Happy New Year!

We've been on the go for the past few weeks and now find ourselves back in Langkawi getting ready to go again.  We had to return to Malaysia to reset our Thailand visas and now we'll head north to haul out and give Savannah some new powder and paint so she feels pretty again.

I have so much to say but lack the motivation so I'm going to leave you with some pictures from our trip.  Andy finally got to get in the water again so there's a few treats from him.  The other pictures are of the absolute chaos Thailand calls tourism.  We have never in our life experienced the sheer volume of bikinis, speedos and boats.  

From our family to yours, we hope the New Year brings you health and happiness!

You wonder how the ferry flipped over and killed 400 people?
This is how.

These people were all snorkeling in the same spot behind their
tour boat....not sure what they were looking at as there was no
coral....hmmm..

I wonder what the US Coast Guard would say about this.

You just can't get the feel of this without the
"boom chicka boom boom" ...it's just
not the same.

Easter in Palau

The Easter bunny brought kids!   Jake got almost a full week of just play, play, and more play.  There is a family from Guam that has a boat here and they come once a month to work on it, getting it ready to sail.  They have a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl.  We finally met them on their trip this time around and Jake and Charlie pretty much spent every day together.  They were here over Easter, so we had an egg hunt up at the Yacht Club/Sam’s Tours.  The kids ran around with so much energy as if they’d already eaten that candy, trying to find the eggs.  Jake is a trip to watch…he couldn’t find his own head if it wasn’t attached.  He gets so excited and runs around looking left and right, up and down and never actually sees anything.  But he did manage to find a few eggs (with a little help) and one of them even had a dollar in it (He’s saving up for his very own iPad…he says he only needs $700, so every little bit helps).  They did a second hunt and Charlie’s dad hid one of them in the water.  Jake came running to Andy and said, “Daddy?  Can I jump in and get it?”  Andy said, “Sure”  and off he went.  He never missed a beat…ran right down the dock and into the water to get that egg.

Throughout the week the boys spent time swimming, “pulling” (they lay on the paddle board and hold onto a ski rope while we pull them with the dinghy), playing on each others boats and then we topped it off with a huge play date with both Charlie and Carla as well as Selma (6) and Magnus (3) from another boat, Hero.  If anyone knows me, they know I’m not exactly the kind of mom who usually invites 4 kids over to play…but these kids are really sweet and well behaved and they all played well together, despite the age differences.  The boys played Hero Factory while the girls decided to set up shop and “sell” the parts to the boys so they could make their creatures.  This is a typical scenario for boat kids.  They meet, get to know each other in about 8 seconds, then play as hard as they can because they don’t know when they’ll get to do it again.  Unfortunately, Charlie and Carla were headed to the Rock Islands, we were headed to Nikko Bay, and Selma and Magnus were leaving Palau for adventures elsewhere.  The good news is, Charlie and Carla will be back next month (and the next, and the next), so there will be many more play dates in the future!

Happy Holidays from Kwajalein!

Santa found us in this big ocean.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.  We hope you all were able to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy some time off.  Once again I failed to get Christmas cards out so my apologies...between being unemployed and living in the tropics, I just couldn't find the time. :)

We’ve continued on our social marathon here in Kwajalein with holiday parties, cocktail hours and we even fit in a few boating trips.  The first was on the ferry here to Ebeye, a neighboring Marshalese Island.  This is where most of the local workers on Kwajalein live.  They take the ferry daily back and forth from Ebeye to Kwajalein.  We took the ferry with our sponsors on Christmas day to see the town and listen to some of the church singing.  It was a nice day getting out and about.  Ebeye is crowded, but appears to be a bit cleaner than Majuro and the people also seemed a bit friendlier.  Of course my opinion might be skewed given the high praise I have for Majuro (wink, wink)…

The ferry ride to Ebeye.

Yesterday we took our friends out on the boat to another island, Bigee (pronounced Bee-gee).  It was so beautiful - crystal clear, blue water with white sandy beaches – we decided it would be a great place to hang out for a week or two.  Ron and Christina brought their paddle boards a long with them for us to try.  I’ve been wanting one and it was nice to get to try one out first.  Although I think I might have been more successful if I didn’t wait until there was a small squall coming.  For a while there I thought Andy was going to have to get in the dinghy and come get me.  The kids played under the boat all day either swimming back and forth from the bow to stern or just making up games on the paddle boards.

