Is it vacation time yet?

     I've come to a conclusion. It truly does not matter what type of vacation we are taking, whether it's just Joe and me, or the entire family, how long the vacation will be, or even if we take our whole house with us on said vacation, preparing to go on vacation is stressful and hard work!

     Did I mention we're going on vacation? We are, on Friday, as a matter of fact, and yes, this will be a vacation on Kyrie. We are taking our boat out on what will hopefully be an ABC circumnavigation. What exactly is that? Well, ABC is Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands. If we are able to take the route we want to, we will go all the way around these three islands. However, as Joe is wont to say, "Those plans are written on the beach at low tide." 

     We hope the weather will permit us to leave Juneau, head south down Stephens Passage, around the southern tip of Admiralty, and across Chatham Strait to Baranof Warm Springs for a couple of days. Then, we hope to continue south down Chatham, exit and round the tip of Baranof Island, stopping at a few places along the way, before visiting Goddard Hot Springs and then continuing on to Sitka. We can pick up any food we need there and do any laundry we might need to do before continuing on up the outer coast of Baranof and then Chichagof, meeting up with Joe's parents at White Sulphur Hot Springs. (By the way, have you picked up on the theme of this trip yet? Three--count them! Three hot springs we plan on visiting!) After White Sulphur, we want harbor hop up the coast and enter Cross Sound, stop at Elfin Cove, and then either Excursion Inlet or Hoonah before heading back up Chatham Strait, round Point Retreat, and start making our way back to our good old slip in Douglas.

     Joe requested two weeks off from work, so we have two weeks to make this grand adventure. Hopefully we can take our time and thoroughly enjoy ourselves--unlike our last two-week trip. While that was actually fun, I would like to not be in such a time-crunch this time. If you're new to this blog and confused, check here and there to read about us bringing Kyrie up from Washington last year.

     What I've realized through getting ready is that there is still a ton of work to get ready for vacation, even when we're bringing our whole house along! The fridge and pantry needed to be restocked, laundry had to be done, including all bedding, a bunch of stuff needed to get off of Kyrie because it just didn't need to be on her, in addition to making sure everyone who needs to know knows we will be in and out of cell range for the next two weeks and finalizing everything for all the kids' school supplies and activities. I think everything is ordered and should be here when we get back, and sign-ups are done!
     On a side note, if they are reading this, I wanted to give a shout out to Jake and Merridy on Beachcomber. Please forgive me if I misspelled names! We met them last night upon coming out of the Thai restaurant in Auke Bay. Levi and Rachael noticed their dog (best way to meet other people!) and asked if they could pet her. My ears perked up when they said she was learning to be a boat dog. For the first time, we have now met other people who cruise on a catamaran. I know there are others like us out there somewhere, but it was nice to have proof-positive they exist.
     I am so ready to unplug from shore power, as well as from the usual day-to-day activities, and get out for a while. After all, isn't that what we bought and moved on to a boat to do?