Guadalupe River house are favorites of mine. I set out the river house's kid books and Timothy Turtle, too. I'm not sure why the lady who designed this house didn't have bench seating in this spot because it's a no-brainer to me. Since she didn't opt for it, I chose to display some more strolling turtles on that rather useless narrow shelf, with three practical storage bins below to round out this little grouping. See those three seriously inconvenient storage cabinets above? That's where I plan to house some of my more precious and delicate Santas that need a safe space.

The fireplace mantel received an upgrade when I added a couple black metal lanterns to frame the oryx. Then the husband brought a few mounts that we hung adjacent to the fireplace. It's a good looking trio, featuring a white tail, blesbok and warthog.

My "fishy" dining room has finally come together, and I'm pleased with the final look. I know it's kinda quirky, but that's what I like about it. My goal has been to make this home less formal and more fun. I think these two walls in the dining room complement each other swimmingly. Sorry... couldn't resist. For the tabletop, I purchased some deeply discounted blue plaid plates to carry me through the end of summer. I'll be adding orange napkins tied with blue and orange pumpkin ribbon once we ease into August, when I can't resist unpacking my fall decor any longer.

Behold below a vintage Limoges fish platter in a frame plus handpainted fish plates, oyster servers, and another cast silver fish to match the one that sits atop the "pond" mirror on the opposite wall. It's a funky little collection, to be sure, all purchased for a song on eBay. And I love it!

I was able to get Tom, our talented curtain and artwork hanger, scheduled to come help me arrange things on the walls in our three guest bedrooms. I put some of the girl's artwork in a few places, including the paddles our law student painted for me to hang in our LBJ lake house plus some pastels the CPA did in elementary school. Such sweet family keepsakes, y'all. After framing a couple wedding pics from the CPA daughter's fall ceremony, I placed those on a demilune table in the other wasted space longer guest hallway to enjoy every time I walk by.

Over the July 4th weekend, the husband sat in what I've dubbed the lounge, which is really just the eat-in kitchen area I opted not to use for eating since we have a big twelve-seater table in the dining room. Plus I've got four stools at our generous kitchen island if we want more eating space. Anyhoo, he commented that what he really needs is some place to prop his feet. So I ordered a fuzzy-wuzzy boucle covered ottoman. This thing will hold up to 400 lbs, so it can double as extra seating. And has a lid that provides inner storage. It was a total steal for a sturdy piece of multi-tasking furniture.

A crabby morning in Ketchikan

For our shore excursion in Ketchikan, the husband and I had fond memories from our first Alaskan cruise and convinced our traveling buddies we should do it again. And we were not disappointed. We kicked off the day with a drive to the George Inlet Lodge, where we embarked on a boat to pull crab traps. 

Our boat narrator was really informative and funny. Did you know we only eat male crabs because all of the females are thrown back into the water? We were given the chance to hold a crab, so I was able to snap a pic of R with hers. 

We got the added bonus of some eagle spotting. A fellow tour passenger asked about the eagles we were seeing in some of the trees lining the shore where this crab pot was located. So the narrator decided to throw out a bit of dead fish from his bait bucket to see if he could lure them closer. I bet he must do this on every tour because the eagles flew over like trained dogs for an easy snack. It was so cool.

I was toggling back and forth between video and photo, so I ended up with this rather funny shot of the eagle's feet and tail feathers mid-flight. Did you get a gander at those talons on its feet? No wonder they're so good at fishing. 

After returning to the lodge, we enjoyed an amazing all-you-can-eat crab lunch. They had an empty crab shell stacking contest amongst all of the dining tables. We gave it our best shot, as you can see in the pic below. Since cheating was encouraged, I'm afraid other folks were more imaginative than us (adding things like drinking glasses at the bottom of their crab pile) and won it. Honestly, I was so busy trying to get crab dipped into the melted butter and headed to my mouth that I couldn't be distracted by things that pulled me away from this delicious crab feast.

July 4th recap

We had SUCH a wonderful time with our immediate family at the lake house for the July 4th holiday weekend. We kicked off Friday with a patriotic parade through our neighborhood. There were lots of military vehicles, decorated golf carts and vintage cars to view. I've decided next year we'll have to participate in the golf cart decorating contest and parade.

The husband prepped the pieces for a basic kayak holder at our home in the hill country and then hauled it to the lake. It was past time to get them out of the third garage bay and in a more convenient place to launch them for some paddling.

As far as meals, the husband cranked up the grill and smoker. His ribs and chickens were a big hit. I made potato salad, Asian coleslaw, corn, and yeast rolls to accompany the meat eats. I also whipped up some of our favorite dips, including balsamic caramelized onion dip. It takes a solid 45 minutes to cook the onions, but it's delicious and well worth the trouble. You can never go wrong with fresh guacamole, or baked buffalo chicken dip. I'm a total appetizer girl, y'all.

We launched our long awaited pontoon for the first time on the 4th. There is definitely a learning curve when you get a new boat. The electric Bimini top had an issue, but thankfully I got the service techs out the next week to get that squared away. The CPA daughter and her husband brought along their fur baby Chorkie. She wanted to take him on the boat to see how he'd do since he has FOMO. As you can see in the pic below, he was a pretty good first time sailor. The kids wanted to do a bit of tubing even though the winds made the water a bit choppy. So we obliged and dragged them around the lake for a bit.

In addition to boating on the 4th and 5th, the kids played pickleball and a round of golf. I spied them on the 12th tee box from our backyard. There are lots of nice activities here in our community for family and friends to enjoy when they visit.

We were treated to two separate fireworks displays here in our neighborhood, one on the 4th and another one the next evening. Our golf community dues paid for the fireworks on the 4th, which were nice and what you'd expect.

The fireworks display on the 5th was sponsored by a group in our neighborhood who calls themselves the porch people. Since we made a donation to them for this event, I guess we're officially porch people now. I joked that some folks must have taken out a second mortgage on their homes because the fireworks were set off two at a time, and they went on forever. Several times I thought it was the big grand finale finish, but they just kept going. It was genuinely a spectacular sight to see.

Patriotic decor

As much as I love decorating for fall and Christmas, with shelves full of bins to prove it, I've never been into July 4th decor. However, since we were hosting the girls and their significant others at the lake house, I decided to add some red, white and blue touches. It was cute, and only required two plastic bins to pack up once the holiday weekend ended.

A day in Juneau

Cruising into Juneau provided us with some pretty views. The town is really cute, all of the building's colors popping against the backdrop of greenery. And I loved the tram gliding up into the mist. Today our shore excursion started with a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier, followed by some whale watching.

It dawned on me that the bright yellow rain jacket I bought for the trip - to be easily spotted in a crowd by the husband - made me resemble the Gorton's fisherman. I remember their fish sticks from back in the day.

I must admit that the last time we went whale watching in Juneau with the girls, we saw an impressive display of these massive creatures feeding. They used the bubble net strategy and we had some amazingly close views where we could clearly see their baleen. This time we had to be content with the humpbacks blowing or spouting off in the distance, plus some dorsal fins. Everyone on the boat oohed and aahed when we spied the occasional tail. But that was about it.

Our silver lining on the rather disappointing whale watching tour was that the boat sold local beer for the husband, while I was oh-so-happy to get my hands on a Diet Dr Pepper after being relegated to mediocre-to-me Diet Cokes on the cruise ship.