The sailing was great as well.  We made a consistent 8 knots going out to Bigee which pleased Captain Ron to no end.

Captain Ron

The kids...a bit tired.

Playing under the boat.

Ron on the paddle board.

Not a bad place to be, huh?

We’re still enjoying ourselves and are even considering trying to find work here for a year or so (some of you will be picking yourself up off the floor right now).  We’ve had a lot of unexpected expenses since Tarawa and it would be nice to replenish the cruising kitty a bit while resting in a little slice of the US out here in the middle of the pacific.  But nothing is guaranteed here so we’re not getting our hopes up too high…it’s a win win either way – if we get jobs, we stay.  If we don’t get jobs, we leave and go to Tonga next year and keep on cruising.  There’s no bad option there.

In the meantime, we’re just soaking up the sun and enjoying this friendly, relaxing atmosphere.

Christmas in La Cruz, Mexico

It never really felt like Christmas here in Mexico and I think it’s mainly because of the lack of street decorations, tv commercials, mall decorations and the like.  It’s probably not a bad thing seeing as that’s one of the ways Christmas gets out of control.  But you add 85 degree weather and no family to it…well, it feels like any other day.

But we made the best of it and it turned out pretty good.  We intended on a nice quiet Christmas eve with just us, much like we did Thanksgiving.  But when I found out there was to be a cookie decorating activity on our dock, I decided to ask if Jake could go.  When the older kids came to get him (“I’m fine mommy, you don’t need to go”), Andy and I decided to check out the dock party…just for an hour or so.  We had a nice pot of chili and presents for Jake waiting for us.

Well, the hour tuned into hours before we knew it.  We had a great time hanging out on the dock (albeit with people we barely knew) watching Jake run back and forth with the older kids from boat to boat, just happy to be playing with someone under 30 years old.  One of the dad’s pulled out a reindeer piñata and the kids got to wack at it for a while.  It didn’t take Jake long to figure out he needed to be speedy to get any candy (especially since he was the smallest).  The kids even got on the internet and tried to track Santa.  After a very late night, we finally went to bed so Santa could come to us.

Jake's first experience with a Pinata.

Jake crawled in bed with us Christmas morning like he always does and just laid there for about 15 minutes.  Finally, he whispered in my ear “Mommy, when do you think we can get up and open presents?”.  Who could resist that?  So we got up and sure enough Santa found the hatch we left open and left Jake a full stocking and his #1 toy on his list…Star Wars Legos!

We put legos together all morning and in the afternoon we went to a local restaurant where they provided the turkey and ham and everyone else brought a side dish (we took our chili).  It made for the largest potluck I’ve ever seen.  For $50 pesos we ate like kings.  They had live music and after dinner Santa handed out presents to about 500 local children.  They were lined up down the street.  It wasn’t dinner at mom’s but we were with good friends and got to see the meaning of Christmas first hand with all of the generosity of the folks at Philo’s.

Philo on the guitar with one of the local kids playing along.

This guy was great!

Even Bosun from Ulalena dressed up for the occasion.

It was hard to capture but kids were lined up around the corner to see Santa.

Does he look ready to go to you?

Today, it’s back to our normal routines and trying to clean up everything.  We don’t have piles and piles of wrapping paper and boxes like normal as it was a very modest Christmas here on Savannah but I did manage to put off doing dishes and putting up laundry for a few days.  And I’m stepping on legos everywhere I go.

12/23/2010 - Not much going on here

We’ve spent the last few days piddling around doing nothing and doing everything.  It’s been a few days where you feel like you’re getting nothing done and just going through the motions.

We took Jake to the beach one day.  There’s a local beach within walking distance so we took the sand toys and blankets and spent the morning playing.  Andy and Jake built the finest sand castle I’ve seen since we started this gig.

Hard at work with a 5 gallon bucket and lots of sand.

Looks like something out of Harry Potter??

