A Lot of Hellos By Michael

After 4,900 miles on the road, we caught our first glimpse
of the California coast in Crescent City. Our little Ford is
still leaking exhaust gas and radiator fluid, and she is still
struggling up every incline, but otherwise okay.

As expected, I am thinking often about the people, places, and things that were the fabric of our everyday lives for our dozen years in D.C. I miss being casual with our good friends and neighbors. I miss play dates and dinner parties that happened, unplanned, just because. I wonder about the team I left at work, how they are changed with the new hires, and how the next project is coming along. I miss a space to call my own (other than the car). I miss cooking in my own kitchen and with my own implements, left where I put them last. I miss the cats, Mit and Georgia.

And unexpectedly, our major life change hasn’t been all about leaving and goodbyes, but making connections with people and places.

Despite our best intentions, with just 3 weeks annual vacation in our previous D.C. life, we may
never have gotten ourselves to Port Angeles, Washington to reunite with our friends
(and former cruisers) Don and Jim. Nor would I have ever learned that my wife can't throw
a horse shoe near the pit to save her life.

Because of our new life and this blog, we made new friends in Olympia, Washington. Actually,
the crew of Wondertime only hail from Olympia. They left yesterday to start their new
cruising life and for the next few months, they are our new friends of Vancouver Island.
Next fall, they’ll be our new friends of Mexico. A link to the Wondertime blog is to
the right, and Sara wrote nicely of our visit. It was good for the girls to be able to
explore their boat and to see first-hand that they are not the only sisters embarking
on a new cruising life.

Richard and Kathy own the slip we rent in Puerto Vallarta. Here we all are aboard their 45-foot
wooden trawler in Washington. I hope that we prove to be half as adventuresome as
this couple—and can one day tell stories like they shared with us.



Despite our close friendship, the circumstances of our previous life conspired to keep me from meeting
Amy Jo's and Paul’s new baby. Surprisingly, he's now 3 years old. Here is Ossley and Frances in
his poet-tree.



The girls played with their cousins Eoin and Katherine at Portland’s Oregon Museum of
Science and Industry (OMSI). Because of our new life, my sister will fly them down to PV
for a couple weeks of solid togetherness next month.

I appreciated my brother-in-law
letting me change our oil in his
garage. Here he is cleaning up the
mess that resulted from his
poorly designed oil pan.



No, that's  pizza on the grill. Amy Jo's
subsequent attempts were more
attractive.





--MR