We took off driving in another direction Sunday afternoon, over the San Bernadino forest area to Palm Springs area. The scenery was spectacular, and it was a nice drive...



My aunt and uncle are spending the month down here, so we thought we would surprise them in their airstream and take them out to lunch! This is my aunt, she is actually my grandmothers (on my mothers side) youngest sister, and they look very much alike!


We went over to Marie Callenders for lunch, and I had their pot pie and REALLY enjoyed it! It was just out of the oven!!


Silly me to make a long story short, lost my iphone, spent time looking everywhere for it and did not bother to go on ME and use the "find my iphone" feature until I got back home!! Good thing we are going back over their this afternoon for a cocktail party I can pick it up again!!!

It has been positively busy trying to do all the inspections for this house. We did walk through yesterday...Here is the outside...


and today Bazza went back over for the termite and septic tank inspection. The septic tank is screwed, but we should be able to hook up town sewage right in, so we will see. It all means the place is going to cost us less anyways as they have to be done! It also has to have some cement poured for earthquake laws now too..... and the house tented for termite control, so there is a lot going on!

This is a picture of our greehouse AFTER the sellers cleaned it out! Yes, there is less in there....


I apparently also have a kitchen aid (whew, I was worried about that!) and a blender. The blender will come in handy!


Then yesterday afternoon it was going to the gas company to show them our ID up in Corona so we could get service and calling Trash, electric, water etc etc.

After all that we thought we had not had quite enough fun yet and went shopping. And those who follow my blog might have seen pictures like this more then once or twice in the past. Full carts lined up outside of a costco...


That usually means one thing. Correct! Boat shopping! I went to get the "stuff" the boat needed. And then we stuffed the car full...



And then Bazza got to pack it all and now we are on our way to the post office!

We have had fun exploring our new home and seeing what we have for restaurants. I am a pathetic person, as some of the restaurants I had to be near were NOT an option. I am too embarassed to even talk about that! I will say that we have found some good really casual restaurants near us, and in a move that just may beat costco's hotdog, we have a hot dog shop that has a hundred different combinations of dogs! My dad will be in heaven....



Bazza had bbq sauce, baked beans and bacon on top of his. I have swiss cheese and baked beans. Yum....Plus they serve beer in there, which would be a real plus for most!


In celebration of finally purchasing a place, and also to get into practice for making them again next month on the boat, we celebrated with blue drinks! funny, I have not make any for months but I had all the ingredients besides cranberry juice in the RV tucked away safely....... They were tasting way too good and I was on a bit of a high since we purchased the house that i had to physically stop myself from drinking too much.



My friend Janice over in Virginia is towing her boat out of storage for the summer. Considering I just saw snow in all her pictures it seems like 2 weeks ago I am not sure boating is the thing to do yet! I certainly know it is not warm enough to boat on this side!!


Question all: Does anyone recognize this fabric? I saw it on a couch and I think it would be perfect for the salon couch on the boat. I want it. Just not sure how to find it!!



And with the kite jam being last week, and apparently everyone in the world getting their picture taken with Branson as there was not enough wind to actually kite sail....I thought I would throw up this picture of blog reader Drew and Branson from last night. I know some of my girlfriends think Branson is incredibly sexy so...... An eye candy picture!!




Hello hello. So how many months have passed ? Its hard to remember, and yet I seem to miss those days more and more. I follow your blog, looks like you guys are doing great. I am happy to see that.
I am now 8 months into this company. We have grown and are doing well. (For those who don't know, he went into a landscaping company with a friend of his and he is now really grown up and looking at buy a place to store all the STUFF that goes with that!)
It has been a very steep learning curve. I do payroll, WSIB, accounting, book keeping, sales, and fix and maintain most of our equipment. So my hours are long. Too long, almost half as long as Promenade's
I have to thank Bazza for the little electrical skills I learned from him. I have a volt meter and have repaired many things. On one occasion I even saved the day fixing a salter motor. AND, on occasion, someone cleans up tools after me How the days have passed.

And then I even heard from Simeon and he had this to say about him SMILING for new employers!!
"I know, I admit i was smiling on the photos, my first thought was I hope kerry does not see this. We were just messing around with no real posed shots, honestly."
And apparently, he is doing most or all of the captaining..."I've been on the helm from minute one and do 99% of all driving, he's busy cooking so he leaves me to it. Diving is all down to me as well."

We will catch up with him in April, and I will take new pictures and see if he gained any weight!

Well, hello there. Coming to you from a rainy Sunday morning...Just finished my SaildiveBVI charter blog web work, now I will try and get up a personal blog and then I think I am free to roam for the afternoon.

Have to explore our new living environment you know! Yesterday we went up a bit to Lake Elsinore and then over to San Juan de Capistrano before going down the coast to San Diego and back.

This is just north of where we are, about 10-15 minutes, Lake Elsinore. We looked at about 17 different houses out there one day. I really think the realtor misunderstood us when we said we did not want any yucky areas. Although not yucky and scary, it certainly was not my idea of an "ok" neighborhood (for me, let me clarify that...)
Housing was affordable. If you wanted a place for a hundred thousand, you could find one. Of course you had to debate whether you wanted the ten dogs beside you with the jacked up cars on one side of you, or the condemned HUD houses on the other. When we left there, I did not ever want to go back. It also has somewhat of a hippie/biker feel, at least the area we were at. But then the next day I saw the tattoos on our realtor and realized why she said she would like to live out there!

Anyways, here is a couple pictures of the lake there, just as we turned. Yes, I did climb a hill. Yes, I thought I was going to die. Moving right along...




Drove through some forests, watched the clean up from a car going over the mountain! and was glad we were in the car NOT the RV while I was looking over...Made it to the coast a short time late and turned south...


Ah, yes, forgot this picture...Bazza enjoying the view in the hills, threatening me about putting the pic on the blog! Hey Bazza, it is so much better then a conch shell picture isn't it?


There appears to be no shortage of seagulls here on the beach either. Thank god. I would hate to not see a ton of them like everywhere else we live. In Victoria they are very bad at shitting on our car!!




Down to the Enbarcadero in San Diego. Lots of glass, lots of flash... What we could see in between the rain drops anyways!


We wandered around looking at the boats in the Maritime Museum...





And saw the Star of India...



And even though there is not ONE single solitary boat here that I want, I LOVE the rigging on them all....









Watched more birds who were not afraid of us at all...



Watched a couple cruise ships leave in a monsoon. Somehow cocktails on the back deck was not sounding like such a great idea watching! Also instead of tshirts watched the outside vendors selling jackets and the tourists with socks in their teva sandals! Had lunch at the Elephant and Castle and was immediately jealous of Bazzas roast beef and yorkshire pudding instead of my fish and chips, took him down to the border with Tijuana so he could see it and back home!

...have to learn Spanish now having a place in Southern California! Not sure of my chances as I have not learnt how to do anything more then to order beer after living next door to Puerto Rico for the last 12 years!

These pics have nothing to do with the house or my blog entry. I just thought they were spectacular and wished I was able to crouch down in the surf to take pictures like that, but it is not going to happen!

These are done by CLARK LITTLE




Instead of boring everyone and their dog with a billion pictures on the blog, I put them on a separate page for those who want to look at them. They are not in any order of "good areas to worst" in fact, I would say the first pictures are the worst, but carry on, they get better!

I think I finished my blog entry there too!

You can see them by clicking here...

That was my major blog entry tonight..I have so much work to catch up on tomorrow from doing this the last few days...

I am not sure Bazza was impressed when I sent him links of boats for sale too!

There is a very good reason for it...

I bought a concrete pad on a piece of land for our RV to live at! Halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles. Temecula/Old Town Murrieta!!.

Well, this concrete pad also has a garage, carport, greenhouse, swimming pool, 3-4 sheds, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 office, and a 1/4 acre with it.... For really not that much more then what i would have paid for a damn concrete pad!!!

It is also 7 minutes away from Costco and Outback, which might have just been the deciding factor for those who know me well!

More later and pictures.... Must sign our signature a million more times now...

Feeling quite grumpy this morning...I don't think I have an upbeat post in me. No reason I don't think other then probably that time of the month. Well, also had no cel service or internet really for 24 hours going down the coast line of Oregon. Did not think that was possible in the states nowadays. The only thing I could think of in my head was the Verizon commercial where it shows how much more coverage there is then ATT. Obviously ATT does not have a lot of presence on the coast of Oregon... Also was on some lovely northern california roads last night which practically shake everything off the damn RV. Then since we may have been on a "freeway" but it was no interstate, we did not find a place to stay until late.

It has been a bit of the "I hate RVING" couple days like "I hate BOATING" days you sometimes get... Since leaving...

- GPS Navigator died so we replaced that
-Realized how HORRENDOUSLY filthy the tow car gets while being towed (not like a tender on a boat!) and quickly got flaps of some kind to put on the RV, but the car is still thick with dirt and grime. I hate to see my paint under it.
-Lousy internet and cel phone service
-Poured incredible amounts of rain going along the 101 on the Oregon Coast. Stopped somewhere just before sunset which had "RV turnaround" to see the water, as it was blowing winds and crashing like crazy. Turned around where we were supposed to without unhooking car, but it was SSSOOOOOO wet, the RV got stuck. Yep, a couple hours ensued of trying to tow it with car, or back it, putting down boards etc etc in the pouring rain, and finally a policeman came to watch over us. Still no luck, so we had to get a larger truck with a cum along to tow the RV out. Continued on looking for a RV park in the pouring rain and I thought the RV just might blow off the highway.
-Pulled up at the Walmart to stay over last night and lined up behind a few other RV,s. just as the one in front of us had had a tire lock and his holding tanks had exploded which we were now sitting in, thank you very much. And did I mention it really smelt? Like wanted to make you gag smell>
-Although there were a couple restaurants around here, I wanted to get far away from the sewage smell so we went to unhook the car and the battery would not turn over...

That was probably part of the reason both husband and i were grumpy and take out sandwiches from Arby's had to suffice!!

Making our way down the I5...Funny this funny little house on top of a bridge just north of Portland and of course it appealed to my quirky sense of humor.






We stopped in Portland for dinner with an old friend of mine from high school. Young high school, like i was 14, in SHAPE Belgium...We have a very large community of friends on Facebook, and it sure has been fun to catch up with them all, and also learn more about people you went to school with but actually did not really know at all then. The shared connections...especially for military brats. Had to really laugh when Beth mentioned touring every military cemetary in Europe with her father and I could certainly relate to that, and usually when it was freezing cold out. She thought she had relived the beach landing on NOrmandy a million times, and all I could think was i felt the same about Vimy Ridge!

Then to top it all off my MOTHER came up with this old newspaper clipping of me (note that it is freezing cold in this picture as well...)



Beth looks still the same as she did in high school I believe, hair just shorter!


She says that Portland has like a 100 top restaurants, and took us to one of her current favorites Clyde Commons, where Bazza had the lamb. How unusual for him!


I had some type of pork shank with friend spatzle, brussel sprouts (misnamed as it was about 4 leaves from brussel sprouts, not really brussel sprouts!)


And we all had a lemon meringue tart for dessert!


Stayed overnight at a RV park just south of town and this picture is just where we had the RV stuck the next night. You cannot see the water pounding up and wind blowing, but the police man told us that was quite calm for here and this time of year! We truly are good time sailors...


The next day was a bit better for seeing the water going down the southern coast line in Oregon. Lots of place where we first went over to the coast that you could not see any water because of the trees...





I have the name of this dredger somewhere, but it was a great setting for photo's!








AND we saw seals and sea lions! So wildlife viewing was good!!








It has finally stopped raining and we have crossed over into Northern California, so we will see what the next day brings!

I think we are still going down the Oregon and Northern California route here. I took this picture for my parents who like old cars.


We were impressed as we managed to see lots of Elk...


And even went for walks in the forests...


We made the winding drive along the avenue of the giants to see all the humongous Red woods, and they really were. We both enjoyed seeing them. Still wonder where ALL the animals are! Hardly see any it seems any more...



I am not sure the dead pelican counts...


The first thing we did when we made it to my sisters was to unhook the car and take it to the car wash. It had layers upon layers of grime...


The second thing we did was go to Hap's Original Steak and Chop house for dinner. It was pretty good. Pricey somewhat for suburbia though... I was trying to be arty in these pictures...






The next night we had my niece so we went for the less cost options at Applebies for dinner. My niece does not like looking at the camera!


And I am afraid to say that our next days entertainment looked exactly the same...Out to dinner at Espetus Churrascaria, a Brazilian Steakhouse. Not quite as good as Texas de Brazil, but we still stuffed ourselves full with cow! This is actually a picture of my sister smiling...Very unusual! See what happens when she gets lots of meat?


Chris still had his tab over to green for more meat long after the rest of us had gone on to dessert!


Of which I am not sure how I found room for peanut butter and oreo ice cream pie but I certainly did and then whined all the way home! I am thinking maybe pasta tonight!

Or at least somewhere over the mountain outside Temucela, just north east of San Diego....Beautiful hills, views, wide modern cities, avocados, (CALVOS), Oranges and vineyards..... We are at a RV resort at Pechanga casino which I have not been into yet but appears to have about 16 restaurants in it....

