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?

Funter Bay with the sailing club

     I'm a couple of trips behind now, so let's see what I can share. Last weekend, the sailing club took a trip to Funter Bay, which is about 11-12 nautical miles south of Pt. Retreat, which is the northern tip of Admiralty Island, and on the west side.

A scheduled bottom cleaning

     The weather lately has been crappy, except for Sunday. I woke up that morning to Joe saying, "I think today's the beaching day!" The sun was shining, a slight breeze was out of the north and the tide was rising. A month ago, we wanted to beach Kyrie so we could change her zincs, but the weather just wasn't right. Despite it being Father's Day, Joe made the decision this could be our only clear weekend day for a while.

Can we breathe yet?

     Summer is here! I feel like we are nearly through with all of our crazy busy activities that have pulled in all different directions and we can finally enjoy just being.... The kids finished school a couple of weeks ago, but then I had a women's retreat this past weekend. I was on the team planning it, which started back in February with weekly meetings. Joe had been on the team for the corresponding men's retreat, so we were running hither and yon. His retreat was in April, so he has been waiting, just slightly impatiently, for mine to be through so we can have our evenings again! Anyway, last week was nuts. Joe had to go to Kodiak for work Sunday evening and didn't return until Wednesday evening. I dropped the kids off at a friend's house Thursday morning and left for the retreat. Joe had the kids all by himself this weekend, while fighting a nasty cough, so he didn't have the best weekend. Then, I got back from the retreat Sunday, tired as all get out, but feeling pretty good.
     Monday morning, chaos continued to reign. Joe met coworkers for breakfast while I dropped Levi off for his week at camp out at Echo Ranch again. He gets to go for five days this year, and since he's 10, he now gets to ride the zipline! He found out he was in a cabin with two of his really good friends, so he was a happy boy when I left. Next was taking Rachael downtown for her time at the Juneau Fine Arts Camp. She gets to take dance, ukulele lessons, cooking, watercolors, and calligraphy. Busy time for my big girl! In all this, Megan gets plenty of "Mommy and me" time, which I know she loves.
     All this continued activity is making me tired! But, now it's the kids that get to run around and I'm actually enjoying some downtime for the first time really since--gosh, I don't know. Maybe late last year before Joe started his ham radio class? And people wonder why I haven't signed my kids up for more activities this summer than they're already doing?! Aside from swim lessons for the girls later this summer and Vacation Bible School next week, we need to have time to not have plans. I'm looking forward to waking up in the morning and not have a clue as to what we're going to do that day.
     Another bright moment--Joe and I were examining our finances this morning and realized that we are firmly on track to meet our goal of having everything paid off, well before the end of the year! I'm so looking forward to putting money aside for our big adventure and seeing the numbers in the bank account rising. although seeing the debt amount decrease has been exceedingly satisfying. We're getting there! Every day, we're getting closer to being able to take Kyrie on the adventure for which we bought her. In the meantime, though, I try to remind myself that every day, especially living on a boat with three children, can be an adventure!