Shore Leave

Alright, its true: we haven’t spent much time sailing yet! There’s sooo much to do to get ready though and a lot of it has to do with just learning to live on the boat. It has its challenges but they seem to be well worth it actually. Its interesting how well we all (including the poor old dog) have adapted. The other day we were rocking around in a 20 knot South Easterly, which blows right up our channel and really gets the boat moving, and nobody really noticed. Two months ago we would all have been a little queasy and I would have been out checking the lines every hour.

Anyway, after spending a few weeks working up north I came back to the boat for only a few days before we all went on Shore-Leave!

Maureen went to Hanna for two weeks to visit her Mom and Dad and Jerome and I did a little road trip of our own. We spent a few days at the boat just hanging out but then the school organized a trip to the science centre in Vancouver. We figured: if we’re going to the mainland anyway….

Turns out we were the only ones that made it to the science centre! We went over on the ferry the day before and the weather took a turn for the worse almost immediately after we arrived in Vancouver. So bad, in fact, that the rest of the school group never got there because of delays with the ferry.

After spending a great day at the science centre we thought maybe we’d head south through the States and cross the mountains on I90 east of Seattle and then carry on to Summerland to visit my family. Nature had other plans and we wound up stuck in Abbotsford for three days. The roads there were terrible but with my capable navigator at my side (thanks Jerome) we were able to get around the icy hills, get some groceries and settle into a nice AirBnB for a few days to wait out the weather. In the end, the weather cleared to our east and we braved the Coquihalla instead of going through the States.

Summerland was a little short on summer! We had a great visit anyway and celebrated a few special events, went to some hockey games and Bradley’s school dance. Best of all, Mommy flew in to Kelowna and we were all together again!

We figured since we all had our passports: Seattle! Again, Nature had

other plans. This time expressed in the form of microbial pathogens! We did travel home via Seattle and we did have a great time but we weren’t quite as ambitious as we might have been had we all been feeling better. We visited the Seattle Museum of Flight which was suprisingly awesome! We had some other plans but were rained out and lacked determination. Maybe we’ll sail down here later and see some more of the sights. In any case, we decided to travel home via the Olympic Peninsula and take the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria.

Again, we would likely have been more ambitious if we had been feeling better and would have had a good look around because its a beautiful area (once you get out of the Seattle-Tacoma metropolis). Port Angeles and the ferry MV Coho were unexpected highlights. The ferry line even has their own song – sung by Bing Crosby!

We all felt a little more “at home” when we got back to Canada and decided to spend a few days in Victoria.

After several weeks on the road: Home sweet Home!