There seems to be a theme in my life lately with vineyards, although I also told someone this morning that if they were fields of flavored vodka instead of grapes I would be MUCH happier... We are going to spend a few days looking around this area at properties...
****

Had to laugh, when I stopped to take the picture of the sunset above, there was a mail box wwwaaaayyyyy above our head, which said "air mail". Someone had a sense of humor!


Me who is not a fauna and flora girl even stopped to take pictures of the flowers on the sides of the road today and we could have had enough avocados and oranges forever...Bazza helped an elderly man hook up his tow car today at the park and he kept on trying to give us both of those. He did not offer any wine though!

Gorge Road where we live in Victoria is covered with cherry trees in bloom on one side of the road only. The side that gets sun! I went out to take pictures and my camera battery died short there after. That ok, people weren't too crazy about us pulling over to take the pics anyways...

We wondered if taking mom out for peanut buster parfaits at Dairy Queen and sticking a straw in it as a candle counted? We thought it did...

Very ambitious now, the rv and car are getting ready for a ROAD TRIP!! New mud flaps were installed to try and save my pretty car from rock chips...


Doesn't matter what we are doing Bazza has something to "fix"...



And we are ready. We are really going to like having our car with us. Off the island Sunday night on the 5 PM ferry, cost about $200.00 for us to get us and the vehicles off the ferry and we are on our way south!


You understand why I had to finish blogging about the Australia trip so I could move on to other trips!

I am not sure if I am on a new day or an old day! But I will continue along until I get to the end of the pictures anyways.... My sister in law Kaye is VERY artys and craftsy. Something that my mother is as well and I do not have one single bone of arts and crafts in my body, and quite truthfully, the tediousness of being precise would drive me straight up the wall really quickly!~
Anyways, Kaye does these intricately designed and folded cards that she sells at markets...






Mom thought they were perfect Australian Souvenirs, grabbed a few, wrote them out and before you could say lickedy split had a stamp on them and in the Oz post office. We had a dinner out the very aptly and British Sounding SLUG AND LETTUCE.


This was a dinner with a lot of the cousins and nieces and nephews, always fun! It was good, my father was happily eating beef schnitzel with gravy and did not have to suffer through another rocket salad cuz he could find nothing to eat!!



Seemed like there was a lot of rules though for going out for dinner!!!



This is Bazza and his mother one more time. I never can get over how similar they look!


My parents and I were thrilled to see this "thing" on the road. I believe it was called a Skag something. Apparently they bite. And there is quite a dance you do to confuse them so you can pick them up that Bazza says he was much faster at when he was younger! We were amused watching the performance though and god knows none of the three of us were going near picking it up! Nice to tour Australia with an Aussie to find out all these little thins!!











Went down by the water in Adelaide. took a picture of an old anchor. Of course. Boaty people that we are!



And, birds in the tree...


Bazza says that this water tower looked exactly like this when he first came to Australia...when he was about 8! He was surprised that it still looked the same...



The rest of us just loved this "house on top of a house" there were birds living in it so maybe it was just a large bird house??? Ambitious anyways.


Tomorrows blog has some of the prettiest scenery. We went quite far out into the plains and took some great pictures....

On the road again... Since I just realized that we have to be back in the British Virgin Islands in 6 weeks, my opportunities for going down south are slamming shut quickly! We discussed options today, do we fly, take the RV, just take the car...just don't go or what? You know how I decide things quickly? Well, I am cleaning the RV and putting away all the crap we have scattered around from the last 3 months of not moving at all. Funny that, I had an old guy stop and want to look at our RV today as he liked the size. He mentioned that it looked like we were living in it...Very astute as there is so much crap laying around that would fly all over the place and decapitate us!!

The plan: Take the RV and car, head straight down to San Diego, spend a week or so there. Take a look around to see if we see potential RV spots that we may want to look into for buying. Then probably go by Palm Springs and see my great aunt for a few days, head up to Las Vegas, take in some shows, go to Texas de Brazil (FOOD!), let Bazza visit the Hoover Dam, and go metal detecting, and then come back up here for a week or two before flying back to the islands.

I will have to see if I have any pajamas or swim suits that fit before going back to the boat! I have a picture of me hitting the water trying to go diving and just floating on my back with all my appendages up in the air and not a hope in hell I will be able to put on enough lead to actually get under the water!

Anyways, although we may be going on a road trip the blog is back in Australia still, and I need to get that finished up! I don't like being a week behind.

We went out for a tour of the Sydney the next morning. This apparently here is the oldest pub in Australia. And it had a cellar under it where they dropped drunk men to send them out on the whaling ships...


The obligatory picture of us with the Opera House in the background...and a couple other assorted city shots. It is a very pretty city.






Sydney Harbour is very protected. This is the only entrance into the large harbour area. They tell me the water is fairly clean in here, except we had had lots of rain the last couple days so it was pretty dark and brown. Apparently more sharks in here too! That was enough for me!!




I like the couple cuddling on the ferry in front of the opera house!


We met up with a friend of ours for lunch that day. Laila, used to run the yacht Fantasy Island in the BVI for a couple years and then went sailing around the world in high and low altitudes on a monohull. SHe is Danish and a heck of a sailor! I have put pictures of her before on the blog. She is working on a white boat that is docked in Sydney Harbour for the next few months and then I believe is going to PNG. She looks wonderful, thin and tanned. What can I say? She was always such a pretty girl!


No, I am not trying to get a picture of your breasts here Laila, I was much more interested in the food on your plate!

We enjoyed catching up with her and she has now bought a place west of Sydney, although her heart might just be still in the Caribbean methinks!


We had arranged to meet mom and dad on the steps of the Opera House late afternoon. Here they are oblivious! Not everyone gets their picture taken sitting on the steps of the Opera House!


Mom could not get over the fact that we were going to see Man in BLack, a tribute to Johny Cash in the Sydney Opera HOuse. THe show was sold out, but we were there hours in advance at the box office hoping to get some turned in tickets, as we knew the parents would love it. We did manage to get wonderful seats too! Well, most of us. Bazza lost out but he did not appear to be too sad about going back to the hotel room! It was a very good show....

OUr joy was complete walking back to the hotel in the pouring rain as we found a Belgian Chocolate cafe. Which meant dessert for everyone. It was MUCH better then a starbucks or TIm Hortons! MIne had frangelico ice cream on it...Don't know why I have not thought of that on the boat, our ice cream maker could do something like that easy!



Bazza had no problems stuffing his little chipmunk cheeks...


And I think dad was wondering HOW he was going to eat it all....


Went back to our hotel room and enjoyed the night lights of the city. Time to pack up and find a plane again in the morning!

I don't think my husband was amused with me yesterday. I told him I had bought him presents and when he found out it was a couple pair of board shorts for his trip back to the boat and the BVI in April he told me board shorts would only be a present if he was actually going on vacation. Spoil sport. I am always happy to go back to the boat for short periods as I get to go diving and take underwater pictures!

Mom and I had tears watching the movie Dear John last night. I knew I was in trouble when I saw it was adapted from Nicholas Sparks when the opening credits rolled. Dad said there was not enough shooting and Bazza twisted a piece of paper 16,000 different ways. I don't think it was their favorite. Wasn't their birthday so it did not matter now did it??

I think we are almost at the end of our Australia adventure, being that it is time for us to move on to the Sydney portion of the entertainment hour. Never having been there, I was looking forward to it and since it was the finale and we were going to shows etc, I decided to "break the bank" so to speak. If you are looking for a very nice place to stay in Sydney that has great views and is right in the midst of the action, try Grand Suites on Circular Cay. I know this is going to be something very unusual you hear from me, but I am not sure I have anything more then a couple minor things about the hotel that were not to my preference, but I would be too embarrassed to even write them down they would sound so petty! That is high praise indeed from me!!

The concierge/bellhop type person was incredibly helpful, so much so, that aft I finished checking in and before we were even shown our rooms, we had our entire time there planned, maps, ferry schedules, private tours and other shows to see. This is the first suite I have been in that i actually got Bazza to do up a diagram of the lay out etc as it had everything I would want, with lots of opening and curved walls...


Here are some of the views from our two rooms....

















And here is some of the rooms. Can't believe I miss the living room looking out to the balcony and water!







This is looking at our building from the water.



After oohing and aahing and having a drink we made our way out for a walk and watched the old men feeding the Seagulls... They are baby seagulls compared to the seagulls we have in Victoria!





On the ferry we went. Sydney has great bus and ferry public transportation. Had to see the sights from the water and make our way over to Darling Harbour...


This is the cruise ship dock. It docks right in the middle of all the action as well. In fact there were tons of boats going every which direction ALL the time. Believe me, I have never seen anything like it! Even with living in the BVI...


Of course we had to take a picture of the Opera House from the water...


And Luna Park as well...



And just scenery.. Lovely ferry ride.


Found another Kangaroo for mom to have her picture taken with...


Had a pre theater dinner at Meat and Wine, or something like that..Maybe it was meat and water! Nice place, right on the water although it appeared that they shoved as many tables into the room a la Paris as they possibly could and had on a whole bunch of staff that were not familiar with the restaurant either. Service tried, but it really fell down.


By this time we were nice and hungry though!


I ordered an iced mocha tino or something that i swear had about two ice cubes blended into it (which anyone who knows me, knows that that would drive me crazy!) AND had an entire can of whipped cream squeezed on top. It quickly became Bazzas... Speaking of ice, I was surprised that ice was not a particularly large thing in OZ. I spent a lot of time asking for extra ice. You would think with the humidity it would be. Apparently having to use copious quantities of ice is mostly an American thing!


Had to laugh, as my father, going over the fixed menu prices and not seeing any hambuger helper, thought he was being quite safe when he chose cheese as his appetizer....


You can probably tell by the look on his face that his idea of cheese and what he received on his plate were NOT one and the same thing...


I don't think the Bruschetta was a hit either, although it looked good.


My caesar salad had an entire poached egg on it!


We all had steak, which was average, and then walked over to the theater to see WICKED. We all enjoyed the production very much and two weeks later I am still humming "defying gravity" all day long! This was a very good day...Next morning is the Sydney Tour...

We spent the entire day driving to the North East of Adelaide. You come out over the mountain (and I use that term loosely) range and there are all these glorious fields spread out before you with old buildings that are pretty as can be scattered everywhere. Most small towns we went through seemed to have a bar and a bakery. Of course we stopped at the bakeries!

So, I will just share the pictures. We all agreed that it was our favorite scenery day.


















We also stopped at Manam on the Murray River. Big river, lots of house boats that you can rent from there and go up and down the river. Truthfully, it just looked very hot to me. Did not see that there would be a ton of air conditioning inside, the water did not look like anything you wanted to swim in and the flies might have carried you away in the over 40 heat. I think I will pass!

We made our way winding over to another wine region (God, South Australia is BLESSED!) at McClarenvale, where we stopped to see Bazzas younger and prettier sister and her husband Mick. We went down to the local pub with them and they had schnitzel. We were full from lunch, but dad still jealously eyed their schnitzel and thought it was a better place to go to then the restaurants where he only wanted salad cuz he could find nothing. Funny man, as he is really not a steak eater. He likes his beef ground up into hamburger. Nothing makes his eyes light up more!



We then had a drive along the south coast over sunset, and the sunset was spectacular too.




We stayed at a HOtel called Majestic Roof Top Gardens in Adelaide, downtown on Frome St. Expedia or Orbitz or something rates it as the #2 hotel for value in Australia. I might disagree with that. Although MUCH better then our hotel in Brisbane, with air conditioning that worked really well and helpful front desk staff, there were all kinds of problems with the room keys and we were constantly having them changed and having to get staff to let us up the elevator and into the room. Similar to Brisbane! Our bad luck or are these key systems unreliable? They had a wonderful deep tub, however, the japanese inspired sink was so shallow I constantly got water everywhere. The bed had heating blankets on it (!) and even though a room was in the $200.00 range, you paid $25.00 a night Valet Parking on top, about $27.00 a day for internet connection (found internet VERY expensive everywhere we were for basically not much download data..I think everywhere has decided there that they are going to make up on internet charges what they loose in long distance phone calls in rooms nowadays...) and a further $25.00 a person for a crummy breakfast buffet in the morning and pay extra for your hot chocolate please and thank you. We arrived at the buffet shortly after 9, knowing it closed at 930 AM and while sitting down we were informed by the waitress that the buffet closed at 930 SHARP. It did not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I had another episode in Brisbane like that. When we went to the airport to get our plane to Brisbane, we had time to spare so we went into the Qantas Lounge which you have privileges in with your AA admirals Club. In AA you can bring your immediate family in. I pulled out my ID and the temp card I had gotten from the Admirals Club in LA, since when I renewed it there, they told me since it had been expired by more then a month, I had to get a temporary and the permanent would come in the mail. No problem.

At Qantas lounge the one girl looked at my card and basically said she did not know what the hell it was and couldn't accept it. I explained and she kind of tossed it over to the other girl who read it and said "it must just be their temporary card" and then said "how many cards do you have" I said "just the one" and she said "well you can only bring one person in with you" I said "but they are my family and family is allowed in" and she said "not when you are using a AA membership on Qantas" and I started putting everything away and said "well how am I supposed to know that?" She said "it is all plainly spelled out on our web site"

Well forgive me, when I am told by AA at LA that I have no problem and can use it at the Qantas lounges in OZ, I did not rush to the web site to read all the fine print!! She was very busy looking down here nose at me, and I am not sure what i said then. I had finished putting everything away and was then told "that I was going to forgive it today and let you in for today ONLY" Which really pissed me off, as would it not have been better customer service to rearrange how she told me it and say " I am going to let you in today with your family,but Qantas policy is for AA Club members to only let you bring in one guest each time?" So my back was not immediately up by being told no?

