Road Tripping Across the USA: Part 2, Friends and Dragons

Yes, we have a family photo of this, but this will need to do until I get it loaded off the camera! =)

After settling in at the Mammoth campground, we explored lots of features such as more hot springs and the terrace areas. These are such amazing sights! Of course, not everyday is all fun and adventure. We also have to deal with the usual household chores. The next day, Jared set up the solar panel to charge the batteries which worked very well! We were essentially "dry camping" without any hookups, so with our batteries charged, we only had to worry about refilling our water tank and emptying the grey and black water tanks every few days. Next up is to deal with the pile of dirty laundry that had been accumulating.

Powered by the sun!

There are few facilities in the park where you can do your laundry and we were not near any of them. So, after finding a cell signal, we searched for the closest place. Turns out, there is a town just outside of the park about 5 miles, where many services could be found. So, off to Gardiner, MT we went.
We set off in search of some groceries, quick lunch, laundromat, and wifi.

Lucky for us, we found a laundromat that offered free wifi, so Jared could get some work done while I handled the laundry. As fate would have it, we met this amazing family who are traveling just like we are! They have four boys with similar ages to ours who connected immediately over the video games as the laundry was getting washed and dried. Kristen and I started chatting and then soon discovered we had a lot more in common! They have also decided to 'ditch suburbia' for awhile and go traveling full time with their family. Her husband, Paul, works digitally, just as Jared does, so we really hit it off. How cool to find someone who totally gets what you are all about?! The only difference is we are moving aboard a sailboat to travel while they are staying in their tricked-out camper that Kristen designed! This thing is seriously cool and if you have ever wanted to go camping in style, check out their rig at their instagram: #upintherooftop

Mandatory silly pose! =)

 Turns out they are in the SAME campground as us, so we made plans to stop by for some fireside chitchat and s'mores later on that evening. After exploring a nearby hotspot called "Boiling River" (a thermal spring feeds into the cold water, making it nice and warm, we headed back to camp for the evening. We decided it was time to make a nice big meal, so we set about making our famous spaghetti bolognese and home baked bread! It was so good and nice to have something other than a quick-fix camping meal. After that, we cleaned up and headed over to see our friends. The kids had a blast playing and then later, making s'mores. We were briefly interrupted by the elk herd that walks through the campground on their nightly return to their bedding down area. So cool. We had so much fun and made plans to go exploring the Canyon and Lake areas a couple of days later. Oh, yeah, and they also introduced us to roasted Starbursts. Seriously, try it! You just might favor that over the traditional s'mores!

We headed out to the Canyon portion of the park and ended up going south to Yellowstone Lake with hopes of paddleboarding. Well, that was not to be, as they don't allow it in the rivers or smaller lakes. Only in the marina or outer Yellowstone Lake, which would have been fine if not for the chop and wind. Not safe for the kiddos, so we decided to just have a picnic on the shore and then explore the sights on our way back to camp. It was then we encountered dragons. Yep, dragons.

Heading back towards Canyon we stopped along the road to Dragon's Cauldron. Along the trail are many thermal features, including the Dragon's Black Cauldron which used to spout quite high. In fact, the sign mentioned it was regarded as a black demon in the forest. By far my favorite, possible u there with Morning Glory, is Dragon's Breath. Wow, this cave roars and sputters like I imagine a dragon would and comes complete with the steam erupting in a constant burst from the cave. Make this a must-stop on your list when visiting Yellowstone!

After a full day of exploring, we all ended up back at our campsite for s'mores, roasted Starbursts, and cocoa with great conversation. By 11pm, the kids were sleepy-eyed, so we decided to call it a night. We promised to stop by their campsite the following morning, as we were headed out to Wyoming, to see our friend, Brian. Up next: Montana and Wyoming adventures!

Road Tripping Across the USA: Part 1

 

Fishing in one of the many creeks in Yellowstone National Park. This one is called Firehole River, due to all o the thermal features along its banks.

