Is it that time already?

While the blog has been quiet, life definitely hasn’t been. We buttoned up the boat at the end of September and pointed ourselves back toward Montana, thinking we were heading into a calm, cozy off-season. Instead, the winter filled right up.

Sophie got married!! In the midst of it all, Jim’s mom passed away — it was a bittersweet stretch. Not long after, I had my hip replaced, which slowed me down, but thankfully not for long. Once I was back on my feet, we celebrated our 40th anniversary with a little getaway centered entirely around Christmas lights. We wandered through the magic at Butchart Gardens, stopped by the enormous light show at Tulalip. If there were lights, we found them.

February brought birthday fun and a trip to the Oregon Coast, where Lisa and Ty joined us for a few days. It was exactly what you want the coast to be — long beach drives, misty mornings, hot tubbing, relaxing, and not much of anything on the agenda. Just the sound of the ocean and nowhere we had to be.

Somewhere in between all of that, I fell down a new rabbit hole and learned American Mah Jongg. By winter’s end, Mondays and Friday afternoons had turned into regular games with a wonderful group of people. Lots of laughs, plenty of “wait… can you do that?” moments, and just enough competitiveness to keep things interesting. I’m really going to miss them during boating season.

In March, we popped down to Vegas so I could play in a tournament. Let’s just say it was both humbling and inspiring. I learned a ton… and also discovered that those women play at lightning speed. Tiles were flying, decisions were instant, and I spent a good portion of the time just trying to keep up. Clearly, I have a long way to go — but now I’m hooked.

We also decided it didn’t make much sense to keep an apartment sitting empty for five months, so we packed up everything we own, loaded it into our cargo trailer, and parked it. It felt slightly dramatic… and slightly freeing. We’re still not quite sure what we want winters to look like going forward, but we’ve bought ourselves a little flexibility while we figure it out.

And then — thinking things might finally slow down — we returned to the boat.

She greeted us looking very… green. The list of chores is long, the projects are multiplying, and it seems the spring commissioning sprint is officially underway.

Commissioning done, we headed over to Van Isle for a haul out and some much needed maintenance.

Talk Soon.