I did tell her that I did not appreciate being chastised, and I sure as hell don't like many of the versions of customer service nowadays! We ended up going in for breaky, with us feeling quite uncomfortable.

Ok, enough ranting today. It is my mothers birthday today. The big 70! We all took her out for a high end lunch of Costco hot dogs, and now we are going to take her out for Dairy Queen instead of cake and then off to see the movie Dear John that she wanted to see!

I am starting to look for a RV lot for sale around the San Diego area...Just in case anyone has any knowledge of them! Or a piece of land to put the RV on and build a workshop, although so many places have zoning restrictions in that neck of the woods for putting RV's on property (in California? No, you are kidding!) Decided the not-as-humid- left coast might be better for our RV.

In the afternoon it was out for a drive again. We spent a lot of time driving around watching things...



This is one of the most picturesque spots we found. The flowers, the old houses, the graveyard that goes with the house. Obviously family members still keep up this cemetary as there were a lot of head stones that had been replaced...



Mom was thrilled as her son in law stops at a lot of little places that my dad would NEVER stop at...He says that if they stopped at everywhere she wanted they would never get anywhere... The mangoes they bought here all pronounced delicious, the best they had had in a very long time...



By the end of the last night in Brisbane, the heat and humidity was really getting to us all, but we still drag ourselves down to the Botanical Gardens to feed the Possums! That was neat. We had never seen possums before!

Off to Adelaide on the next blog....Where the temperature is hovering near 40 degrees!

Lets go onto the next day in Adelaide..We decided to take a drive out to the north and northeast. We stopped at Whispering Walls, where it is a perfect "something" oval shape and you can hear people whispering from a long way away across the dam. That is about as technical as I get.


My god was it hot out today! Bazza kept on thinking we should get out of the car for little walks and we kept on complaining (although in his favor, both my parents have said they lost 5 lbs on the trip which is pretty amazing for vacation!) We saw no animals. Why? Because it was too damn hot for the animals and they were all sleeping! Where we should have been!!!



I guess I had not realized that there was such a large wine district by Adelaide. The Barossa Valley. There were vineyards from many well known variety's, Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Hamilton, Jacobs Creek, and a ton more. We decided that it was a perfect day to stop at a nice AIR CONDITIONED wine cellar and restaurant. It was one of the best decisions we made the entire time! We stopped at Lou Mirandas...


What sold me was the fact it was obviously air conditioned! But, it was lovely inside as well. Massive wood tables, wine bottles made into wall sconces, and a great menu..


The Pinot Grigio we had was totally clear.


We had a great cheese plate that we all enjoyed and also had fresh almonds and dried apricots with it..


We pretty much just picked a whole bunch of meals that really did not go together and put them in the middle of the table. I had forgotten how GOOD REAL fresh scallops taste! It was amazing. I am sure the ones we get in the BVI now are stamped rays cut out. There is no comparison. We also had baby corn with a mayonnaise on top, salt and pepper calamari (which is still big everywhere in OZ) and of course, lots of fries for dad.

The piece de resistance though was dessert. We had a chocolate fudge banana cake that was to die for. I can still taste it weeks later!


Took this picture from my daughter in law. She had a baby picture of her Wade with Bazza in the shower. LOOK AT HOW SKINNY HE WAS!!!!!!!! I also hated the beard! Apparently he also had a lot more hair then!


Compare that to the man happily eyeing over the pie counter here in Australia!


OK, it is just possible that there was more then Bazza looking over the dessert counters!


Went out for more meals with our son and daughter, Karen and Wade. One thing all our children have to admit is that they get fed well when I am around! Imagine....

Backside is square. And I have another 8 hours of sitting like a sardine with the 4 of us across the entire middle row. I like it better when we fly overnight! It is much easier to sleep. The plane had engine troubles before leaving today, so we were a couple hours late taking off. That may just be enough time for us to miss our flight to Seattle..They can always re route us through Las Vegas if they want!!!
Any ways, we have some family time pictures now..We took the kids and the parents out for dinner in the Casino Railway Station in Adelaide as well as to go see Warriors of Brazil. Dinner was good, pricey somewhat. I find most of the meals quite expensive in Adelaide when you are changing our lowly US dollars nowadays...
My father was stumped by this meal, and come find nothing on the menu that passed to something similar to hamburger so he had to settle for Rocket Salad! The rest of us mostly have steak. It was fairly good.
This is us all sitting down to eat...

Probably the best part was the assortment of fresh breads, mostly middle eastern with the dip of mushroom spread. But, Of course, I have pictures..
This is the Rib Eye steak with the bone still on. I don't see that often where I go!

Bazza had lamb. Lamb and meat pies seem to be a staple of his when he is in OZ. Enjoy them dear, I don't do either at home!!

Of course, we managed to find room for dessert. After all, it is not like it is a LARGE dessert now is it? We enjoyed the Warriors of Brazil show. They were acrobatically sound, enthusciastic and some of those men could do things with their body and hips I have never seen before! I was teasing Bazza and Dad that mom and I would be ready at 9 AM the next day to see them practicing! They shook their head. The choreography was somewhat amateurish and they had a ways to go to be tight, but still very enjoyable.

This is our car license plate! We are in the Outback!! I wanted to take the license plate home. The 4 wd drive we have is big and lumbering and with a hundred thousand kliks on it, I think it has spent quite a bit of time there too!

We made the family rounds over and over..This is Bazza and his mom. She is busy fixing up here ranch still out at Pinery..

This is an old picture of here that she let me scan. Bazzas mother Barbara, is the one holding the baby on her lap. Bazza has his mothers and grandmothers eyes!

The bird liked me. At least this time the old dog had died who delighted in spending his hours when we visted licking all or one of uses crotch! I mean, you could NOT get rid of him..

Mom had to get into the bird action too here. Could not be left out!

Then we went and saw the baby. ALL the clothes I bought her she may be able to fit into a year from now! Obviously been a long time since I bought baby clothes, as I really thought they would be too small!
So, this is Miss Ella, her dad Wade and grand father Bazzy. We are on our way to TOYS R US to buy toys off course!

One of the toys was a ball of course..

She warmed up to the grandmothers before she warmed up to the Grand Fathers! Of course she had no idea who we were at first, but we did get her to sit on grampa's knee. By the third day we were there though, when we came in the door she had a great big smile and went around to each one of us in tirn wanting to say hi and have a quick cuddle!

Gramma got to hold Baby girl as well...She hoots like a little owl! In a very quiet voice. And of course, is into everything! Bazza and I just laughed and thought "your turn" Yep, I have spoiled here but it is now time for us to hand baby back to the parents for de spoiling and go on our merry way.

This is Bazzas older and prettier sister Pearl, just moved back to Adelaide from Tasmania...

There were birds everyhwhere, Magpies, Lillakeets, Galahs, Parrots etc. I often had my nose up a tree taking pictures!

Bazzas mom has storage barns and sheds everywhere on her property. We went into a couple of them to have a quick look around. Oh. My. God. Lets just leave it there! Crammed full to the rafters. My father said I could never complain to him again that he had too much "stuff"! Doesn't he know that i can always complain!!!

We had a mornings outing to the Koala Sanctuary, before it warmed up too much...It was fun, we petted lots of animals and enjoyed ourselves very much...Probably these pictures are pretty self explanatory!
These Koala Bears are sure cute!!!

Bazzas idea, not any of the other three of us!



Going for a walk along the beach looked like fun...But apparently I was going to have to go back to my childhood.

My mother looks like she is scared to death and just wants off...

I am smiling!

Did not like these rides at all!!

Bazza says there was a weight inequality here and he could not make it teeter. I prefer to think that He was too out of shape to get up on the other side!

A kangaroo...with silly billies on top..

Sand diggers that everyone besides me decided they had to try...

I think the problem here may be that Mom managed to get into this, but I am not too sure it was too easy getting out...





I think my parents look like they are about 5 or so here!

My mother on a zip line!! So, it was the childs one and her feet kept on dragging on the ground! I swear these were easier to do when we were a lot younger. We are all huffing and puffing by this time!


We decided to watch Bazza go down the slide. Only one problem, I think his behind barely fit in the slide, which meant he was not sliding at all, just sitting. He says different.


This is what old man looks like after the hours trip to the playground!

Way back in the dark ages, before Bazza even knew me, he came out to the Caribbean to work on Lonestar as Engineer and First Mate. His friends, the Kelseys, got him a nicely inscribed going away present of a compass with some saying that he could always find his way back home with it. As things go, he never received it. They left it under his house before he went, it could not be found, it came back in the mail to them months later, and then they put it away. Heather came across it a few years ago and since we were sporadically in touch, she wrote a letter to go with it and meant to mail it off to him.

10 years after leaving Oz, we have come back and he now receives the compass pointing the way home! I guess it worked in a round about way, after all, he did come back to Oz! Complete with going away card with best wishes and everything. He did have good luck and best wishes, he met ME and the rest is history!

We have a nice Pajero 4 wheel drive. Apparently they don't call these SUV's here and no one knows what I was talking about. NIce vehicle.....

We made our way down to the Gold Coast. Down to the Sand pumping jetty and the sky was, hot, crisp and clear. I found some spectacular pictures...

Surfers eyeing the waves....



Looking down the Gold Coast at the large buildings looks like something out of a science fiction movie to me. Reminescenst of Battlestar Galitica or some such...

The birds were not too bothered by us...



We walked out to the end of the jetty and back. Sat and had ice cream. In that 35 minutes I found Heat Prickle for the first time in my life. I was scratching myself raw. All the time living in the Caribbean and I have never felt that before. Off we went to pharmacies for me to pour medicated powder and aloe all over myself.

Took the parental unit out for another drive. I believe we have now covered thousands of kilometers, but what else are you going to do when it is hovering around 40 degrees celcius and more out?


As normally happens to me, I have so many pictures I can't decide which I like best so I will just put them all up!







Here we have paddington bear and the "evil man who gave me a cold" looking for more tissue to blow that nose one more time!


We stopped to get fish and chips at Scarborough, and to see the shrimp boats... Do you think it is just maybe possible that this table might have FED the birds???


Not us boy! We were not sharing...


The boats and lights were pretty though...



ANother food shot, the next morning I think eating at a sidewalk coffee shop...

We continued driving around Brisbane forests, and stopping in the boiling humidity to take more walks. Apparently I am much more in shape for walking now!




Went up driving by Springbrook, which I thought would be lovely and cool to live at. great falls, views of cloud etc etc. Bazza told me I would soon be tired of everything being damp and moldy....

Even though this is a horrible picture we were still thrilled to see Wallabees in the wild, quite a few of them too!

Had some wonderful scenery...

And had a little Goana looking for food from us. Probably takes us to the end of that day I would say!


Next blog entry is cute and koala bears figure prominently in it!




Must go get ready to go out for another meal.....

I will take a stab at getting the second days blog off here before we venture out on the town for another day. I have a cold. Of course I have a cold, I was on a plane. Not only that but my father had the cold FIRST so it is HIS fault..Now there are two of us snifflling and coughing away...
It was out for a drive today. Ettamogah pub has been made famous here by mostly a newspaper cartoon that is was featured in a lot....

Pub, pies, Ice Cream, kiddy play land not open and shops...That about covers it...

There seems to be one of these types of attractions about everywhere you go..

Like the man with his pants down...a favorite type of male for most females!

Bazza being mean to my parents! Is he tired of them already??

We walked in and out of the stores..

And then Bazza was drawn like a magnet to more meat pies...

They were good too and we all enjoyed them.


Out to Noosa Head, we have been here before. Some of about the most expensive commercial real estate in Australia. Used to be a tiny little surfers village, but although there is still lots of surfers, I don't think they can afford to eat at some of the places in town!






I have been enjoying taking pictures of the various birds around, I never get to see too many in the BVI.

Lots of these types of buses around with surfer types trailing there boards up and down the trails at the headland.

We were just impressed to make it out the trail never mind doing it with boards and bare feet! I think my mother looks like Paddington Bear in my hat here! So cute!

Mom was ecstatic to see a Koala Bear, even if it was not a real one!


This is just walking along out to the headland....

And the parental units first wild koala bear. Yes, we took about a billion pictures...

The water colors are reminding me of the islands!

Also, saw my first wild Goana! He was large and did not really want me taking pictures of him here as you can probably tell...


After having melted in the mid day sun and humidity, we drove down to MooLooLaBar. Took a picture of this little "boat" for sale $25,000. and what I thought was funny was the sign called it an "exclusive yacht" although reading the listing later it did say that it was a life boat off the Queen Mary! Even with that cachet I don't think I could quite call it an "exclusive yacht"

My father makes friends wherever he goes.....

It was on to Bunderim to visit friends afterwards, the Kelseys, who have a great place up in the hills. These are friends of Bazza that he has known since he was 15 years old. In fact, Barry Kelsey was the one who offered Bazza a mechanic apprenticeship when he was only 15. I laughed when Barry said that "he taught Bazza for the first 10 months and then Bazza taught him" Sounds about like my husband it does!! We had a great time catching up, here Bazza is sharing pictures of our boat and travels in the BVI.