We loaded up the camper, left Linden and headed to Pacific Grove for a final visit (and final vet appointment for Sunny) before leaving California. The kids all had sleepovers and we all had a fantastic time visiting all of our loved ones on the coast. After hugs all around and lots of "see-you-laters", we drove back towards Linden for a family bon-voyage BBQ. That made for a long day, as we left later that afternoon to camp at Bear Lake off HWY 88. We camped near the reservoir overflow area and fell asleep to the roaring sound of the water. The next morning, we packed up and made our way to Tahoe. After discovering our brake controller was short circuiting,and then having our sway bar break (it was only a few days old!) we detoured over to Reno, NV for a visit with our beloved Aunt Rosalie and tend to repairs. A new sway bar set us on our way but we still had the short circuiting issue. Jared tried a multitude of fixes, but we decided that we would need to find an actual trailer repair place to get this issue resolved. We camped at Cave Lake on the CA and OR border, which was a lovely remote campsite with some 4x4 action involved.
The next morning, after some fishing in the creek, we set our sites on Payette, ID to visit Jared's sister and family. We found a trailer repair place near Boise, about an hour away, so after spending the night and getting some much needed laundry done, we headed over there. The shop had closed by the time we arrived, so we decided to call first thing in the morning to secure an appointment. We really needed to get this brake issue fixed!

Not a campground was to be found that had vacancy, so we ended up staying at a hotel that evening. We all enjoyed unlimited hot showers after a dip in the indoor pool. We had one of the last rooms available, which was a suite, which the kids loved because it had a Jacuzzi tub in the room!
Sunny was so tired, she flopped down by the air conditioning unit and didn't move all night!
We lucked out the following morning, as the repair shop said they would squeeze us in. After dropping off the trailer, we drove over to a Starbucks for breakfast and wifi. Jared had a few projects to get done and the kids did a little math. After a few hours, we got lunch at the Flying Pie Pizza place (soooo good!) and decided to bring the food over to the large grassy park nearby so the kids and dog could run around. Just as we were finishing lunch, we got a call that the trailer was fixed. The issue turned out to be the brake wire on the axle was badly frayed. We also learned that one wheel bearing needed to be replaced and the others repacked. $500 later we were on our way and it has worked beautifully ever since!
We arrived in Pocatello, ID later than planned. Again, there was only campground available with any vacancy, which was the KOA. If you are in the area, keep driving and find someplace else. The staff may have just had a bad day, but they were really grumpy towards people. We had no choice as we were all so tired, so we just set up camp and fell asleep.
The next morning, we drove straight through into West Yellowstone to Madison Junction campground.
**If you have a 4th grader, get the Every Kid in a Park pass. It will get you into all of the parks for free!

After setting up camp, we had a quick dinner and fell into bed exhausted. So happy to have the next 4 days in one spot! We set about to explore Yellowstone the following day, starting with Old Faithful. Jared and I honeymooned at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (we were married in January), and we just had to take the kids there on our trip down memory lane. The kids were not really impressed.
We walked around lots of trails with hot springs, mud pots, geysers, and wildflowers. Such an amazing and diverse landscape all in one area!

A couple of Yellowstone tips:
1. Make your reservations way in advance! We lucked out, but there were lots of others without places to stay. If you decide to go for the "first come, first serve" campgrounds, go at 7am (yes, that early) to get in line and secure a spot! That's what we did when we moved from Madison campground to Mammoth.

2. It is not a dog friendly park, at all! Many trails had signs posted not allowing dogs, even if they were on a leash. This included areas next to a river where no thermal features were present. Fortunately, the weather was really cool and the trails we ended up taking were short. Sunny could rest in the car with ice water and food while we were gone. We missed out on lots of other trails, but did not feel comfortable leaving Sunny for long periods of time. Plus, it just wasn't fair to her.
We took her to remote spots where she happily swam in rivers, streams, and lakes. We wanted her to have fun and not be cooped up in the car or camper the entire time. She is such a good dog and never complained!

Sunny getting some swimming time!

3. Pack your own meals! Most of the food is cafeteria style (we didn't explore the fancier restaurants, since Sunny wasn't allowed) and really expensive. There are many water bottle filling stations, though, so that was nice.

We moved from Madison Junction Campground up north to Mammoth. We had explored lots of the area and were ready for something new. We left early to get there in time, as Mammoth is first come, first served. We scored a campsite and after one night, moved to one with more shade and closer to our new friends (but more on that in the next post).

Next up: Part 2 (Yellowstone and moving eastward)

When The Family Freaks Out

When The Family Freaks Out! a post by Jared

Several family members have expressed serious concern recently and have asked a few questions. Hopefully, this will calm those fears a bit and shed some light on the lifestyle in which we are about to embark.

How can we afford to cruise? Are we sacrificing retirement in the future?  Are we crazy?  

