5th Day in USA

This is my first blog entry since flying from La Paz to Seattle.  I'll bring the blog up to date by making several entries which of course will appear in reverse order.

The flight to the USA was marred by an inexcusable blunder on my part.  I decided to carry the three bottles of top quality tequila in my cabin luggage and when my bag was checked during the boarding procedure I got the bad news that no liquids were allowed.  It was too late to consign the booze as cabin luggage, and I had no friends or relatives at the airport to take the bottles.  I wished the airport staff Merry Christmas with their $80 windfall and headed for the plane.  I knew better.  I focused so much on packing, preparing and closing up the boat, etc that I didn't think of the simple and obvious.

I also forgot the USB cable for my Fujifilm camera but Arnold saved the day by pointing out that he never uses a cable but rather slips out the SD memory card from his camera and inserts it into his computer.  Fortunately Stephen had sent the new camera configured to save the images on an SD memory card that he had included in the package.  (Thanks, Stephen.)  I figured out how to extract the SD card from the camera, saw a likely looking slot on the side of my Acer netbook, slid the card in a voila!

I planned this visit with some coordination with Arnold, but primarily to fit in with my tight schedule.  Happily, the timing could not have been better for three reasons.  First, the weather for the four days of my visit have been the best all year: warm, dry, and brilliant sunshine.  Second, Sandra had set up a 3-hour fully catered cruise in lake Union and Lake Washington as a "Thank You" retirement party with her work colleagues.  Husbands were not included, so it was going to be an all female event until Sandra relented and included Arnold and myself.  Larry the boat captain expressed gratitude for our male presence.  Even his deck hand was female.  (More on the cruise later.)  Third was the surprise visit by Elisa, who had decided to take 5 precious days from her jet setting career to visit her home for her birthday (Aug 21) and join in the boat cruise.  This was very good because I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to see her again.

Elisa and Arnold on barbecue duty

The lake cruise was on Saturday.  On Sunday Arnold and I took the ferry to Edmonds and drove up to the Usalady Boat Ramp Park on Camano Island and met met Christopher Boscole whom I had not seen since Hawaii and not spoken with since an HF radio session last year between him in Hawaii and me in La Paz.  We had a splendid sail on his McGregor 65.  (More on this later.)

While Arnold and I were sailing Sandra and Elisa were in Victoria, Vancouver Island.  They had managed to hastily arrange ferry and hotel accommodation for the trip.  They got up very early on Sunday morning after only a few hours of sleep and took the early ferry out of the Seattle side of Puget Sound, giving them the afternoon and most of Monday in Victoria.  They plan visit the world famous Butchart Gardens and will undoubtedly do a bit of touring in their car.  We expect them back at home at around 11 PM on Monday.