We went over to see the boat that they are "Just" about finished building, a power cat. Typical boat stories in building a boat, had to laugh... and also recognized the boat stuffed full of maintenance and building equipment. Looks just like our boats! They tell me it is ready to go into the water in about 4 days. Bazza says it is true, but to me it looks daunting!




After visiting the boat we met up with their son Christopher and his family and we all went out for a great steak dinner and visit in Bunderim, at a restaurant that had a fabulous view! I had to giggle, as the guys swapped old fishing stories from way back when and they sure enjoyed doing it. Would have like to spend more time with them and heard more!

Next blog entry I will tell you a funny story about this picture below here..



HATE being a few days behind in my blog!!!! First of all I don't remember, second of all, I write so much trivial crap that I have massive amounts to catch up on! Today we are in Adelaide, saw our baby granddaughter last night, but that is getting way ahead of the story... Must go get dressed to go out again. The days are sure going quite quickly...

Well hello there! I have missed blogging the last few days...and I am sure some have missed my scintillating running commentary on the non important details of my life!
Found this on my camera, this is looking out our RV window in our driveway in Victoria. There is some pretty sunsets there too.

Being on the 27th floor of an apartment hotel downtown in Brisbane is interesting watching the lighting storms that came through last night. I kept on waiting for the building to shake being so used to both the boat and the RV doing that!
TIme to catch up on this blog somewhat...It has been a very busy whirlwind few days and I have not had to worry about getting any walking in as by the end of the days I can barely pick up my paws to place them one in front of the other!

Since we had quite a good sleep on the plane I have a new strategy. Get seats in the back of the plane when you have to fly economy and book one on either side of the row to hopefully make the seats between you the last ones to fill up! When we were in the Admirals Club at LAX the Qantas rep switched our seats around like that and it worked! Both mom and I took up 3 out of the 4 seats in the middle and basically slept all night. Dad, well, apparently dads count on the flight was about 6 movies!

Still, all in all, good strategy. Funny I looked at the seats in Premium economy on our way by on the plane and they did not look any better then the economy class. I understand that Qantas is taking out the bulk of their first class flights, as they make more money on the lower price with more people on board. Apparently that is a trend, as my parents tell me that many casinos' have put back in MANY many 1 cent slot machines, as they make more money on them. Decades ago they were all taking them out for the higher priced machines. I have noticed this a few other places as well, and it just may be a trend happening. In certain ways, it is a trend that I think works well on charter boats as well, the only problem is, we have a finite number of weeks in the calendar year! It has always been easier to keep the boat full with a lower charter fee and do more charters..

Anyways, back to Oz, we picked up our vehicle, a decent sized Pajaro, and made our way downtown to Oak Bay Festival, and apartment hotel located downtown, really only a block or two off of the Outdoor mall on Charlotte and Albert. Took some time to figure out the parking (no valet) found out our rooms would not be ready for hours so off we went for a drive.

In a weird moment, even though we had gotten a GPS navigator in the car, my husband was bound and determined that he was going to relearn his driving directions around Brisbane all by himself. Which meant there was a lot of face scrunching at each intersection and intersections trying to decide which way he should be going. Hey, whatever makes you happy Bazza...we all need a mental challenge every now and then!

We stopped at McDonalds for a bite to eat (where else would you go when you first arrived in Australia?) where mom delighted in seeing the first parrots/lorikeets in the trees and the first of many pictures was taken. I had forgotten how much my parents like flowers and trees. My sister will understand exactly what i mean here, as my mother is always pointing out flowers to us and typically Syd and i are rolling our eyes back in our head. It keeps them happy seeing and taking pictures of all these and I believe in the first hour mom had exhausted Bazzas knowledge of the local fauna and was telling him what the vegetation was that we passed!






We stopped to look for Cane Toads, none to be found, but we did find spiders and birds... and then made our way out to Samford area. When I first met Bazza he had a house back here, that we sold. For about $125,000 and houses are worth about $800,000 now there. Yeah. Another one of our brilliant financial moves! We don't think we could afford to live here now, or this is about what we could afford!


Continued driving out in the hills.


This is looking over the Samford plains.. It is very green right now in this part. Bazza says it is more green then he has seen it for a long time...


By the time we made it back to the city boy did we need a shower!!! All of us. After a quick clean up we went out for a walk to the outdoor mall and to show the parents this area. Walked by the casino, got some money out of the ATM and I am sure we ate something somewhere but I don't quite recall. It almost felt like we were in Times Square in New York there were so many people walking around. AND, unlike Victoria and Vancouver, we did not see one single panhandler or homeless person. The city is very clean. I cannot get over how many Asians there are here.
I found a big bag of ice and it was into bed early and to sleep for us. I have to say getting into those clean sheets sure felt good, even though the bed was way too hard for me.
******
Review of our hotel. I am fairly obsessive while booking hotel rooms. Mostly because i know myself well enough that I make Bazzas life miserable if I do not have very good beds and pillows (and I need many of these...), air conditioning that works, internet and good tv. So, I tend to look for more expensive as opposed to less, and I search all over the place for reviews like Trip Advisor etc. I also often don't like booking them through one of the discounters like Expedia, hotels or whatever, as my experience seems to be at times when I do that, I may get it for a few dollars cheaper, but I also get the oldest, tackiest, smelliest room in the place. Sometimes I do really well, with all my searching, other times, well, lets just say I wish I had not prepaid the room at times.
Location for downtown is great. The parking is a bit of a problem. You make your way down an underground parking garage that I was sure we were three times too large for, tires squealing the entire way and pass through about 3 control points that you have to use a fob on to get into. We parked our large SUV in a miniscule spot, and quickly found out that they do not waste any money cooling the parking garages, hallways, elevators etc. Felt like a sauna, most of the time.
Found in quite strange in the underground parkade, as obviously long term rentals here have storage lockers down there. However, the storage lockers are nothing more then pens of wide spaced link fence type corrals, which leaves every treasure you think you have on display for everyone driving through and EVERY item you have coated with the cement dust, and soot from the cars. Personally I would have thrown in the garbage most of what we passed. By the second day I was doing whatever I could to avoid going into that parkade. Hot, dirty, dusty, claustrophobic and you waited forever for the elevator to get down to you. I had hoped, no indeed, expected, valet parking to avoid all this, but apparently my research was lacking.



Upon checking in, we received good old fashioned keys, which are really becoming passe for key cards most everywhere. You also had a fob that you needed to operate the elevator, get in every door, the parkade etc. Fine, etc for 4 of us they only had 1 to give us. The hallways, again very hot and smelt like boiled cabbage or old curry like apartment buildings do. We had plenty of time to figure out the heat and smells as elevator wait time averaged about 14 minutes! For the first couple days we were convinced that only 1 out of the 3 elevators worked, and maybe 2 at times. We found the elevator waits in hot smelly conditions probably our least favorite part of the hotel.
The room itself, except for the lack of any soundproofing (while at the elevator you could hear the conversations in the rooms plain as day) was good. Full apartment with 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, full size kitchen including washer and dryer (which came in handy!)
The beds were way too hard for me and although they had satellite or cable channels on the tv in the living room there was only to air tv channels in the bedroom??????????????



The A/C appeared to be building wide and not really adjustable apartment wide, with no fans, we found it quite warm sleeping at night in our rooms. Even the others in our party were hot, so it was NOT just my personal summers happening! Funny showers that had great pressure, but was flat throughout the bathroom with just a half an inch decline going to the drain... First time I got in, I turned on the shower nice and strong and quickly watched the entire bathroom floor fill up with water, meaning I had to turn down the shower to just above the trickle to avoid flooding the place.

Although comfortable, not one of my better choices for hotels and I would not stay here again.
******

I leave you today with a pictures of a Magpie...so ends day one in Oz, next time day 2...

Screaming babies on the plane over, a reality check on what humidity actually IS again after stepping off the airplane (how soon I forget when I am on the left coast about that!) Internet that costs me a lot of money for not much download time and horrors of all horrors...NO Full THrottle energy drink!

Such is the life of a world traveler and blogger... Will blog and you will get all the uploads later with pics. Off to the Gold Coast today. The parents saw Koalas and Guyanas in the wild yesterday up at Noose Head so they were pretty happy! (if a bit dripping with sweat...)

Bazza is happily munching his way through Australian Meat Pies....

Listening to children scream in the Admirals Club.... So much for an oasis of quiet.... We jumped on the ferry Sunday morning and the seas in between Victoria and Vancouver were Flat, Flat, Flat..I saw fins of various water creatures and we had a great sky...

My husband was not being very nice to me when I was trying to take "going away pictures" I really need to send him back to work!

My parents smiled pretty though!

Loved the pictures of the birds on the way down to Seattle. Actually saw a Heron right by the side of the road.



We went all the way down to Fife, and stayed over night at the Emerald Queen Hotel and Casino, so my parents could go play. Bazza and I went into bed pretty early to watch TV. I was pretty tired as I had had hardly any sleep the night before attempting to get all caught up and everything ready to go away. I made it, but I was reminded once again how much work it is to get ready to go away! The boys were being very helpful here watching my mother load and organize the car this morning.... Smoky places those casinos in Washington. Thought it was weird hauling your luggage right through the casino, but the rooms were OK. Did find it funny, as i went up to the desk, leaving everyone else in the car and asked for two rooms. She asked me if I had stayed there before and I said "no" She said "well the room rates are $119.00 each" I said "ok" and she said "But, if you are AAA or Military I an take it down to $99.00" I said "my dad is both but he is in the car" and then she said "and if you are corporate I can take it down to $89.00" I agreed I was corporate as well, and started digging for a business card. Did not even need it! Thought it was quite funny...I just kept on agreeing and the rate kept on going down.

First flight, Seattle To LAX. Not too full, we had open seats in between us which meant both Bazza and I half slept all the way to Los Angeles. First time I have transferred in LA, found in funny that we waited for a shuttle bus and then zig zagged around all the planes taking off and landing over runways to get to the other terminal. This plane not taking off until midnight. Trying to tell myself that I want to stay awake until then so I have a chance of sleeping on the plane!

Had to love this perfect picture that Bruce caught on Promenade yesterday. One of the best I have seen of people getting wet on the trampoline there. SOme of our guests will recall when it gets like that it has a tendency to break the trampoline!

I found this picture on my laptop, that I have obviously borrowed from somewhere, but it is a bit old, so not sure where. Somewhere in the Caribbean, but I loved the colors...The colors still get to me after this many years of living on the water...


Another one, I found was of pelicans, obviously off of St John I would say. I just adore the Pelicans!

See you on the other side...

When I booked these plane tickets a few days ago, I thought "perfect, I am about caught up on everything" . That thought was great until I tried to do all the little details to finish up all the loose ends until I returned. I think I have been sorting, clicking, typing, doing up contracts, checking for wire transfers, and putting more holds on yachts in the last two days then the last two weeks!

Which, obviously is very good. Some for Promenade, some for other yachts, but it has been amazingly busy and I have been ignoring my sister (love you Syd) my parents (but I figured that was ok as I was going to be spending two weeks with them) and trying to ignore the boat! (They are going on charter now for a few months straight, so they will be too busy to talk to me anyways...)

I had the very smart idea to make my mother the administrator for this trip. She controls the paperwork and sorts it out, along with the passports etc. I am HORRIBLE at that! Bazza usually does it, but even he is happily giving over that roll. I had to giggle. My mother has envelopes on the table with the paperwork for each city we are going to be in ! Yes, you are correct. I would never do that in a hundred years...


We are all very excited. I even made them stop taking me for walks today as I was so sore from doing exercise I could barely get into bed, never mind looking forward to the pleasure of staying on a flight for 15 hours. All the leftovers were eaten out of the fridge last night, and my dad is taking us out to Swiss Chalet for dinner tonight...

My mother had time to get her nails and toes done today. I had time to do more paperwork. Now the parents are at a dance this afternoon. I want to be them!

Now, I have to pack. Then have a bath. That is what i have left to do. Of course I will still be blogging while gone! I think I would die if I could not do that. I also have my phone, my laptop (which I just spent awhile putting everything important on it since i use my desktop all the time now) So if anyone emails me they may get answers at odd times!

NO worries, g'day mate...off we go!

I meant to write this last night, and then I was side tracked...Why was I side tracked? Well we decided the parental unit and ourselves were going to OZ on Monday...Literally, since I bought tickets for show and dinner to see WICKED in Sydney, Australia.
When I decide to do something, no playing around. We had told my parents we would take them with us for their 50th wedding anniversary last summer, (but you can just make it into whatever celebration of the year we are around the trip is for. Their birthdays, Valentines day, Fridays, whatever) I know that is a 180 degree turn from taking them to Las Vegas that we had thought would be the plan this week!
But we get to see our granddaughter! AND she has on something other then pink! I did not think she owned any colors other then pink...


By this morning I had flights...Seattle to Brisbane then on to Adelaide, then onto Sydney and then back, car rentals, activities, hotel rooms and by the end I was furiously changing credit cards around to see which one still would let me charge up one more little thing on it! I even took Bazzas...