Our plan of cruising does not involve taking off from work to go on a two-year vacation.  This is a temporary (or permanent) life style change in which we reduce our costs, get a safe home that floats, and continue to work while we travel and educate our children in various locations around the world. 

Before I even considered this lifestyle, I asked myself: 

Are there risks?  

What if we lose the boat to catastrophe?  

What if it sinks or starts on fire?  

What about pirates?  

Why would you sell your wonderful home with an ocean view?

Are there risks?  

Yes, there are risks.  Some are the same as we encounter in everyday life in addition to some additional risks (like sinking!).  If you want to get depressed in a hurry, start studying the risks of living amongst people.  People are crazy!  

What’s worse, those crazy people can go buy guns (in the US) and do some serious damage pretty quickly.  What is riskier than that?  Driving.  We take some necessary precautions to make driving safer but still, people die every day in vehicle accidents.  

Every time you get in the car, you are essentially rolling the dice.  And I hate driving to boot.  The first half of my driving life involved sitting in the car driving for at least 20 to 30 minutes to get anywhere.  This is a quick way to waste one to two hours every day.  It’s not healthy to sit that long either (more on that later).  If you think you’re safe in your home and nothing could hurt you there, please realize that 1 in 1 million people die from eating peanut butter (not allergy related), our own water systems have killed hundreds of people (water treatment mistakes, oops, that chemical wasn’t supposed to go in there), and sickened countless thousands (think lead pipes).  

The materials in our home can also do us in (asbestos, lead pipes, formaldehyde…) and talk to a grocery supply expert about the amount of food recalls every day!  We don’t hear about these things because it’s not news worthy.  It happens too often and we live with these risks.  The barn may seem safe until it’s not!  How do we live with these risks?  We buckle our seat belt, filter our water, and use our heads to think about keeping ourselves out of trouble.

Losing our boat would be a major setback, just like losing our home would be a major setback.  People die in house fires every year.  Boat fires are scary, too.  Our answer to this is to be prepared. The boat will have insurance, we will practice fire drills, have smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and be as safe as we can in this regard.  This is probably my biggest fear.  If it happens in the open ocean (a very rare occurrence), we will have an emergency life raft and our dingy to jump into, several EPIRBS to alert the authorities, and of course, fire extinguishers and lots of water nearby to bucket brigade if possible.  

Our kids swim well, but life jackets on passage, and harnesses for all anywhere outside of the cockpit / interior of the boat will be our seatbelts and personal locator beacons on life jackets. 

Pirates?  

How about car jackings, home invasions, or theft in general?  Nope, you don’t escape bad people on the water, they just call them pirates.  The definition of piracy? Criminal acts at sea. 

We choose not to live in high crime areas and we are choosing to not visit high crime areas.  Does it eliminate the risk? No, but the risks are manageable and if conditions change, we can leave and seek safer locations.

But your beautiful home! That ocean view! 

We have a wonderful home in a small city. We can see the waves breaking ½ mile away.  It’s great!  We can also hear the neighbor two doors down washing their dishes.  Yes, two doors down!  That means they can hear us, our kids, and anything else that makes noise.  It’s kind of weird.  We could sell and move back to our home town, but that would involve lots more of that driving stuff and being located close to high crime areas which isn’t all that fun.  It’s also not very enriching.  

We have an opportunity to travel and learn about our world; not though text books, but through the world itself.  I’ve read about Venice, seen pictures, and sailing affords the possibly to experience and learn about amazing places like this with our children.  Way better than a text book in my opinion and worth the risk to our finances.

Finances!  

We do not plan on exhausting our finances.  As part of our making the decision to cruise, we talked to a financial planner.  It wasn't a decision made over night, but after YEARS of careful and thoughful planning. We can do this without exhausting our savings/retirement.  

True, it is risker investment than owning a home.  A home has the potential to go up in value, where as boats tend not to go up in value, ever!  That said, we have been on the wrong end of the housing crises and we don’t plan on doing that twice.  The money we make from selling our current home will buy the boat and provide for about one to two years of cruising.  I will continue to work as I spend most of my time sitting at a computer.  I need frequent but periodic access to internet to keep working but that appears possible from all that we have read.  The other portion of our home sale funds will go to investments and a portion will go to emergency funds.  When we are done cruising, we will either put the boat into charter or sell it to recoup some of our investment. 

