Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sailing near Hull

We were fortunate to go out sailing on Madrigal about two weeks ago with the owner of our marina, Jeff.

I was even more fortunate that Jeff was insistent upon helping out, so I was able to kick my feet back and relax which helped keep both the morning sickness and seasickness at bay!

We got caught in a bit of a squall. Even though we were only out for a few hours, our trip felt like two distinct trips - being in the storm and crazy wind, and being in the calm after the storm.

Madrigal sailed in both types of weather flawlessly, and a fine day was had by all!







Friday, September 10, 2010

Camping

If you looked back in history...say, 5 1/2 years, you would discover that the foundation of Justin and my relationship is built upon the art of camping.

Petoskey, MI

It all began in May of 2005 with an invite to go to camping with Justin and his friends Jason & Katie to Petoskey, MI. I had just gotten a tent that Christmas from my parents and was very eager to use it for the first time during that Memorial Day Weekend. Long story short - the weather forecast called for rain and thunder all weekend, so Jason & Katie wimped out and stayed at a nearby hotel/water park instead (we visited them and it WAS amazing). Justin and I thought they were crazy, so we decided that we would indeed still camp that weekend. Both of us still weren't quite sure where this new friendship/crush was going, so 4 days by ourselves really gave us time to figure that out! It turned out to be the best trip of our lives, and we still love going out in that same tent as often as we possibly can to enjoy the great outdoors together.

Jason & Katie did come out and visit us at the campsite. Despite the forecast, the weather was beautiful.

Fast forward to last weekend...

Justin had two days off of work and we took the opportunity to drive to Cape Cod with Willie to enjoy the beaches and get a little camping in. We found ourselves wandering around Provincetown for quite some time and it was lovely to be in such a dog-friendly place!


We found a campground in North Truro, which was close to all the dog-friendly beaches. We took our bikes and tried to find the beach, but took wrong turn so I didn't get to see it the first day. I was pretty exhausted (I blame the baby!) so I took a nap while Justin went exploring with his bike. He came back exclaiming, ''it's amazing. we have to go there tomorrow.'' I didn't quite realize HOW amazing it was going to be until we got there. I had such a hard time pulling msyelf away from the beach the next day. We had it nearly all to ourselves, the shoreline was immense, there were starfish washed up on the beach! The list really goes on and on. It was lovely. I never expected I would enjoy the Cape quite so much, but I can honestly say that was one of the best places I have seen in Massachusetts (if not anywhere!) It probably helped that we went off-season (by one day, haha) and it was a Tuesday.

It was fantastic.

Trusty tent.



Happy Happy.

Baby is growing and so am I!

Happy Jenny.

Kite!

Digging to the other side of the world. Which is off the Southwestern coast of Australia.

Our last camping trip before the baby comes!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hurricane Earl

Extra dock lines are cleated, fenders surround our boat, our water tanks are full, batteries are fully charged.

We are about as prepared as we can be for Hurricane Earl, and yet forecasters still don't quite know what's going to happen when it reaches this far north.

It all depends upon a cold front that is moving from west to east. Will it push Earl out into the ocean? Will it move too slowly to do so? No one knows for sure yet, and so we prepare the best we can, keep a watchful eye on the weather, and wait.