Blog

With all the winter weather and snow up in the mountains, we have been having fun embracing the white stuff. Last week we went snowshoeing near the Mt Baker Ski area. There was tons of powder and people had built these cool jumps in the back country like you see in the olympics. It was fun watching the skiers and snowboarders do tricks off these jumps. Not to be outdone, Erik and I decided to Read more…

Happy New Year to all! Erik and I hope everyone had a nice holiday. We did a social distanced holiday, and are looking forward to the time when the holiday festivities amount to something more than wearing Christmas themed masks. We continue to take advantage of the winter weather for new activities. Why not brew some beer? Armed with ingredients from our local home brew store, Callooh! Callay! has transformed into a brewery. Cooking the Read more…

Moorage is hard to come by in the Puget Sound area given the huge popularity of sailing and boating in this beautiful part of the world. Finding a slip where you can liveaboard is even harder. Erik and I put our names on multiple waiting lists a few years prior to leaving Florida. We were able to find temporary liveaboard moorage at Skyline Marina in Anacortes, on the west side of Fidalgo island where we Read more…

Erik and I went on a day trip to check out the border town of Blaine, WA. Blaine has a small downtown area and a marina, but not much else. As the border to Canada is closed due to COVID in the United States, this town was definitely quieter than it normally would be. There is a park right on the border that is the site of the Peace Arch which was erected to commemorate Read more…

Despite the fact that the weather has turned to fall/winter mode, we are still having a great time enjoying the outdoors. We went back into the Cascades in mid October to do a final camping trip before the snow season. It rained the entire time and was cold, but we prevailed. We went on amazing hikes every day, did some fishing, had campfires every night – yes, Erik can make a fire in the rain, Read more…

We were excited to get a visit from my cousin Chris and uncle Dave this past week. Dave is a retired American Airlines pilot and his sons Chris and Mike both have their pilot licenses and are currently building their own planes! Chris currently has a plane and flew from Sacramento to Reno to pick up my uncle and then on to Anacortes, WA. Chris and Dave at the Anacortes airport with Chris’s plane. Chris Read more…

When we bought Callooh! Callay! we knew the heater needed to be replaced. We did our best to delay this project as long as possible, but it is starting to get cold! Since we are not expert heating technicians, and this is certainly not a skill we learned in sailing classes in Miami, we gritted our teeth and expected the worst with this project. Of course, with all projects, there were complications… Thank goodness Erik Read more…

Erik and I have wanted to do some bike touring. We went on a one week long trip in Central Florida a number of years ago, but ending up fearing for our lives with the crazy Florida drivers. Now living in Washington State, we were excited to try it again. After some research, we found the Palouse to Cascade Trail. This trail is an off road “rail trail” that begins in Cedar Falls, WA east Read more…

Got to love the unexpected…or not. At the end of our last cruise we noticed black bilge water. After much investigation, we decided it was not coming from the engine (thankfully), but likely the hot water heater. We looked through the paperwork that the previous owner had with the boat and the hot water heater looks like it may have been installed in 2002. Um…I don’t think they usually last that long! Like all things Read more…