Still here

Our regular readers (all three of you) might be wondering what happened to us.  We were cruising along in the boat, having birthday parties and playing with dolphins, and then the posts stop.  Well, wonder no longer, we are in Seattle.  Our trip through lower British Columbia went by in a flash, and here we are.  When last I posted, we were in Johnstone Strait playing with the dolphins.  From there we started seeing more and more boats, and having an aversion to crowds we decided to high-tail it south as quickly as possible.  We hit a couple of our favorite spots in Desolation Sound, then a couple hops to get us to Nanaimo.  Showers, groceries, some ice cream, a trip to the library, and we were off to the Gulf Islands.  Got to meet up and have dinner with an ex-customer-now-friend that had been out playing on his boat all summer, and met some new friends as well.  The crowds continued to build and clearing customs was a zoo but easy enough.  Our day from the San Juans to Port Townsend was probably one of the worst days we have spent on the water: contrary current up to 4 knots, pea soup fog with eighth mile visibility, and a cranky one year old made it a trip to forget.  We spent a couple days in Port Townsend recovering, with liberal doses of pizza and ice cream, and then made our way down to Seattle.  The boat is currently tied up in Elliot Bay while we strip as much stuff as we can off her and prep her for winter.  Next week we will move the boat to Everett where she will get hauled out and stored on land for the winter.  As the boat empties, our new camper van seems to fill, and I'm sure we will end up carrying around much more crap than any one family could need for a couple months on the road.  I'm hoping to keep up the blog while we are on the road, and may get one more post in of prep work before we leave.  If you were worried that we had fallen into a life of normalcy, fear not, the stupidity continues in one form or another and I'll continue to write about it as I have time.

Unexpected Visitors

We don't get too much drop-in company while traveling on the boat.  It's hard enough just figuring out where we are day to day, but trying to get to anywhere on the B.C. coast is no easy feat, and coordinating our movements with someone else is usually too much trouble.  It's a good example of the difficulty of hitting a moving target.

Luckily there are certain visitors that have no trouble finding us or keeping up with our travel.  On this particular occasion the timing, weather, and locations all fell together to provide us with one of the most impressive visits we have had to date.
The show was spectacular, our new friends hung around for miles, and everyone went away happy and content (we did anyway, not ever sure how company feels after a visit).

More Birthday Pictures

We changed our plans and headed for Blind Channel Marina for a birthday party.  Because we were not expected, we had to make our own party, but there just happened to be a couple of kids around more than willing to help eat cake.
We also wanted to get phone access to be able to call the grand parents since they were not able to join us.
It was nice to get off the boat and stretch our legs, so we went for a walk on one of the forest trails at the marina, then had cake with new friends.

Afterwards Madeline got to play with her new toys, so overall it was a good day.

Happy First Birthday Madeline

Because we are still in transit we are keeping her first birthday pretty low-key, but we still have to do something.  While we were in Port McNeill we picked up a couple of new toys for her, and we'll make her a cake as well. 

She also got her first ice cream cone, so things aren't all bad.  Once we get back to Seattle we will try to get together with friends for a little party, it's not like she will know it's a week or two late.