Why not wait and cruise when your children go off to college?  

There are a few reasons not to wait.  The chief one being that we want take our kids with us while they want to go along.  In 5 years, the boys will be in high school and would not want to leave their friends or the experiences of high school (girls).  

Another reason? My health. After having health issues for the past several years and it culminating with pneumonia last summer, I realized that time may not be on our side.  We are rolling the dice every day and each new dawn could be our last.  My doctors feel that we have my health issue figured out and thankfully, I’ve had no issues since last fall.  We will not be away from medical care while out cruising and our doctors have shared their personal phone numbers and emails with us!  They have been overwhelmingly supportive.  Our child’s pediatrician said we inspired him to do something similar with his own family.  They are in the initial planning stages and have a departure date four years from now. 

Are we crazy?  

Yes, but in a good way.  I feel we have been living the typical white collar life in lots of ways.  A teacher and engineer with three kids. We even have the typical golden retriever! Each of us spends most of our day working to pay the bills and when we get home, spend the rest of the time corralling the kids to events, meals, and bed time. 

“Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future, that he does not enjoy the present moment. As a result, he does not live in the present or the future, he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never truly lived.” – Dali Lama

I have a great job.  I work for myself from home.  I also sit on my butt 8+ hours a day.  Then, when I can, I head off to the gym in hopes of not losing my health to this lifestyle.  I fit into the Dali Lama’s quote like a key in a lock.  My health, at 39 years old, is fair.  I only get exercise when I can break away.  On the boat, I’m hoping to swim, surf, paddle board, walk and run more (on land of course) and gain fitness through an active lifestyle while we explore the areas we are visiting.  And because our expenses will be much lower than they are now, I will not need to work nearly as much.  I’ll be spending more time with my wife and kids, taking part in my children's education, and taking better care of myself.  In my mind, the additional risk of living on a boat are far exceeded by the benefit of an active lifestyle, world travel, and the experience with my family.

So to our family and friends who are a bit worried. We love you and cherish the relationships we have with each and everyone of you. We hear you and understand your concern. We will not sacrifice the safety of our family and we hope you find time to join us.  However, we are choosing to experience more than just life in a box.   

Related posts on this same topic:

Nomadic Matt

Totem

A Life Less Ordinary

We are not independently wealthy, trust fund kids, nor did we all of a sudden win the lottery. We have made a lifestyle choice to change course for awhile. This didn't happen instantly, as if we just decided to do this. It took YEARS of careful planning and thought to get to this point.

We are selling our house and most of our belongings to buy our boat and set sail around the world for awhile. We want to provide an opportunity for our children to experience different cultures and some serious family time.

Jared will still work from the boat (he is a civil engineer and can do a lot of his work from the computer). My school district will grant me a leave of absence from teaching. I will provide outreach education, but mostly as a volunteer. If I happen to get paid along the way for some STEM / science classes I provide, so be it, but we are mostly about giving back and making a difference wherever we happen to be sailing.

We are going on an epic adventure and the best part is we will experience it all together!

Finding our Boat!

We had a whirlwind trip to Florida recently and are happy to report that we found our boat (exact model)!

Kids went to visit their grandparents again, so Jared and I could concentrate on finding our boat (and celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary). We flew out around noon on Thursday (plane was delayed due to crew not showing up) and were expected to land around 8pm that evening. Didn't land until around 11pm, due to our flight being diverted for a medical emergency.

On the runway in Salt Lake City, Utah. Waiting to resume our trip and watching the snow fall.

After landing in Fort Lauderdale, we grabbed our bags and proceeded to locate the shuttle to the rental car station. That line was LONG! No way were we going to spend another hour in line, so we decided to walk to the rental car facility instead. It was not that far, probably around a 7 minute walk. Ha! We were the only ones there! Turns out we beat the shuttles and crowds of people. It was a super fast check-out, like 2 minutes tops and we were in our car and on the way to the hotel.

After checking in to the hotel, we realized that we still hadn't had dinner, so feeling a bit like college students, we set out around midnight in search of food. The hotel clerk recommended a pizza place (what else would be open at midnight?), so  back to the car we went. Yep, our anniversary dinner was pizza, but hey, next year we'll celebrate on our boat, so it's ok. =)

Hours later, we were back up, checked out of the hotel, and heading out to meet Andy, the broker we were scheduled to meet (Clive, our broker, had set everything up in advance). We were in an area known as the Isles of Venice, and it was just beautiful! Save for the birds dropping seeds on our heads. You'll see their "artwork" in our video (next post).