Andy’s spent a lot of time cleaning the boat, organizing and attempting to downsize.  I’ve made numerous trips to the laundry and grocery stores and started on the inventory of our “stuff” (to prepare for provisioning later).  I finished Christmas shopping and now need to wrap everything.  I have attempted to start jogging again, but no one’s holding their breath yet.

Jake has been playing…and playing…and playing.  He picked out some stuffed animals to donate to some local children’s hospital here and he’s spent some time making presents for some of the cruisers (well, just one..lucky Ms. Teri).

Last night the marina put on movie night for the cruisers.  They played Santa Claus on the big screen outdoors.  They sold coffee, hot chocolate, popcorn, the works!  It was a really nice night.  It looks like they’re going to be doing this every week.  They’re really going out of their way here to appeal to the cruisers.  In addition to the movie night, they’re going to start a potluck every weekend, cooking classes, and they’re even trying to get some of the cruising seminars here (in addition to Puerto Vallarta) so we won’t have to hop the bus every time we want to hear one.  The staff has been great…I wish we had the money to stay here the whole time we’re in La Cruz!

Enjoying $1 margaritas at a local restaurant on the beach.

Tomorrow morning starts the pie making (Andy can’t live without his pecan pie) and cooking making (for Santa of course) so I’m off to get some rest!

Exploring La Cruz

We've been here a week now and I know I owe a post or two but I haven't really been in the mood...but I can think of at least two people waiting on me to do this, so here goes...

Scott, Teri and Jake at a local restaurant.

Our friends from Ulalena arrived a few days after us and we've had a very happy reunion as we haven't seen them since early fall.  We've gone out to eat with them a few times and are finding the food here very good.  Jake has really enjoyed meeting back up with Mr. Scott and Mrs. Teri and is looking forward to spending our Christmas with them as well.

We attempted to go to the Wild Animal reserve at one of the really swanky marinas here but that proved to be an unsuccessful trip for a number of reasons I won't go into.  We're going to try again after Christmas.

Yesterday we went sailing with Scott and Teri on another friend's catamaran (Catana 40), Puddytat.  Sylvie and David were wonderful hosts and we actually saw a few humpbacks out in the bay.  It was a beautiful day for sailing.

Andy and David.

Scott trying to convince himself he doesn't want a catamaran :)

Teri and Sylvie

One of many humpbacks we saw on our trip.

Sylvie is a wonderful artist that does various different things (fabric design, jewelry, painting) but one of the things she does that I enjoy the most is painting on fabric.  She dyes the fabric herself and then she creates stencils that she paints onto the fabric.  It's a very intensive process and take a lot of her time. She sells these pieces to others to use as they like.  I took a picture of one of the pillows she made with her seahorse square.  If anyone is interested she has both a blog where she talks about her work (Sylvies Designs) as well as an etsy site where she sells it (SylviesDesigns - Etsy).

Veggie stand at Wednesday's market in La Cruz.

There are a few markets around here.  We stumbled upon a more traditional market here on Wednesday...fruit and veggies, clothes, dollar store type toys, flip flops.  Today, there was a very different type of market on the local plaza.  It was more of the California style farmers markets that we used to go to in San Diego...small vendors with various types of art, bread, cheeses, premade food (humus, dips, etc) and an extraordinary vegetable stand (at least I thought so).  Unfortunately, I didn't need any vegetables.  But we did buy some fresh mint, squash blossoms and some sort of green heirloom tomatoes.  All of which I've never seen here in Mexico.

Jake jumping in the trampoline they had available for the kids at Sunday's market.

Lady weaving a basket at the market.

Tomorrow we move into the marina to begin our "Christmas vacation."  Instead of buying each other gifts, we decided to treat ourselves to the marina for two weeks.  This is a huge place for cruisers so there are more than enough activities going on to keep us busy.  It doesn't really feel like Christmas, but we're trying.  We put up our tree and lights, we've written our letter to Santa and practiced making cookies for him.  We even saw a Christmas parade in town the other night.  I'm making my last trip to Walmart tomorrow to finish up the shopping for Jake.  We'll be attending a huge potluck at the local restaurant here for Christmas day, but doing the traditional (at least for our families) Christmas Eve dinner on the boat with just us and a few gifts.  We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate)!