Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Summer!

There went the summer, almost.  We hosted a Mark Mulligan/Rob Mehl concert at the house in June as soon as we got back - barely had time to get the grass well and some summer plants potted!

Shortly after that, the grandkids arrived: Amber is now a lovely young lady at 12 and Chase is a great 8 year old. We did mostly local activities but managed a stop to see Cristy's new house 9with Tony) in Mesa, visited the Biosphere, did the Gaslight Theater in Tucson, some swimming and arts and crafts and a few movie nights with popcorn.  The summer rains started and we enjoyed the monsoons that cooled things off....but the July 4th park activities and  fireworks were damp. A picnic from the car was kinda fun!

July 5th-15th, we drove the kids to San Diego and dropped them off with their aunt.  Also while there, the enire Pattison clan appeared and we had a reunion 0 to include family photos in Balboa Park.  Vicky (Tori) and Lindsey surprised their kids, Amber and Chase, and flew from Dallas  in for the w/e.  Bill III (Stormy) and fiance, Cris, came in from Atlanta.  Tiffany and family also attended most of the activities and included Chanin with husband and baby (Tyler, our great grandson is almost 2) who all flew in from New York!  Rylie participated, as did Marty (Chanin #1) and her kids, Michael, Danial and Jamie - all still living with Marty.  whew.  Michael's GF helped take many of the family/group pictures.  Michael leaves soon to join the USMC, like his grandpa, uncle Bill and cousin Chanin before him. That's it - the whole fam damily!

We did make a boat/San Carlos run a few weeks ago to prep the boat for hurricane season - we'll be gone during some of the season (see below) and not able to respond as fast.  So the sails and canvas are down and all the deck "crap" stowed below. We have a great guy watching the boat - as he works on the engine.  Omar the diesel mechanic is such a super person and knows our boat well!

Not much home time this summer. Now we are planning Part 2 - which includes the Pacific NW road trip Aug 14 - Sep 18th.  Need to see family and cruiser friends and a few sights en route. Looks like 4000 miles!
Nice to have family, friends and  new cruiser friends to visit places like Las Vegas, South Lake Tahoe, Reno; Eugene, Portland and Terrebonne Oregon; Seattle, Vancouver BC and the island....and hoping for a little highway down the OR/CA coast. Glad we get pretty good gas mileage.

October is a trip to Hawaii for Cristy's wedding, Oct 21 in Maui. Then we hope to find a month to make a short boat trip (3-4 weeks) into the northern part of the Sea of Cortes. And be home for 3-4 weeks over Christmas.

Summer pics TF later....Linda and Bill

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