 
 Andy is a super cool guy and showed us A LOT of boats! After checking out the ones in 'Venice', we headed over to his main office at the Fort Lauderdale Marine Center and saw even more (after stopping for coffee on the way).

It was awesome to have this opportunity and walk through so many different catamarans. We made notes on the storage and ventilation, layout and overall feel. We thought we would like the Lagoon 420, but for our family, it would be a tight fit. We walked on L440s, L450s, and even a L52 which was huge! Andy took us over to the boat yard and we saw a couple other cats that were on the hard, which was cool because we could check out the bottoms, as well.

Saw a few other different types of cats, but we fell in love with Lagoon and the homey-like feel it gave us. After walking all over and through these boats, it was time for lunch and to review our notes.

We ended up eating along the beach and walked along for awhile. It was super windy, but a few people were out in the water. Fun to see a guy kite surfing! Definitely want to try that someday. We checked in to a different hotel (figured we might as well stay in different areas while we were here) that was along the ICW (intercoastal waterway). Man, let me just say that the mega-yachts were all in town and some were bigger than our house! I am not joking! The Miami Boat Show is in a few weeks, so I guess they were all coming in for that. They are HUGE! We got a room with a pool view and ICW view. This would provide for some interesting entertainment later that evening.

 I had this feeling about one particular L440, so we called Andy and headed back to that boat later that evening. Again, thanks to Andy for taking the time to meet us back there. His phone was constantly going off, but he ignored it in order to answer our questions. After taking more video and photos, we headed back to the hotel and find someplace for dinner.

We ended up eating along the waterfront and then walking for awhile afterwards. Still could not believe the size of these yachts! Some were in excess of 60 feet up from the water! As we got ready for bed, we noticed a lot of noise coming up from the pool area. Turns out the guys we had seen at dinner getting plastered, were still at it and now had decided that jumping into the pool fully clothed would be fun. Grabbing other people and tossing them in, even more so. Then, they proceeded to dance for the dinner guests down there and put on quite a show. They'll probably end up on YouTube and regretting their decisions after recovering from major hangovers.

The next morning, we got a quick breakfast (bagels and coffee because we slept in), and met Mark, another broker Clive had set us up with. He showed us a FP Lipari and a FP Helia 44. We were not impressed with the Lipari. The layout was not conducive to our family at all. It definitely did not have that open feel that he Lagoons have, so we passed on this boat and headed to Lighthouse Point, to check-out the Helia.

The Helia was located on a private dock area next to a very colorful house, rainbow dock, and just rainbow everything, down to the hammock. The artist had gone to town on their property! Beautiful artwork though. Check out this dog and pony show:

The Helia is a gorgeous boat, but there are some qualities missing for us. While it definitely felt open and spacious, the sharp corners and lack of 4 cabins was a 'no' for us. Sharp corners at sea is NOT a good idea, especially for kids. The front was totally open, no lifelines at all (yes, we are going to install the kid-webbing around the entire boat, but still). The large bap between the helm and the winches/lines was a negative. We also needed 4 cabins, and while there is a tiny little berth beyond the shower, that would not work for a kid room at all (the broker was trying to convince us of putting Cadence in that tiny space). Nope.

Pretty boat, though.

We called Andy again, because we wanted to see a L440 one last time. After seeing so many boats, we had to go back and solidify our decision. Jared was already sold, but I really wanted to sit and picture where everything would go. We measured, lifted up all floor boards (counting the storage spaces we could use), inspected the engine rooms, and discussed plans for modifications. After another hour or so it was final: the Lagoon 440 is our next home!

We emailed Clive with the news and will be talking to him in a couple of days. Now, we just have to find the EXACT Lagoon 440 we are buying. We would love to start our adventure over in Europe, but inspecting boats over there would incur more cost. We've also heard the boats are not in the greatest condition, so we'd have to really hunt around. It can be done though, so we are hopeful (boats are less expensive there). Buying in the U.S. or Caribbean would be easier, but also change our route plans. However, no matter where we end up buying our boat, it will be awesome! We will finally be starting our dream of sailing around the world with our family!

