Time in NC 2016

Travis and Sarah came down to the boat for Memorial Day Weekend and of course it rained. So, since we were planning to ride home with them, we cut the rainy weekend short and headed back early.


Of course were glad to be able to see family and friends. We had not seen them since Christmas so it had been a while.

I went to daddy's as soon as I could and had enjoyed spending time with him. I went back to see him several times during the summer. We always have a good time and enjoy our time together. As you can see, we like our "selfies".I spent a few days with him, then back to MA to see other family and friends.

View from daddy's deck

Our "selfie"

 
Daddy in front of his "mama bush", because it blooms around mama's birthday. 

 My sister, Michelle, had a very special surprise birthday party this June. I'm not going to mention a number cause no way does she look her age. We had a great time and a special guest. Daddy came to her party! He is a hermit and doesn't leave his house much less come down the mountain, so it was a big surprise.

Papa and grandkids

Daddy and me

Daddy and Lauren

Lauren and Roux visiting mawmaw.

Lauren and Roux visited us several times during the summer. We took Roux to a quiet beach and she had fun. She ran around in the sand, chased sticks, got in the water and even tried paddleboarding!

 

I went to Wilmington and visited Lauren and helped her get her classroom ready for school. We worked very hard- cleaning, moving furniture, painting, putting hundreds of books in bookcases, and decorating the room. We were very pleased with the results.

First day of school

We hauled Escape the end of August. We decided to leave the boat out of the water during the worst of the hurricane season in NC. We took the boat out and then went to MA. I stayed there for 6 weeks and Shay went down every week to check on the boat and do things. We had the bottom cleaned and painted and the boat cleaned and waxed. We also re-varnished the teak handrails.

Be careful. That's my home!

Our niece, Haley got married in September and we were there for the wedding. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time, especially since Jason, Travis and Lauren were at the wedding too.

While we were in MA we helped Shay's mom can some apples. It's the first time I've done apples, but with an apple peeler and enough help, it went pretty smoothly.

Shay was on peeler duty. That thing is amazing. He could peel an apple in about 15 seconds. It would also core and slice, but Jean didn't like the way it sliced them so we did the coring and slicing ourselves.

Jean coring and slicing.

And these are some of our apples. We will enjoy these.

 Michael, my nephew, celebrated his 18th birthday.

Luke, the tall one in the center, and another nephew, celebrated his birthday with a surprise visit to a zipline.  They had a ball!

Daddy and his two favorite girls!

 We had a busy summer. Lots of projects on the boat- new anchor chain, new soft shackle that Shay made, new cushions for the salon, we cleaned the stainless, washed all the outside cushions, window screens and wind screens for back deck, and removed and cleaned the bimini. Before we left the boat in the yard, we had to get it hurricane ready which meant lots of taking off, cleaning, and storing. Our V berth was packed full of cushions, screens, bimini, life rings and other outside stuff. Once we put the boat back in the water we had to clean up inside and outside. The inside was dusty and we had to clean from the ceiling down. We washed the outside of the everyday for a week. It seemed like everything we did got something else dirty. We worked from morning to dark.

These are some more memories from our summer.

Bob Travis and his grandson enjoying a visit to Escape

Bob, his wife Keith. Someone got sleepy.

 

Margo and Edwin enjoyed a cruise on Escape.

So did Kay

And Don

We enjoyed spending extra time in MA. it allowed us to spend more time with family and friends and relax with them instead of coming in for a few days and leaving again. I hope we do this every year.

Our last trip back to MA is to leave the car so we need a ride back to the boat. Michelle decided she'd have a weekend at the beach so she rode back to the boat with us. I really enjoyed our time together. We took a long walk along the beach and we got a big dose of  vitamin Sun! We need to do this more often!



The were having a kite day at the beach and it was great to see all these kites floating in the air!

Well, all the work and visits had to come to an end. It's time for us to head south, its getting cool here and we don't want to spend another cold winter at the marina. The boat looks great and it's time to leave. As you see we love our selfies.