Usually bit of a problem buying things on line with our British VIrgin Islands credit cards, the screens just put up a picture of some one rolling on the floor when you try and find the BVI in the country list!
Thankfully, Qantas let us do the air tickets with one of the BVI ones, which helped a lot! Did you know Debit cards only let you take out a few thousand a day? Does not matter how much is in your account.. Anyways, on to other important things. Like food.
One of my many food pleasures is making a rather large (none of these wimpy microwave popcorn bags for this girl!) and taking it to bed. A couple nights ago, EVERYONE else ate dinner (sniff sniff) while I watched as I decided that dinner was going to be popcorn. You know that mouth feel you get when you are looking forward to something? No, well you skinny people just don't get it now do you??? I bounded out to the RV, pulled out the popcorn maker, looked for oil, none, but no problem, I could work around that. I then proceeded to turn the RV over looking for popcorn. None in sight. I pouted. Of course. Bazza offered to go get me some. I put on my best martyr whine and said "no that is fine, I am not making you go out this late to go get me popcorn" He said, "that is fine, I will go into your parents first and see if they have any" I still in my best martyr whine of "don't bother, nothing is going to make me happy now" said " Well, they would only have microwave popcorn if they had any" Then HE starting turning the RV upside down as he could not believe for a second that I did not have any popcorn! AND SOON WHAT DO I HEAR?? The sweet shaking sounds of POPCORN! He was right, I did have popcorn, and apparently not a petite little jar of it either! You read that right people, an entire 8 lbs of it!

Then, it was decided by my other half, that i had been sitting cross legged on my chair in front of the computer for too many months just gaining weight and I was going walking. Sigh. I have to convince myself I have lots of energy just to make it up the steps to the parental units place! The mean man THREW me out of the car at Canadian Tire and made me HIKE. See, I took pictures of real to god scenery....

And water! By the time he spent 18 hours in Canadian Tire and picked me up at the other end, I could barely put one paw in front of the other. Hey, it was an entire half an hour people! The most activity I have done for months...and months...

He has now made me go like 3 days in a row. Today I asked at the end of the half hour if I got a special "treat" like a starbucks moccha frappucino. Some how he laughed at me! Mean man!!

Anyways, I may think I am being humorous tonight and i am so tired I probably am just irritating, so I will leave you with this joke I had passed on that also seemed to suit me to a t!

One of the girls coming on the boat in a couple weeks was lamenting (she owns restaurants too...IN Iowa? Not sure if it is near a cornfield) that she was trying to lose weight before the trip and not sure if she was going to pack the bikinis or not. I suggested she go my route and stay in her jammies all the time on the boat!
*****

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner.

I took ten dollars out of my wallet and asked, 'If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?'

'No, I had to stop drinking years ago', the homeless woman told me.

'Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?' I asked.

'No, I don't waste time shopping,' the homeless woman said. 'I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive.'

'Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?' I asked.

'Are you NUTS!' replied the homeless woman. I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!'

'Well, I said, 'I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight.'

The homeless Woman was shocked. 'Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting.'

I said, 'That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine.'

The nerve of "old crew"!

I promised that i would share the link for the crew profile on the new yacht (Belline) Simeon is working on when I received it...AND I have to let you know that he is sincerely in my bad books!!
Look at this picture I took off of it where HE IS SMILING!! Lisa said he came over to retrieve the hollandaise sauce recipe. After seeing the picture of him smiling I might have left him to figure it out himself! HARRRUUUUUMMMMPPPPPHHHHHH!
Well, actually I will put up 3 of the pictures so you get the full effect.







I think maybe they have more pictures of him on there smiling then I have ever seen! I am not sure what that means...

Probably thought you had been missing pictures of my parents and the food we have been eating! So, I found a few from the last week...I think that was at Moxies..
We fed the parental unit ribs...


And then mom had a plate that was about bigger then she was..


Bazza, stuck to a good old favorite. Hambugers. And fries. He is a simple man!

I snapped this picture in the grocery store for Lisa, as I can never get over how bright and colorful and fresh looking the veggie displays are here, after shopping at Riteway on Saturday mornings for quite awhile when everyone is pawing through everything before it even gets to the shelves to find something they want!

****
Ah, just for variety, here is a pic from the BVI...The new fast ferry that Roadtown Fast Ferry has brought into the territory. The story goes that we are going to have service to PUERTO RICO, and ST CROIX! (and maybe St Martin sometime). I will believe it when I see it! But it would be exciting. Except for, when checking back into the territory after everyone has gone shopping in Puerto Rico can you imagine how many cases of Pampers you will have to wait behind?????


Speaking of the islands, and boats, I understand that Promenade managed somehow to get a leak in their fridge system and blew up something on the generator in the last couple days, which means a scurry and lots of money for parts to get the replacements on island and in before the boat goes on charter this coming weekend! They did well, those items usually break the day before you GO on charter! I did suggest to Lisa that she could take her frozen stuff to Sailors Ketch...Kind aren't I? Always like to be helpful! I think Bruce will quickly learn, that if repair items are "just" in the thousands, and not in the tens of thousands, life is good! Or my other favorite motto used to be "It is just one more charter to pay for it"
****
And for the cute pictures of the day, I have Koala Bears! Which have to be right up there with dolphins I would say. Apparently with drought and heat in OZ, these koalas were coming out begging for water! I wish I could have one for a pet. But they pee on you all the time!!!















I have a new OBSESSION! Tracking ancestry through DNA. I have just about got all my family now on 23andme and Decodeme. I am trying hard to learn about chromosomes and genetically connecting relatives and I am having a ball with it! Even though, I admit, I am riding on whoever genes I am comparing mine with lately to know a hell of a lot more about the subject then I do. If you are on either one of these genetic programs, look me up, I am Puppette user name (don't ask) on either one of them and you just never know who I know that I may find a connection with!

My mother in law called today from Australia. I asked if it was hot and she replied, "no not really, only about 30-35 celcius!!" I somehow did not think that was "not that hot!"

The saga of Mr Bill...Mr Bill is the 40' monohull that fetched up on the beach in front of Ivan's at White Bay on Jost Van Dyke. One of my former guests (thanks Kelly! and the Pirate Girls) just happened to be there to snap pictures of the boat being torn up so it could be hauled away. And she posted them on her Facebook. And I borrowed them Cuz, I knew you all would like them too!






Of course, it is entirely possible that Kelly was not taking pictures of the boat at all, but just pretending too as she sneakily took pictures of this guys butt crack!! (????Kelly????HMMMM...)

I don't know whether to put this post on the boat blog, the charter brokering blog or my personal blog. I seem to be going all over the place, so it will go here, and probably just links on the other sites.
**
Thursday night. Another week almost gone in my world. Not too sure where it has gone to tell you the truth. Not even sure I have that much interesting to say, but thought I should check in anyways...
**
One thing I should mention, on Promenade we have a couple cabins open still on our one and only "cabin only" sailing this spring. April 19th through 25th. $1800.00 per person. Would be nice to see those get filled!
**
My mother actually sent me a cute email...it went along the lines of...

Would you rather have a dog?



Or Children?

**
I think the answer is neither! Also had a few pictures from Comox here on Vancouver Island from last winter, when the Eagles were starving. I think because of it being too cold! That is not happening this winter, it is quite warm. I did not even need a coat when we went out for dinner tonight. Sorry about your luck down in the southwest!










**
Finally got to the point where I figured I better start eating better. Unfortunate, as I love food so much. No I am not saying the word "diet" just seeing if I can make a better choice each time, and if I can't or really don't want to I won't... Plus trying to not put salt on processed foods and restaurant food. I love salt. More then about anything. Anyways, we will see how it goes. Don't follow me, you can see how well I stick to these types of things by looking at my pictures!
**
I said I had some great pictures of Anegada, Walker of BVI Pirates, and Cow Wreck Beach on Anegada fame kindly allowed me to share them on my blog. Anegada is a mystical and magical place, which sticks deep in peoples' hearts and never lets go. He has 1243 pictures here. I did go through each and every one.


Anegada...
10 miles long
2.5 miles wide
The highest elevation is $28 feet
This is the only coral island in the British VIrgin Islands, and the underlying "rock" is coral. You can imagine how porous it is. You can see that quite well here in Walkers picture. The chalky material is actually coral. There are these sink holes throughout the entire island.


Horseshoe reef, which surrounds Anegada is 18 miles long. On the North Side is where the reef meets the Atlantic.



On the south side of the island there are still many mangroves and mangrove islands.


This island has been settled, well, like forever. Pre Historic times. I used to take people to show them "conch mountain" on the south east corner (there are actually quite a small conch piles around). I ignorantly used to tell everyone that the conch piles were 50 years old! Imagine my surprise when I started to research and found out that the largest conch pile has been there since prehistoric times! That is simply amazing...

Here is a couple pictures that i have taken of it from in the water...




And now, you get to see it from the sky as well...






I hear rumors that the goats were trained NOT to jump over all the short stone walls, which marked crops and that goats still come home at night. I find that hard to believe though! I have also heard that many of them marked land patches that were handed down from generation to generation. Something along the lines of "your piece of land Junior is from the hairy cactus tree to the banyon tree"
This picture here is from the International Space Station...Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?


Remember this past spring when we walked down the beach on the west end near Settling Point at the cottages that were built too close to the waters' edge, and with having the bush break taking down between them and the water? It looked like this..




Now you can see it from the sky as well...and compare...







It is these types of things that gives a place its "tug at your heart strings" charm. You shake your head at the engineering plan, you feel sad for someones dream...but it all adds to how much you love a place anyways...

You would be surprised how many fresh water wells there are on this island. How many Iguanas, and Turtles and flocks of Flamingoes that you can see in parts of the enormous Salt Pond behind the Anegada Reef Hotel




I showed you in the spring where we went down to the Fishermens landing, and saw the scraped Turtle shells on shore, the baby sharks laying out to dry, Frigate Birds everywhere, and Mangroves. More then I imagined possible. It looked like this..








And now you can also see it from the air....


Down on the east end of the island, where there are miles of deserted beaches and shallow reef, you have to anchor your tender quite a ways out and walk in...We looked like this:

Muck and ground up coral. We lost shoes, fell over ten times each, and almost lost old and young women in the muck! But we also giggled like crazy...Now look at this shallow reef from the air? How can anyone NOT want to wade through it to go exploring??


And, at the end of the day, you walk down the Flash of Beauty Beach...


This is only a small part of what Anegada has to offer. Where else can you find this? I have not even touched on the Settlement, the reef, the snorkeling, the SCUBA diving, and the magnificent beaches of Cow Wreck and Loblolly.....

I keep on thinking "this year" this year is the year I am going to spend a week just diving and exploring around here. When the seas are flat and I can circle the entire island in the big boat. Or small boat. Or land. Or by air. "this year" never really comes. There is always painting and maintenance, things to do. Businesses to run. We scrape to get out there for one day on a charter week. I keep on waiting for that group of guests who is INTO the diving, exploring and just plain wandering around in the shallow water of the tender counting the sharks and rays. I keep on waiting for that group of guests to come the few weeks of the year that this is possible and to have them say. I want to go no where else. I want to stay at Anegada all week. You will be at one with the world at the end. Trust me. Will it be you?

Thanks for the use of the pictures Walker, they are also going to go up on a web page for Anegada that I am in the middle of doing. I enjoyed comparing pictures from the sea and sky! BUT it is too late at night for me to even begin to care that they are all not sized the same! Good night all...

I don't think there is any words needed with this series of pictures. The men will go "blech" the women will go "aw, how cute!"

Gives me a break from doing year end payroll and books today...my head hurts already and it has only been a couple hours, but I swear, I will get them done today.

Happy First Birthday Ella! You sure are adorable!!
And your birthday present is sitting nice and safe staring at me. It is in Canada, not Australia. Welcome to my world of missed and late birthdays...Get used to it, everyone else in the family has..



In other news we took the Lion for a run yesterday afternoon and took a couple pictures at the top of the Malahat.. That is about the excitement in my world today. Bazza is chasing down fuel problems on the RV and I am thinking a Saturday afternoon spent watching TV in bed is sounding like a great idea...

And for once, I don't mean me! The Lion has not liked sitting here for about the last two years and only being started to go get propane. I think it is telling us it needs to go south! The mechanic is on it though, he had me turning it over and it backfired and scared the hell out of me. Been a long time since i have heard anything like that...


**I actually see sun this afternoon! Nice change, it has poured buckets for the last 24 hours**

Interestingly most people I talked to said they would have had the same concerns about Haiti, however, there were a couple boats who really wanted to go! I received this email from the broker subsequently, which I thought some may be interested to hear the end of the story. Almost the end. I did have someone call last night who had 8 guests on the south side of Haiti who wanted to be picked up and dropped off at DR or Puerto Rico! As the person said though, they probably wanted to be picked up immediately though and not wait for a boat to get there...

"CNN staff reports they have located temporary hotel accommodations in Haiti for their immediate staffing/staging needs. At this point they are not 100% certain those accommodations will be able to sustain their crew's needs longer than a few days until one or more vessels can reach the island, or, whether the hotel will have the supplies needed for the next week or two, as this situation unfolds.
While there is still a chance we may be called into action sometime within the next few hours to prepare one or more vessels for departure, that chance appears remote. Should I get that call, I will contact vessels directly - immediately. So, if you do not hear from me by mid afternoon today, you may all stand down. (Whew!!)
I would like to thank you all for your extremely positive responses and willingness to take such swift action, especially under such "questionable" circumstances. It's not every vessel that can truly say they are "ready, set go!" on such short notice, for such a challenging charter. And, it is not every yacht owner who is willing to put his vessel and trusted staff in what could very well be "harms way", given the dire circumstances in Haiti.
Therefore, I would like to take this moment to commend each of you for being that kind of owner, that kind of skipper, with that kind of "can do" staff! You guys are the BEST of the best! And I trust we will work together soon, hopefully on something not quite so nearly impossible!"
***
I think I am really missing being able to take my fishy pictures. I have my underwater shots rotating as a screensaver and I am oowing and aahing over pictures on some of the forums I belong to.
This picture, really caught my eye this morning. I believe it is taken in Thailand and the link to the post is here Not my work at all, someone called Ilan Ben Tov. The link is a great site to go to for underwater pictures though if you need a fix! I really liked his work, and there is many galleys of underwater photos.