Cat Lady

An old friend of mine and I had a joke that if she didn't end up married, she would probably live as a cat lady, with lots of cats. I called her the other day and we laughed that I actually will be a cat lady, of a different kind, of course. =)

Case in point: dragging my family out of our warm and cozy home into a huge crazy storm to go look at a catamaran that had just tied up at the marina. No joke, the news called this storm an "atmospheric river", with two weeks of just rain!

It all started from a friend's post on Facebook this afternoon. She was out for a walk and snapped a photo of the impending storm with the marina in the background. Normally, one scrolls leisurely past all those posts on the news-feed, however, I stopped for one reason, which was naturally to see if I could spot our boat, The Soggy Dollar, in the pic. It was then, I noticed the distinguishable hulls of a catamaran. "Jared", I called out, "Let's go down to the boat. There's a cat tied up the next dock over".

"Sure, we need to get out of the house anyway", was his reply.  Note: he'd been home all day with the kids while I had a meeting at the aquarium, so he was very happy to go for a drive, even if it meant braving the storm.

We dragged the kids from the house, and yes, they complained all the way from the couch where they were comfy watching a movie, to the car. Sunny, our pup, heard the word "boat" and ran to the door. She loves sailing and knows that "boat" means fun out on the water.

Off we went and bundled up against the wind and light sprinkles. We checked on our boat as well, just to make sure things were all ship-shape. She was just dandy as ever, chillin' in her slip. Sunny made for the steps to board the boat, and did not seem happy with me when I called her back. This dog seriously loves to sail. In all good time, sweet pup!

We walked to the end of our dock and there was the behemoth catamaran. Seriously, this thing was about 20 feet tall! It turned out to be a commercial power-cat and not the sailing cat I was hoping for. Oh well. Now one might question my initial excitement. Why care so much about going to see a catamaran? The plain and simple fact that there are hardly ANY cats on the West coast. There are a couple up in the bay area and then a couple more down south, that's it. Not many opportunities for boat shopping or even taking one out for a sail.

Since we are in the market for a catamaran, any opportunity to check one out is golden. We are counting down the days until we go to Florida for a few full days of boat shopping, where there are plenty of catamarans around. A few more days and we are off!

At the time I finished up this post, the storm is hitting us full force! Raindrops pounding, wind howling... grateful for the rain, as our poor state needs it desperately! And the kids are back on the couch resuming their movie. ;)

Feast of Lanterns

At the end of summer, our town holds the Feast of Lanterns. It is an annual celebration, over 100 years old, of the legend of the Blue Willow, a fabricated "Chinese" story.
From the Feast of Lanterns site: 

"Long ago in far off Cathay, a land now called China, there lived during the reign of Emperors a wealthy Mandarin named T'so Ling. His land holdings were vast and fertile, and his treasures beyond counting. His palace was built of fine woods and rich lacquers with a roof of blue tile that gleamed in the sun, and a handmade fence that ran below the palace. Behind the palace grew an orange tree, and beside the palace ran a river with a graceful willow that gave shade in the heat of the day.

Of all T'so Ling's possessions, his beautiful Princess daughters with their jewel names were his greatest joy. The Mandarin delighted most in his eldest daughter, Koong-se, who he named Topaz, so named for the golden lights that twinkled from her eyes. Topaz passed her days in a summerhouse that leaned over the rippling water, where she did elegant embroidery on silk while listening to tales of old Cathay as told by her faithful nurse, Chun Soy.

T'so Ling thought Topaz so lovely that he wished to crown her as Queen. A coronation ceremony was planned, and all the princes, potentates, maharajahs and lords of the realm were invited to attend the coronation. One of the old Mandarins brought a chest of gold so impressive that T'so Ling thought this rich man would make a fine husband for his daughter Topaz. T'so Ling made plans to combine the coronation with a marriage feast.

Topaz heard this news and became quite despondent, for she had fallen in love with a poor, young scholar called Chang. Hearing of this, T'so Ling forbade his daughter to marry Chang. Topaz wandered off into the dark to drown herself. T'so Ling alerted the villagers to search for Topaz with lighted boats and lanterns. During the search Topaz and Chang reunited. In a final burst of lights, Topaz and Chang were illuminated as they changed into Monarch butterflies and escaped into the sky.

The pageant, which takes place on the last night of the Festival, tells the story in pantomime and ends with a burst of fireworks overhead as the lovers are seen for a brief moment departing in the guise of Monarch butterflies."

