Sorry to leave you all hanging. After a three month 'vacation' from the ships blog, we are ready to get things rolling again. We've had a magnificent Pacific Northwest Summer. The weather has been spectacular and the experiences have been epic.
First, from Tucson we headed to Birch Bay for our annual family 4th gathering. We tried not to think about the environmental impact of it all, but as per usual, the fireworks did not disappoint. We also had the opportunity to hand off boat cat Leia to Dan's parents and they took her back with them to Spokane. We hear she is enjoying their sunroom and stable floor greatly!
From Birch Bay we headed up to Campbell River, British Columbia via airplane, and met up with our friends Dan & Becky (and their girls) aboard SV Feierabend to crew with them as they sailed around Vancouver Island on their Amel Super Maramu sailboat. We had a great time with them and thoroughly enjoyed every inch of the west coast of Vancouver Island.
After three great weeks, from our last port of call on the West Coast, Tofino, British Columbia, we drove back to Edmonds. From there, Dan and our friend Josh headed out on an epic motorcycle adventure on the Backroad Discovery Route (BDR) from Ellensburg to Lake Tahoe -- approximately 1500 miles of dirt roads and trails.
While they were gone, I headed back up to Birch Bay and worked on some projects at our cabin and finalized things for our beach berm reconstruction efforts. When Dan returned we took a quick road trip from Bellingham to Spokane via the the North Cascade Highway to visit our family. We enjoyed seeing everyone and realized that our cat was MUCH happier with her new family -- she wouldn't even come out to say hello to me! She was afraid I would take her back on that crazy boat!
We have spent our last few weeks of PNW shore leave at Birch Bay, soaking up the sun, going for bike rides, celebrating family birthdays, baking bread, going for day hikes and overseeing some construction to help limit damage in future king tides. With labor day now in the rear view mirror and cooler, shorter days.... it is ready to head back to the heat of Arizona & Puerto Penasco, Mexico to get Okisollo ready to 'splash'.
In between all these adventures we've ordered what seems like a never ending list of parts, charts and provisions. We completed all our 'annual' doctor visits and a bunch of vaccinations. Everything is ship shape and the only thing we need to do now is go...
Loved all the photos and travel stories. Being retired is hard work; but someone’s got to do it. Safe travels.
Cheers,
Laurie