You can see more of his work here



I hate to giggle, but I understand Promenade is slogging through the rain puddles back and forth in St THomas trying to get all their shopping back on board. Never been there, never done that! Hee Hee!

Simeon, is staying in the British Virgin Islands doing charters for the winter on Belline, a 48' catamaran. I will give you a link to his profile when it is up...He sent me a note saying that one of his specialties on the boat was going to be EGGS BENEDICT!! WTF!! He made some for the captain last week. He never, not once, made anything like that for ME. In fact, I don't believe Simeon ever cooked me anything! I feel cheated now almost....

I don't think I need to repeat this three times on every blog.
We could have headed to Haiti tomorrow

Took this picture from BVI Platinum Do you think this guy is feeling like a complete and total knob at the moment going down with his pretty little red sports car? Probably wishing he had done it when there was not quite so many people around! Second vehicle (both red) in the last month that has gone into the water going toward West End. He was lucky, he is fine and the little red sports car? Well, it is just WET!

Have to laugh at my house, does not matter where I seem to live, whether we own a boat or not, but I constantly live in the middle of a construction zone! I don't think my husband knows how to SIT down at all! Keeps him out of trouble though!


Went to see Up in the Air last night with George Clooney. It was ok. Just ok. Expected more from it.

By the way, I found us a new boat! The living accommodations MAY be a bit sparse for a charter yacht, but what the hell, we will be able to see the entire Caribbean in a week, and its a trimaran!

90x90, can go 50 knots and the mast is over 18 stories high is Oracle.

Or maybe you prefer a catamaran?? From the Swiss team. Picked it up by helicopter to fly it over the Alps to get it from landlocked switzerland with smallish lakes to Italy with some sea room. It only weighs 8000 lbs!

My parents managed to sneak in a trip down to one of their favorite Casino's in Washington called the Skagit on the way back to Victoria. I am not sure how that happened as I did not realize the Skagit was on the route between downtown Vancouver and the ferries to Victoria! My father delighted in taking lots of pictures of their hotel room there as although the hotel we stayed at in Vancouver was very nice, and they said a suite was good for 4 people, the bed set up was not optimal. 2 double beds right beside each other (1 mean two inches in between) so we felt like we were sleeping like little sardines in a can! Ah well, great bathtub though!

My mom took a couple nice pictures of the sunrise. Something I am NOT ever every going to see!



My dad took us out for dinner on Friday night (after an already exciting trip out for hot dogs at Costco for lunch!). We went to Montanas' I was pleased to see a lot of steak on the menu, which I ordered only to be told that there was only one piece of steak left in the entire restaurant and not a cut I particularly liked! I took it anyways, and then kicked myself, and usually, and i know this having cooked for a living for a long time, when you are getting low on an item, you keep on picking out the best, until you get down to the dregs and usually the last one of an item is freezer burned, misshapen and barely edible. Remember this. It held true again on Friday night.

Not sure whether I am coming down with a cold or just run down. I think just run down about covers it. The weather has been spectacular, hovering about 10 degrees. I can handle that quite nicely thank you!

Had to laugh at Lisa's blog on the boat. Every year we do this corporate charter. Every year they switch guys 3 days in. Every year we lap the island about ten times. Going to Beans, Willy T's, Jost, Bitter End in a three day period. And throw in the Baths, Little Harbour for pull toys and Thatch for snorkeling too. Every year I was talked into going to Jost Van Dyke on the third night making it a hard long slog to get back for the short turnaround the next day. Every year I give in and say next year I won't do it. The boat did it both times this charter, and Richards excuse to Lisa was "well Kerry would do it..." Glad to see that I am not the only one....

I heard rumors (NOT our group) of a dinghy who untied themselves from the dock at Willy T's last night and then just drifted away. Without turning on the engine. Sounds about right. Richie rescued them, and was given an IPHONE by a drunk guy????????? The boat is finished charter for a couple weeks tomorrow and then there is trips to St THomas to buy all the odds and ends that of course have managed to break, disappear or be used up over the last few weeks of doing charters.

My dads birthday tomorrow, 73 years young. We are going to do the "senior special" and do a late afternoon movie and dinner for it, so we don't keep Bazza and I up too late!

My husband brought me the car navigator to download my card through! He is smarter then the average bear he is.

And now for the picture part of the presentation! This is for my brother Danny, at the Italian Restaurant in downtown Victoria we went to on his birthday. My husband is looking like he justs wants to sleep!

These ones were coming across on the ferry. Water and Mountains folks, water and mountains!







This is my aunt margaret...

My aunt, my father and my cousin Brent....

Coming into Vancouver...

Going through China Town...



The Wedgewood where we are staying has these absolutely deep great bathtubs that went up to my armpits. And water pipes that must have been 6 inches round as it filled the tub in a hurry! Additionally this shower hose has the greatest pressure I had ever seen! It was amazing..There is my semi silly picture of the day! Notice Bazza was so nice, when he went down for breakfast he brought me up ham and cheese on a bagel and placed it on the toilet in case I wanted to eat it in the tub!

We happily left Vanouver behind and made our way back to Victoria. Interesting city, don't want to live there! Funny seeing everything being built up there and not out. This from me who is quite familiar with large cities too...

It has been nice to be people free and just sit down and catch up on some of my work. Received the end of year pay roll forms from Inland Revenue in the BVI from Lisa today, and I looked at them with dismay. To say that accounting is not my strong point would be an understatement, especially the tediousness of filling out the same information on forms for the government over and over again that they require as the only thing that computers know how to do in government offices is to print receipts....

My aperture program ate my pictures on my camera. I don't know why. It has done it a couple times. Seems to get a glitch, and then usually crashes my hard drive..... So, no pics. Had good ones too! We went out for dinner at Bacchus in Vancouver with my father. To say that my father is NOT VERY ambitious in the food department would be an understatement. He is even less so then me. I am busy in there giving him all kinds of suggestions for ordering boring food, and my mouth dropped to the floor when he ordered RABBIT! And my husband ordered LAMB (which he has been busy ordering everywhere he goes lately!) I felt very unworldly with my boring little steak!

Bazza is busy getting the car ready for towing behind the RV. I don't like a tow bar thingy on the front of the car. It gives me one more thing to misjudge the distance on and hit things with! Hoping to head down south in the next week sometime, supposed to go all the way to Mexico to meet my aunt for a couple weeks. We will see, we will see...
Yep Bazza, that is right. More family. Suck it up. Remember you love me. Give him another month or two of this and he will be begging me to go back to the islands!

I had new pictures of our granddaughter Ella with some new Xmas toys...
This is with our son Wade...


And the darling herself... Nicer pictures probably then dear old dad eating rabbit anyways!


For those who know my son Chad and the restaurant/nightclub/bar/lounge/clothing store they are remodeling in the old TD bank building in downtown Edmonton, as most things go, there are delays.


No, it did not open in 2009. They are "thinking" April, but since I received these two pictures yesterday of the construction, I think I should ask which year in April they are opening....





Enough of blogging, time to get back to answering emails and booking charters. Have about 8 on the go from different directions and on different boats. It is so enjoyable now that I don't have to cook, dive, and deal with government officials as well as book charters!

I am in the hospital in Vancouver waiting for a family member to get through a surgery. I have several hours to work on this blog, so I happily sat down and started to edit my pictures, only to realize that i have the wrong card readers for the wrong cards here. That means I have two lousy little pictures at the moment. The rest will have to wait! I sent my husband and father off shopping, they happily decided that Canadian Tire and the electronic store was a much better bet then the hospital waiting room.

We spent a nice two days at home. Cleaned the RV, ate, went out for my brothers birthday, got caught up on my scrabble games, you know...the important things in life. Yesterday it was time to catch the ferry over to Vancouver. We did. And our car had a great view right on the open deck, so I took pictures.

Made our way over to the Vancouver General Hospital and visited the day. Left my mother here with my aunt and I took the rest of the family for a drive out for dinner. We went for Fish and Chips, out to Joey's in White Rock. Always enjoy their fish! My brother is about ready to head back to Edmonton, so the last meal...

Staying at the Wedgewood Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Very nice place! More on that later when I have the pictures.

Bazza game me some interesting statistics on our living arrangements yesterday. When we lived on Promenade the amount of square footage was about 1800. This included all the dead spaces, that were of no use.
Bazza figures there is about 1200 sq feet of useable space and we used about 400 sq feet between the galley, cabin, head and salon when it was just us on it. Now, our RV is 250-275 sq feet. We are downsizing a LOT here!! Having said that, we have decided that we want to buy a RV lot down south somewherem and we will probably look for something that has, or we can build a garage on it for hot water heaters, bathtubs, washing machines and dryers etc etc. THere seems to be a lot of fairly good deals around. THe only problem is, we have no idea where to buy it!

We love Southern Tennessee, Northern Georgia area, but it is a long way away when all my family lives on the west coast (hold on...maybe that is a better thing!) but we don't know the west coast enough to be able to say "this is a good place to buy a lot"

Ah well, if that is the biggest problem I have I am doing just fine!

Had to laugh at my parents. We were coming over here for the hospital family time. I go into their spare bedroom and I see all my mothers casino cards out on the bed! I laugh, as I did not realize we were going anywhere near them. I see the Skagit in WA there! Then the next day I hear my father mention that he has to get his American money. We giggle again, as we did not realize we needed american money in Vancouver! I did ask my father about it and he said "well, you have to be prepared in case there is any lulls in the activity" this was only topped off by my mother printing off the directions from the hospital to the River Rock Casino here! I did not tell her that i had friends who used to run that, and we could have stayed there for MUCH cheaper then the price of the hotel we are staying at!

Promenade has managed to make it through their New Years charter. Lisa and Rich are off to celebrate their birthdays tonight on turnaround. In between the maintenance that Richard has to do anyways! They sent me a gift card for Texas de Brazil for Xmas, which means that we have to stop in Las Vegas on our way down south this month since it is the only place on the west side of the continent that has one. Darn Shucks.
Lisa has 11 corporate men on starting tomorrow. A charter that we have done every year for years. Always a lot of mayhem on board for it! I am not sure whether I am happy to be missing it (as it is a ton of work) or sad as I don't get to share in the fun! It is typically the one charter of the year that for one night anyways, my alcohol consumption slips away from me and I stay sober for another year!

Went for a drive down East Hastings in Vancouver yesterday. I wanted to take pictures, but I was afraid too! If anyone has heard anything about Vancouver and drugs, this is where they provide safe spots for drugs, clean needles etc etc. I have NEVER ever seen so many drug addicts, out in the open. Without a word of a lie there was a flea market set up by and for the street people. There was (I think) empty soda cans set up (maybe they were empty), shoes, half bottles of shampoo, and just about anything (cheap) you could imagine. Somebody was trying to sell a blow up bed that people were testing out. I would never ever walk down this street. I have never seen so many people pushing shopping carts down the middle of the road as I have here. Quite scary. Even though our hotel is very nice, just a block or two over it is horrible.

Been a few days since I blogged here, which has been pointed out to me (Thx Janice!) I have been busy doing what my husband says I do EACH and EVERY week when I run charters. That would be pack too much into a day so all we do is sail around the BVI at breakneck speed!. I cannot even argue with him there. Right now I am about hitting a wall and wanting to crash. I completely understand once again why Xmas is so stressful and tired in the real world and it will be another 15-20 years until I do it again! That is getting ahead of myself though...
We had Xmas dinner on Xmas eve since my boys were heading home on Xmas day. Grampa cut the turkey.

And I mostly took pictures of the table!





Are you getting sick of seeing pictures of my kids yet? I would not blame you, I was getting tired of seeing them in person by this time! Kidding...maybe. I always find with my adult children that once we visit for a bit, I take them shopping or to a movie and feed them, then they are about bored with the old folks and ready to go on with their own life. Or maybe it is the other way around???

A fairly early night and Bazza had to nudge me the next morning saying "we better get up and have Xmas with gramma" This was about 830. She had only been up since about 4!

She had the candles ready to be lit, the log ready to go on the fireplace and the chocolate on the table and under the tree mostly ate!

I like this picture of all the colors in the living room...

My children were not quite sure why I was giving them DNA profiling for Xmas. They wanted to know REALLY quickly if I was wanting to make sure that they were really my kids. Good idea, but I tell you, I can relate every single one of my stretch marks back to one or the other of them!!!

My brother, just sat back and watched quietly...

My 30 year old quickly reverted to 3 years old when he had a hot wheels and proceeded to drive it around the living room and make as much noise as he could, prompting my father to get out the vacumn immediately after the openings to vacumn all the marks out of the carpet!

Bazza put good use to his new socks by using them as a sun shade for a nap....

I spent an hour making a traditional Xmas morning meal in our house, potato pancakes. We all love them! The tray of desset in the foreground is just to get me through the process with lots of energy!