We love to anchor out in the bay to watch the show and lovely display of fireworks. Also, to avoid the huge crowds that cram themselves onto the beach. We often bring out friends, food, and have a lot of fun. This year, we truly had a boat load of people on board! =)

Fun times!

Glow sticks are lots of fun! Plus, a great safety hack for keeping track of the kiddos.

View of the shore.

Sleepy time. The kids were worn out after a fun evening out on the bay!
The wagon in this pic is AWESOME. We use it for just about everything (walks to the grocery store, hauling beach or boat gear, and even sleeping kiddos!)

Busy Times!

We are in the middle of construction! Working on the home addition, while working full time and maintaining our sailing preparation to-do list has kept us pretty busy. Hence, lack of posting on the block. Believe me, I have a few posts in the works, but have to find the time to get them all completed!

Yesterday, one of my students brought me a bouquet of pencils. In type on each pencil was a different saying. The one that I took out to use had this on it: "GET IT DONE". I took that as a sign, I had better start getting posts up on the blog! =)

Just some of the things we have been up to (beach time, horseback riding, school, etc):

Passage Across the Monterey Bay!

Our passage from Monterey to Capitola! This happened back in July, however, with the start of school and family birthdays, needless to say we were a bit busy! =)

Jared and I had been talking about making the passage across the bay for awhile now. In addition to waiting for the right time to do it, and good weather conditions, summer  over on the CA coast, is sketchy. Fog is ever-present, so we decided to just go for it.

The passage over was foggy and cold. The kids mostly stayed below playing games with occasionally coming up top to look for wildlife. We monitored our progress using a navigational app on the ipad. When traversing the trench, we noticed the swell was much calmer. We sailed between close-hauled and a beam reach.

En route to Capitola (about a 3.5-4 hour sail due to lack of adequate wind):

Our solar charger worked well despite the foggy conditions!

Arrival to Capitola (mooring balls only, no anchoring or slips):

Once we were tied to the mooring ball, we hailed the water taxi (didn't have the dingy this trip) and went ashore to find some dinner. Imagine our surprise when the guy told us that he stops running the taxi at 6pm! It was 5:30pm when we arrived, so we had to get dinner to go.

The kids made friends right away! There was a group of kids fishing off the pier, so naturally ours had to join in the fun!

The rest of the evening was spent fishing, sipping hot cocoa, and enjoying the time on the boat. The next morning, we ventured to shore to find some breakfast.

We left Capitola around noon after fishing for a bit and made it back to Monterey by 4pm. We had a few patches of sun for our return passage, which was nice.

Arriving back to Monterey (in the fog):

This was a great experience for us, as it was another passage under our belts. The kids and the dog did very well. =)

~S

Brokers and Sea Stars

Yesterday morning's sailing adventure to go beyond the point for some open ocean sailing started off with a surprise guest on board.

Zach is shown gently returning the sea star to the water (even though it was no longer alive). We figured a sea gull had dropped its lunch mid flight sometime between Wednesday's race and yesterday morning.

**Ok, Jared just mentioned it is not called folding the sail, but flaking the sail. Correction made honey.**

While preparing to get under way, we received a call from our broker. He may have some leads for a few boats to check out next week! With that exciting news, we headed out into the bay.

Cadence fell asleep while watching for dolphins. Stef carried her down below to continue her nap.







The wind picked up quite a bit towards the mouth of the bay and we began to have a bouncy ride. We decided that with two kiddos napping, we would just stick to sailing the bay for the day. It was a calm sail the next couple of hours.

Eventually, we headed in to our slip to hang out for a couple of hours and just enjoy the sunshine. We had an appointment later that afternoon with the local dive shop and wanted to pick up some fresh fish from the harbor for dinner.

Matt is bringing us into the harbor with the conch shell.


 This is what our kids do while hanging out on the boat!

After tidying up, we headed out to the Monterey Fish Company and then to our local dive shop to set up our certification courses. Jared, Matt, and I will start with open water (up to 35 feet), where as Zach has to start in the pool (only 10 and up can start in open water, so he will work on other skills in the pool). Cadence will have to wait another year until she is old enough, so she and Zach will get certified for open water while we are out cruising.

 

They always have fresh seafood for sale!

The rest of this weekend entails yard work and school supply shopping (we still have about a month left before it starts, but I always get our stuff early. It is one less thing I have to think about while setting up my classroom). We are planning on making a trip to check out a few boats next week, if all goes well.