Any way, it was a nice stay and we got to see the Malones, McKennnas and Kenyons all downtown on Friday night!
With the Malones very unexpectedly at Bistro Bella Vita:
Saturday brought us a nice visit with the Bosschers and some planning for catching up in Bonita Springs later in January. Sat night brought us to a 50th birthday party for our now "in the club" friend Tony. You look good with the reading glasses and a few years on you old man! You are catching up to us! We were really fortunate to have been invited being Florida residents and all, but it was super seeing all our friends at the one gathering! Thanks for the invite Terrie and Tony! But you have to do something about all that snow!!! The driving was not fun in that early snowstorm.
We stayed at the Ledger condo in Allendale on Sat night and were treated to a great breakfast on Sun morning....thanks Nancy!! We drove to our old church, St Andrews in Grand Rapids, but our friend Father G was out of town so we did not get a chance to say hello. But it was nice seeing some fellow parishioners and being in a familiar surrounding...albeit much improved with new pews and all.
Sunday through Wed we stayed at Julie's brother, Kevin and Deb's home while they were away on a family vacation.
The snowy view of the Grand River.
Thanks so much for the hospitality, we will catch up with you in Florida! Julie and I both caught up on some tasks related to Mom's passing. Julie went through old photos and organized them....a tough job but she did great.
On Monday night we enjoyed a great Grille Room dinner with the Deuby's and Tuesday we enjoyed the Principle in Kalamazoo with Jordan and Eliza and got to see the home they recently purchased. A very grand old 100+ year old home....that will keep them busy in a great spot in the city of Kalamazoo we are sure!
Wed night was fun with Rowladers, Malones, Damons, Andersons and Ledgers at the Snug in Grand Haven!
Thanksgiving was at Tom's sister Deb and Don's and all Tom's siblings, Mom and a niece and husband and children and another nephew were all in attendance.
We gave Mom a Amazon Fire mini and the highlight of the day (other than great food and company....thanks everyone!) was using it to skype with Sarah, Joe, Paul, Stephanie, and Mark from their gathering in Everett WA. Grandma is doing great embracing technology at 92+ years young!!
We wish we would have had time to see everyone but we were only there one short week. We hope everyone follows our blog and please let us know when or where we can have you aboard for a day or a week! You are all welcome!
We arrived back in Gulf Shores to take possession of our repaired boat on Friday evening (after a stop at Lulu's for dinner!). It is so nice to be home!
But it was hard to find! It's the small one in the middle....consider finding this in the dark!
On Sat they finished up one item (or rather put it back in the former state as the repair failed) but it was late in the day so we spent one more night at the Saunder's marina repair facility. We had a cocktail with Rod and Julie from Tuscobia who were also there for repairs.
We hope they will catch up to us later.
We left around 8 AM on Sunday. As we were moving along the inter coastal we had the pilot house door open as it was a gorgeous morning. As were we moving along at 10+MPH a dolphin jumped alongside the boat not 3 feet from the open door....scared the heck out of me!!!
We entered our home state of Florida around noon or 1 PM...we are now "home"!!
We arrived at Destin right in front of Margaritaville just in time to enjoy the sunset.
It was a great spot (albeit really expensive for slipping at a fuel dock). We are sure the action would have been a lot more active had it not been a Sunday night after Thanksgiving. But we had a nice walk around the boardwalk and enjoyed a cocktail at Margaritaville.
We left around 715 Monday morning and had a great trip to Treasure Island marina at Panama City Beach. Inter coastal on the way...
Check out the dolphins following our boat.. Julie took a great video but this is just a short clip.
They also jumped right in front of the boat and we thought we would hit them! But they are just playing I guess and they get out of the way.
We have a couple more repairs we want done before tackling the Gulf crossing. This marina was recommended to us by an old Club Sea Ray member and after meeting the service folks it looks like we made a great choice here. Panama Beach sunset...
They will start early tomorrow. But it looks like we will miss a nice moonlit crossing window, but we are confident God will bless us with another crossing before Dec 13. A number of our friends are crossing now or in a day or so and we wish them a safe crossing.
November statistics:
Miles travelled: 636 /Trip to Date: 2137
Travel days: 11/38
Engine hours: 71 / 245
Locks: 12/35
Bridges opened: 1/8
Days on hook or free wall: 4 /11
Gallons of diesel: 423 / 1495
Dolphins observed playing in wake: Too many to count and priceless!
Thanks for your patience in waiting for a post and for following us!!
2 comments:
Great Post! Love the statistics at the end. Makes me dream about following in your footsteps someday.
Hi guys. I just found your blog and I'm enthralled. I live just to the west of Mobile Bay, just about 30 miles down the ICW in Mississippi, I'm actually a good customer of Saunders. My wife and I dream of doing the loop and actually have a 47EU ourselves. We ran it back from Ft. Lauderdale in 2010. Good Luck on your crossing!! Looks like storms headed to this area around the weekend. I'm sure your fellow Loopers have told you but watch out for crab traps when you approach the west coast of Florida. When we crossed coming home we left from Clearwater and they ran out into the Gulf for at least the first 10 miles or so.
Fair winds!!
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