Home Sweet Home

If you have been following along on our adventure, then you probably know we just spent a little over 6 weeks sailing a boat across the mighty South Pacific. We had planned on a much longer trip with lots more islands explored, but an emergent situation forced us to abandon ship and hop on a plane home. I guess 6 weeks of South Pacific exploration isn't something we should be sad about, but we really had hoped to spend a couple more months roaming around seeing the sites. Oh well.

So here we are. We are back in the good ol' U-S-of-A. There is nothing that says USA better than just stopping by a grocery store and seeing all that is available to us. Want 62 different types of cookies on one aisle? We got it and yes I counted. How about a whole aisle devoted to just soda pop? We got that too. Want something deep fried? You guessed it, we can get anything we want deep fried in oil and what do you know, it tastes great. Wanna know what else? We can drink the water here...straight out of the tap. I know some of you just cringed at the thought of drinking straight from the tap, but trust me, it's a luxury. But the biggest luxury of all is not having to perfect the hover shot while pooping over a hole in the ground. There is a whole lot of risk in the hover shot that I probably don't have to go into, and even though I'm pretty good at it, the hover shot is not that fun.

Now that we are back in the States, and in the Northwest in particular, there are a few things that needed to take place. First of all, we had to check in with family...check. The second thing that needed to take place was pretty obvious as well. We needed to go up to the North Cascades and spend a few days drifting down the Skagit River, camping on it's shores, and chasing salmon with a fishing pole. It's salmon season after all, and there is almost nothing better than rowing a drift boat down one of the most scenic rivers in all the world.

A chill in the air, the fall colors, and a big river twisting it's way through the mountains of the North Cascades is something that I unfortunately have taken for granted having grown up in the Northwest. But after spending a little bit of time in a hot box in the South Pacific with 100 degree days and 99 percent humidity, I have a new found appreciation for what the Northwest holds. Or maybe it's a re-found appreciation. Sometimes you have to go away to remember what you have. This place is pretty spectacular. The South Pacific has exactly what most of us Northwesterner's crave in the middle of winter after 3 months of rain and a forecast of 3 more months of rain to go...heat, beaches, warm water, oodles of sunshine, and palm trees. It's idyllic. But coming back to the cool temperatures, the fall colors, and the mountains is pretty idyllic too. I forgot how refreshing a sunny and 60 degree day in the Northwest is. Yep, it's spectacular here.

So now that we are here, what is our plan you ask? What's next? Well, the short term plan is to be in the Northwest for a few weeks for some family stuff, we have some work to do on our boat, and since it's salmon season in the rivers, I'll be camping and fishing as much as possible. After that, we'll probably head out in the RV for a month or so before ending up in Bend, Oregon for the ski season. We've already bought our season passes for Mt. Bachelor as well as rented a place in town for the winter that is only about 20 minutes away from nirvana in the form of a ski lift ride to the top of the mountain. We are really looking forward to ski season and rejoining our friends in Bend.

After ski season, we are thinking that we'll head out in the RV for another couple months and explore more of this great country. We made it to 20 national parks last year and still have a ton more that we want to see. We'll see how we do. After a couple of months in the RV, we are planning on sailing the boat to Mexico and spending some time down there.  As always, we'll do our best to keep you posted.

Since we just got back, a slide show is probably in order.  Here you go.  

Sunset anchored off of Rotua in Vanuatu.  The boat is our new friends from Luxembourg

Our anchorage on Ambae

Brenda checking out the sports stadium

Ambae's gas station.  You fill up with the glass bottles of diesel. 

This is Brenda and our new friend Alison soaking their tosies in the volcanic hot spring that is cooled from the ocean water.

Bats.  There were thousands of them in the trees surrounding the anchorage on Ambae

This is the big grocery store in Kiribati.  Almost everything in there is long expired.

Brenda hanging out with some kids in Kiribati

If you ever wonder where that plastic goes that doesn't get recycled, it ends up on beaches all over the Pacific.

This little guy almost bit off my arm.  He was just hanging out on top of the handrail waiting for fresh meat (me).

Sunset on the open ocean and a bird that is at least 500 miles from the nearest land.

This may seem like an insignificant photo, but trust me it's not.  The zero's across the top mean we are exactly on the equator in the middle of the ocean.  Pretty cool.

just a little rainbow in the Pacific

If you look closely, you can see a whale on the left.  Whales are surprisingly hard to take a picture of.  Even after asking nicely, he wouldn't sit still for the picture.

Just another sunset in the middle of the Pacific.  Some of the best sunsets, sunrises, and star gazing happens in the middle of the ocean.