Ate them around noon and it was a good thing it was left over later on i the day.

We took my boys to the airport in the early evening so they could get back for work the next day and this is the start of me biting off more then I could chew. Two hours after dropping them off we were back at the airport to pick up my youngest son Kevin, and his girlfriend Sam...

They were happy to arrive.

We spent the next day wandering around town, where it apparently that Sam is also 21 going on 3, as she is all decked out in pink and little kitty designer wear!

We attempted to go to Avatar, but it was sold out so we went to see have you heard about the morgans? It had a priceless Sarah Palin line in it! More driving around, more food...

To see Avatar the next night, packed full, and then yesterday was putting the kids back on a plane to go to Ontario and we were heading to the airport ourselves.

Instead of heading to the airport we should have been curling up into bed and watching TV for a few days, but my sister had said " they have direct flights between Victoria and San Francisco" and we had a friend coming down to visit her..... We had contemplated driving down for a few days, but it really did not work as we have to be in Vancouver January 2nd. In a moment of weakness I bought tickets.

We checked in on line, printed our boarding passes, checked that we were not checking any bags, only taking a small carry on and then arrived at the airport and the fun started. While standing in the line to go through security we were told that we were not permitted to bring any carry on bags on the plane. Not even laptop bags. Everything had to be checked except for small purses. This had just come down in the last couple hours. Back we go to check bags. We were lucky, as just about that time it was decided that we COULD take the laptop bags on. Many people who had checked in before us were stuck carrying around their laptops in their hands for the flight, smartly deciding checking the laptop bag was one thing, but checking the laptop was quite another.

At United we were told that they were "nicely" waiving the baggage fee for that day. No comment. The staff was all in an uproar as they said directives were being changed from one moment to the next and they had no idea on what they were supposed to do. Really they were just being screamed at by every customer.

Managed to do that and get back to security, while emptying out our laptops the TSA said "no laptop bags" someone came up and said they were allowed now and TSA (or the Canadian equivalent) just rolled their eyes.
We went through the extra pat down and baggage check before boarding. The only place we were not patted down, was the one place I would probably carry something if I had a mind to.

The flight was only 1 hour and 40 minute and the last hour you were not allowed to have anything on your lap, go to the bathroom, drink or eat anything, use any devices and had to keep your hands in full view. This meant that there was a line up down the plane for the bathroom before the cut off, when we had our "warnings" Every one has their ideas on the knee jerk reactions of things so I will not get into it at all. I will just say that as soon as I entered the bathroom I realized that a lot of men could not hit the toilet and it smelt like the worse urinal I had ever been in! I had to put tissue over my nose just to stay in there and take a pee!

Upon arrival at San Francisco, Bazza and I looked at the Immigration lines and joked that no matter which lane we picked it would be the slowest. It was a joke cuz there was about 200 people behind us as well, but it became less funny when there was 5 people left in the lanes in the entire cavernous space and we were two of them! We were closely questioned on why Bazza had a B1/B2 Visa, where we were going, why we came into the states so much and on and on. He wanted to see our return tickets but I told him that I did not have them printed, but he could look at them on my laptop if he wanted. He told me that I could not open my laptop in there.

By the time we found the sky train, took the shuttle to the car rental building, found out that they car rental company place we had picked this time meant we had to take ANOTHER shuttle from there to their place (And I did not even pick the cheapest!), got to the car rental place, waited for them to clean a car for us as I did not want a mustang that they thought i would be happy to get...it was over and hour and a half since we got off the plane. Longer then the flight was. Plus we were at the airport in Victoria three hours in advance. Traveling is such fun!!!!

My sister met us for dinner at, wait for it, outback steakhouse... She said somehow she knew we wanted to go there before she even asked! Had dinner and then made our way to the hotel we reserved. 20 minutes after we checked into the hotel, we checked out again, but that is a story for another day!

By the way, it is Princess LuLu's birthday on the boat today...I want to know why she had to make her own dessert and ice cream for her Bday?? Come on Rich and Bruce, you can do better then that!.

I also hear through the grapevine that our new boat owner Bruce had an interesting (make that expensive...) week his first week of doing charters. Things that somehow I missed reading about on the boat blog! Not only did he rinse his camera with salt water at the bubbly pool, but lost an expensive watch on the banana boat, tore the foot rest on the banana boat by over inflating it, and sent his wallet to the laundry! Welcome to the expensive world of boating! Been there done that! Those are just minor baby expenses I tell you...fair warning!

And in a creative accounting mood for the marina, since we use A/C on dock they decided they were going to charge us so much per day for using it. Fine, they negotiated a rate which was half what they wanted. THen the new dock manager wants to charge them 2 days rate when the boat is on dock from noon to noon!! Cuz, in his mind that is two days! Had to giggle. Sorry we are not there to help with these things guys..... Been there done that again...

Very First Xmas for me not on the boat for about 12 years! Seems weird...You have to do all this present, and visiting and a billion trips back and forth to the airport. Mostly what i have here is family pictures, since it is Xmas!
The first trip out to the airport was to pick up my two oldest sons, Chris and Chad...Mom was very glad to see them!



Then the grandparents were glad to see them as well..





My oldest may be 30, but he is still as goofy as can be with his Xmas sweater with lights on it...

It was a family dinner with Shephard's pie (a family favorite)

And I just thought the cookies were pretty!

Then mother took us all with her to the nativity play in the park. It was a nice night out. No rain. The animals were nice and it was only 18 minutes. Moving along...

We are not a late night family in this house, or at least the older generation. The boys wanted to go to the casino so off the grandparents went with them "for a bit" at 6 PM. At quarter to 11 I am starting to pace as I have to leave for the airport in 45 minutes to pick up my sister who my parents do not know is coming, and they certainly know that i am not going out for a drink at midnight! Apparently the grandsons were good luck and my mother won a nice large jackpot! SHe was thrilled!!

They got home in time for me to sneak out to get my sister...

My mother had fallen asleep on the couch so at 1 AM we walked in and turned on the lights. This is what a mother looks like who realizes her youngest daughter has just shown up!!!!

It was perfect and she did not suspect a thing!

Then of course we had to do the same to my father, but he just wanted to go back to sleep!

It was a late night. My oldest looks right at home in his grandfathers chair..

And yesterday was ALL enjoyed our putaha...

Sat around and visited. We did not get dressed up for a family picture. Seemed like too much work!

My boys were like tweedle dee and tweedle dumb. I am not sure who plays off the other...

Various naps were taken during the day, just nodding off in the middle of the conversations.

Our pointsetta tree found some more presents, and we are having our Xmas dinner on Xmas eve night, so I have just got that in the oven so that is enough blogging for now. My sister flew back to San Francisco this afternoon and my boys leave tomorrow afternoon, and then my youngest son and girlfriend arrive tomorrow night from Toronto, so we will get them all in yet and then I will have had enough of family (and vice versa) for awhile!

I hope everyone enjoys their visiting that has family around....

Bruce on Promenade sent me a nah nah nah nah nah nah cuz he was on his FIRST charter on Promenade, as deckhand/slash owner. I thought I was ok with that as he has done 5 hours of charter (and it is a captain/crew one not fully inclusive!) and I have done about 300 weeks, but I cannot let it go by without giving him a bit of a poke...

...Bruce has mastered the fine art of varnishing coffee tables I understand. I would have just bought a new one personally, but it is a sturdy old table!
This is the note with the pic he sent me "Here's a pic of the salvaged coffee table. Had problems on top applying 2-part Awl Grip. Didn't adhere. Had to scape it off. Wasn't sure if you had varnish or epoxy on the old top. Settled on latex enamel for now. Not sure how long that will last with guests. We're going to still figure out what to inlay into the top that will be more durable. At least it looks good."
Questions:
#1 How much in money of awl grip did you scrape off?
#2: It is fine to ask Bazza what he had on top, or put a drop off acetone on it to find out...
#3 How long will latex enamel last?? Not long not long...
#4 How long did it take to do your masterpiece??
There is my teasing for the night, but IT DOES LOOK MUCH BETTER!! Well done! First repair job on the boat. 18 million more to go for you! Bazza says cheers! You should feel well and truly vested in the coffee table now.....

I wonder how things are going on the good ship Promenade? First day of the Xmas Charter? First day with a new deckhand when the charter does not actually supposed to have a deckhand on it? Something mean deep inside of me wishes that his first charter would have been 12 guests, all divers, all with different dietary needs, and asking for clean towels and different sheets daily! THere is still an evil person inside me..They have 4 little kids on this charter, around 5 years old. Make them work kids, make them work!!!
Do you recognize this handsome couple here? Or more importantly the female??

Yes it can be done. Not only did I have on a dress but I also had on make up! Of course I had to take pics, it does not happen often!

And you are probably wondering what the occasion is... Xmas Party? Theater Opening? Dinner at Mortons??, na, none of the above....Going over to see my parents at the LEGION on Saturday afternoon for the country dance!!!!

Yeppers, do you know at 5 PM in the legion (the band does not stop until 7) THEY TURN DOWN THE LIGHTS TO MAKE IT ROMANTIC??? My parents danced quite a few dances. We supported them by drinking vodka!

My husband was on to a new project today...He looked at all my cords behind the computer already and decided they needed fixing, I needed a new computer stand, and he had to hook up various things to the TV...

Lisa, you will be glad to know that the RV now looks like the boat on maintenance week! I am perched on Bazzas desk with my computer and I despair that my bed will every be ready for me to get in it at all tonight!

How difficult can it be to hook up a playstation and an apple TV, and raise the TV a few inches so the infared for the remote is not hidden under our bed covers all the time!! Apparently quite....

I have already missed Survivor (and NO I don't want to know who won!)

With us being Ukrainian on my fathers side, putaha or perogies as you call them have always been a big part of our world. And, a lot of them. Not for this family 4 little ones delicately put on a plate as a side with everything else, but plate fulls. with lots of bacon and onions, butter, and sour cream (besides my mother, but since she does not have Ukrainian blood I understand that!)

We made double batches yesterday. Mom made dough and I rolled with my little heart out making them. We THINK we have sufficient, not lots. But, we do cook up some ham sausage, Kielbasa "just in case" Not that we really eat it, only if it looks like we won't have enough putaha!

My parents made several trips to buy sausage. Bazza and I brought sausage up from the states on our way through. This is how much we have. Do you think it is perhaps enough??

Well there has not been too much going on up here in the wet northwest. But it is raining. And raining some more. Gives me a great excuse to stay inside...
Baz is coming along quite nicely with "this weeks" project, and has now set himself up with the basement as a work shop instead of the back patio...

My mother managed to clean her living room for Xmas. She is pretty excited as she is going to have family around for Xmas, apparently it is something that has been in short supply for the last decade or two. I know I have not been here for Xmas for 20 years!

We have started Xmas early and every meal seems to include dessert of some kind...I managed to get my father mid mouthful!

Strange thing tonight, someone you don't hear about very much from me showed up tonight. My brother Dan. Dan is 3 years younger then me, and I don't see him often, and cannot even remember the last time I saw him at Xmas.

Dan lives in Alberta. Apparently for those coming from ALberta, where I hear it hit -45 below or something this week (does not matter whether it is celsius or fahrenheit, apparently when it gets that cold they are about the same, or it don't matter!) the coast is practically the tropics! Or maybe it is just my brother, but he showed up with roller blades and bike helmets and other assorted SUMMER things, not sure what he would need. Maybe we are going to California for Xmas and I just do not know about it!!!

Received this pic and email from my friend Sharyl, and it is funny. The story is below the pic!

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.
First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.
Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

That is it from me tonight, time to go continue my new rediscovered love affair with Directv!

OH! Saw this job request come across my desk...had to laugh, did not realize someone had to be "financially comfortable" to take a job feeding goats, doing "projects" (yes, I thought of my husband), and getting the benefit of a composting toilet and one small room in advance... I assume the "plus extras" is you also get to eat the organic veggies you tend and the goats milk you milk! If you are interested, let me know. I usually find these types of jobs on yachts, so at least this one is on land.

MINI-FARM CARETAKER wanted long term to help with a quiet, solar-powered homestead near Tucson. Duties include caring for and milking goats, tending poultry and parrot, watering plants, irrigation repair, helping in organic vegetable garden, and projects. Duties shared with owners except when vacationing. Applicant should be financially secure, handy, conservation minded and willing to live simply. A separate one room furnished guest room with cooking and sink area and a separate bathroom (with composting toilet) is provided. Trade rent plus extras for work. Enjoy sustainable living in the beautiful Sonoran desert. Non-smoker, no fragrances.

Talking about yachts, I was on one of the yacht job sites last night, and giggled as apparently there is about half a dozen boats owned by men in the Virgin Islands who are looking for the next hostess/cook/cleaner/mate/soulmate/romance partner/unpaid help! And don't forget you should not be older then 45. Otherwise how could you possibly fulfill all the jobs they want you to do?

My advice, marry them first before taking on those jobs, then at least you will get SOMETHING out of the deal!

I know I have quite a few readers who are waiting for me to spill the beans on "Simeons' Grand Adventures at Sea" as, anyone who knows him, also knows that it takes a lot to get the complete stories out of him!
I will start by saying that Simeon says he never felt in any danger and that he was in control at all times. And, that is very important to Simeon, as some of us who know him well and truly believe that! Whether we THINK he was in control or not may be another matter.
Also, I am paraphrasing, so anything else will have to come from the horse's mouth!

