Monday, June 22, 2015

Getting to ‘Normal People Mode’

Mike drove to Seattle to buy our dinghy!
Life on the river - it's good!
It’s been an adventure or two since we drove north to Portland getting back into what I call “Normal People Mode”, joining the ranks of working people trying to fit it all into 24 hours. It’s a serious transition from boat life to traditional work life, as many know.
Portland Fireboat from our deck
We started work the day after we arrived (April 14th) and we both have worked at least one job every day since. We are super thankful that we have so much work, quite different than last summer.

We gleefully moved into our friends' fabulous floating home on the Columbia River while they are in Fiji, and we set up for summer transition


Our daily heron visit
After a bout of giardia we contracted in early April, thanks to careless water consumption in Mexico, we are both doing better after a round of antibiotics followed by probiotics. A reminder that hot water and careful washing of all food is critical especially south of the border.

And on to life in Portland! Thanks to our amazing friends, 6 months of mail was picked up and purged, my car was well cared for in a garage, we borrowed a truck to move our stuff, had our old grill delivered(!), have access to a pontoon boat to move up river, and even enjoyed a few evenings with flexible friends working around our wacky schedules. 

Mike is busily selling sailboats and teaching ASA sailing lessons. He's just listed our friends' boat currently in Mexico. If you know of anyone who's ready, check out this listing: http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1987/Catalina-Morgan-Classic-41-2853447/San-Carlos/Mexico#.VYQ0w0YRqgS
Cool sunset after our
 gig at West Marine
Mike sold a boat to this nice family
Our 6 months' of mail - thanks to Ilene



The Clampett's - moving our stuff again



Our new place ready to move in
The new U-Haul! upriver we go - Mike with Chuck at the helm
We’re now moving on - up the river a mile to our new digs (which are actually our old digs from 2013, this time unfurnished but our place, nonetheless). Lisa’s dad Chuck lives in the same moorage so we’ve been fortunate to spend some time with him, and he and Mike worked together to fix the pontoon boat for her season starting voyage. I was escorted upriver like a princess to see our new place. It was pretty darn magical.
Our new place for 4 months