After Simeon's stomach ailment and making it back to the Dominican Republic, resting up a bit, he made it to Jamaica. I don't think I ever quite got that piece of the puzzle about WHY he went to Jamaica, but apparently, none the less, maybe only because it was down wind he went to Jamaica.

Upon arriving, he picked a spot to anchor and as you do in most countries of the Caribbean, grabbed all his boat papers and headed ashore to check in. That is when the fun began. After busing or taxiing around practically the island, he finds out that Jamaica is one of the countries that wants you go radio on the VHF and stay on the boat. They will send a customs agent out to the boat. We might just have to get him a REEDS Caribbean Manual for Xmas!!!
They were NOT impressed with him. So unimpressed that they basically confined him to his boat for three days making him wait for one more person to show up to stamp his passport. As he tells it, he had planned to explore Jamaica and then after this fiasco he was just PO'ed and that was when he was heading back to the BVI last time.
****
So, he puts Jamaica behind him and starts sailing west. He basically gets to the eastern part of Jamaica and there is a lot of current. And not in his favor either! He spends 3 days sailing and tacking 24 hour hours a day and make an entire 30 miles. Apparently about that time he was becalmed. For two weeks. Watching his water and food supplies going down.

He DID NOT want to back track to Jamaica, as he knew those miles were hard won. Therefore, he drifted. He fished. But he did not troll as he sure was not moving enough to catch anything! He kicked the boat. More then once i understand.
He found out the boat leaked at a spot or two, that the boat also sweated. Yep, believe that. He also decided somewhere in there that he did not like monohulls. I think I few things crashed around the boat actually!
His food and water continued to dwindle. He caught a Mahi, with a spear gun, as he had picked that up in Red Hook. Basically he said the spear gun might have just saved his life. I am not too clear where exactly he was drifting around at this time. The Mahi came after about 3-4 days without food. Then he caught a smaller sailfish! Of course, this was after another few days of no food. Apparently getting it into the boat meant he was laid out on his back with the fish on top of him! I TRULY wish that I would have had a picture of that for my blog!!!
Unfortunately, Sail Fish, does not even last as long as other fish without refridgeration, and he made a tactical error of cooking some up when it had really gone off too much. He said it was the worst thing that he had ever tasted in his life! AND then he proceeded to spend the next few days trying to gurgle with the food he had left to get the taste out (hot sauce and balsamic vinegar) and it did not really work.

Then he started getting some chaotic wind from different angles, which enabled him to sail in fits and starts. Still not wanting to go back to Jamaica to get supplies he decided to go kind of on a broad reach up to CUBA (yep, if we had of had to guess where in the hell he might be in the Caribbean Cuba would not have been my first choice!) By the time he reached the south coast of Cuba, he was down to his last half a gallon of water. And he apparently made landfall along an area of the coast with nothing there. He sailed along...and eventually was at a very poor place, and an Immigration or Customs official came out to him in a little boat. He is not sure, as they could not talk to each other. He figured it was too complicated to try and get on to land, so he settled by picking up his water jugs which were empty and plaintitively saying "AQUA" over and over again...
Simeon says the gentleman gave him 15 gallons of the best tasting water he has ever had in his life. Then he sailed on his way.
******

Still sailing along the east coast of Cuba toward us, and he knew he was around skinny water, and somehow miscalcuated by 15 feet and fetched up in mangrove mud. That was a fun night. Finally the next day, after moving the brand new gallons of fresh water to the front of the boat, taking the engine off the boat (and breaking mounts somehow), putting the engine on the dinghy, sort of, he managed to walk around the back end to get off. Apparently the bottom of the keel has some fiberglass showing now. Onward sailing ho to Haiti we go!

****Sometime in this adventure, but I think much earlier, he found out that packing anything that required cooking for food was a bad idea. He has no autohelm. It is a small boat. So he would set up the sails to continue on and then go below to prepare something. Only to have his weight shifting throwing off the sails. And the attendent slop of water off the stove etc. I believe this was some of the kicking episodes.

*****Also sometime in this adventure between Jamaica and this, he was boarded by the coast guard and they did a safety check! Took about 10 minutes and he did pass!! Simeon says that was the day we heard the coast guard calling Whiskey Dream on the VHF.

He tacked and sailed for 4 days until he was somewhere on the north coast of San Juan area. He had no chance of sailing into a clearing in spot, so he anchored the damn thing. He had no engines, no power, no food, you get the picture hey? Then had to figure out how to get to an official clearing in place. He asked for help and eventually showed up at the airport to check in. And if you don't think that confused the hell out of him you would be wrong! It took a few days to get straightened out, and he avoided quite a few fines by doing things wrong.
That is when I heard from him again. He spent 5 days in San Juan eating, resting and "taking a break from sailing" Found out when he checked out of San Juan that he and his boat were celebrities somewhat from this whole thing. Apparently he kept on telling the officials to take pity on his, he had had no food for 4 days! Over and Over!!

Then he checked out and sailed all the way to the BVI lickety split, of course arriving just hours after we left on Friday.
Let me repeat that he never felt not in control, and he always had options, he just did not want to take them. Neither should you trust my time frames here, and I can see SImeon shaking his head now and telling me I am exaggerating! Would not be the first time he told me that now would it???
Yes, he is on Promenade at the moment. Still hating monohulls!!! But, I bet you he damn well knows a hell of a lot about monohull sailing now!!


And yes, I did get Lisa to take more pictures for my blog for me!! I am not sure how anyone is going to know about Simeons' adventures once he stops telling me so I don't blog about them! I told him he looked like hell! Not quite like our good looking cabana boy at the moment!
I am really sorry to have missed seeing him, but we have a lot of people who live outside the box in our world and follow their dream. Just like Bruce has recently did, with Promenade, you have to give us all credit for taking chances.

Anyone want to go sailing with Sim?


On another note, my good friends Sheila and Bob from Paradise Connections also have followed their dream and sail around on their yacht. They were making their way from the boat show in St Thomas down to the boat show in Antigua, when things apparently went a bit wrong!


Picture from Sheilas' blog at sheilas blog

And you can go to her husband, Bobs blog for the story commentary...All kind of boat stories I have today don't I! That is it....

Been down for a few days so I was posting on promenade's blog...not that I had ran away...
guess I will move it over here now..
We are supposed to quite warm weather this week. It has been raining for a couple days now. Better then snow! I love my new IMAC computer. It is so nice to use a desktop after a laptop all the time. My laptop came home from the repair shop yesterday with a new hard drive so i am good to go on the computer front now. The yacht brokering business has been busy the last couple weeks. I have done several bookings and I am now going to go and do up the details for them to the guests and the boat crews!

It has been a good week up here in the chilly lands of Canada. No snow, and the heat works well in the RV, so I am happy. Busy setting up all my "toys"
Baz has learnt the value of a "toque"

He has also learnt that he will be forever fixing boo hoo's on cars for me. It was not really my fault, but he has already had to order a rear light assembly for my nice new car!

He is happy though as long as he gets to play with his projects. This is the top view of a C and C lathe!

I hear it does something interesting that he will be able to play with...He is excited cuz he is about finished working with the wood and can do it inside where it is warmer now.

We have pretty sunsets up here too. Mom and dad are right on the Gorge, and this is one of the sunsets this week. The only thing wrong with this picture is that this was taken at 3:45 PM in the afternoon!! Yeeks!!

Last week or so I was feeling so PIOUS, as I had NOT bought the LCD display I wanted in the apple store. And RESTRAINED. This week instead I bought the whole damn desktop computer thing as I am tired of replacing drives on my macbook pro, and know the desktops don't fail as much. Will just use my laptop when traveling. Justified in my mind! I also was able to hook up the Apple TV, the satellite radio, and on and on, so it is a techno dream in my house at the moment. AND I don't have to unhook everything to drag it to the boat!

My mother is a chocolate fiend, and the chocolate container is going down quite a bit, so I bought more and made a trail to the basket, thinking she could just eat them as she went along!

For those who say I am bah humbug over Xmas, I want you to note that I have put presents under my parents little tree, two weeks before Xmas! Yes, all the same wrapping then people will know who they are from!

And now for my weekly rant/humor episode on officialdom in the BVI that some of you have missed! Although Bazza has always had a class 1 from the VISR, Richard had not gotten that ambitious yet. Rich is well qualified for it though, from not only the MCA but also the fact that he has captained Promenade when we did not for the last few years.
Before Baz left island last week, he took Richard in, introduced him to Captain Pat, who he would have to do his oral with, and said "you will have no problem"
Rich ran around, doing his medicals, and whatever other paperwork they wanted and showed up with everything he needed to do his oral for his class one.
Contrary to Baz's advice, he forgot to take off his hat immediately, which caused him to be looked up and down for a few minutes and then one word was said to him "hat" He apologized and on they went. Richard wanted a class one, in fact needs a class one for helming Promenade. If you remember back a few weeks Bazza went back and forth with Marine Services for a week as they could not get our certificate correct, and one of the things they had done was put the wrong class of license to helm the boat, which basically had us going out to the markers in Road Harbour and god help you if you wanted to stay out over night.
Richard was told that he would be tested for his class two. Richard of course, thought a class two was going to do him fuck all good. Of course. He commented on this and was told " We don't just give out class ones willy nilly you know, you have to earn it" Richard has more then earned it and has every single last qualification and more for it. Richard went home to get his ducks in a row and went back in the next morning (with hat off) saying he had gone over all the paperwork and our certificates and he thought that perhaps a mistake had been made and that we required a class one, and he was qualified. What do you think he was told once again? Yep, the whole "willy nilly" and "earning" it!!
THEN HE TOOK THE BOAT CERTIFICATE AND CROSSED OFF THE CLASS ONE, MADE IT INTO A CLASS TWO FOR OPERATING IT AND INITIALED IT.!! Saying something to the effect "there, you can run Promenade now" Richard picked his jaw off the floor and came and called Bazza.
What is so particularly funny about this is a couple things.
1) we talked to another captain last week who did captain only charters on a 50' monohull who did their class two oral and received the shock of their life when it said on the boat certificate that it needed a class one, and a second to helm it. Which, is our understanding, is true, anything over 36' feet that stays out overnight requires a class one. Of course, unless you are three times that size like Promenade is and then apparently you don't!
2) This is one of the problems that many of us have with the local agency here. You never know where the goal post is going to land that particular day you go in. They seem to interpret the rules and change them with each person, usually to make it harder for you to comply. Without fail, everyone says this. And that there are too many high paid paper pushers in that department. MCA sets the rules, why and how are they getting away with doing this here? It makes a mockery of the system. ESPECIALLY since this is really all petty stuff since there is NO PRACTICAL tests here for these courses. All you do is prove you can memorize a manual.

What is our next step? Well, Bazza is shaking his head glad that it is someone elses turn to deal with this, and we are contacting the MCA in the UK to make sure we have all our correct facts and then going to Captain Sallah (the head) and higher.

My oldest son is such a goof! Cute but goofy as can be. He said he made this picture especially for his mother and grandmother, but I am sure we were not first on his list.

I left you off somewhere on the plane, and we made it to Seattle about 130 or so in the morning. There was frost on the car. We had no scraper. Of course we didn't folks! I am not even sure my husband knows what that is! Then we could not sleep. Oh well, we went to a marvelous brunch buffet later on that day!
A place called Salty's... Anyone who knows me knows I like salt, so it was a perfect restaurant name for me!

On the waterfront looking across the bay to Seattle proper. This is the building from the side...

This is me. I had a craving for seafood, which is quite unusual, as, after eating shrimp and lobster charter food for the last twelve years, it is not usually something I go for...

The view was gorgeous looking out at the city...

And the buffet was marvelous. It has been so many years since I had something other then Costco frozen crab legs, I ate a fair bit of their simply fabulous Dungeness Crab Legs!

There was also no shortage of dessert, but I was not much hungry by the time I arrived there!

This was plate #1. I had been wanting eggs benedict, and the other type I thought Lisa might be interested in making on the yacht for charter. It was shrimp benedict. They had an english muffin with a bit of fresh spinach and a slice of tomato, then the poached egg, some cooked shrimp, hollandaise sauce and dill. It was good.

This was plate #2. I go to an expensive buffet and mostly eat the deep fried seafood bits with tartar sauce!

We went for a bit of a walk afterwards, long enough for Bazza to shake his head at the SCUBA divers doing their check out dives.

I offered to sign him up for some local diving, but he was having none of that at all!!! Cannot say I blamed him there...

The city was pretty anyways!

A nice tree and berries. No idea what it was!

That meal sustained us for 24 hours! We did not eat again until we went to Ipanema for Brazilian Grill the next day. It was good, although certainly not the price nor quality and portions of Texas De Brazil, but we were there for a brunch, not dinner too. Walked around Pike Market looking longingly at the Winter Hats mostly!

Then it was time to go to Costco, where Baz bought his first ice scraper and broom. We arrived home to our RV on the 7 PM ferry only to find the furnace not working, so it was a tad chilly! I slept under a billion blankets.

All in all, a quick trip, a trip that I wonder why guests do all that traveling for 7 days in the islands!!! And, before anyone asks me, I promise on the next blog entry to paraphrase Simeons' sailing adventures for those who are curious!
Apparently I am going to just carry on in my tradition of food pictures when I don't have fish pictures!