... try and find us

It is always fun to discover multiple connections with people. In 2018, we had decided to spend the summer in Europe.  Kate and her sisters were meeting their mother for a milestone birthday and the four of them were going to go to Norway to see as many fjords as they could.  As Sean didn't want to be left behind in Canada, he decided to create a base camp in France - nice and central for European visitors and very handy to the bike paths that spider-webbed the region.  The total time in Europe would be ten weeks - too long to be a house guest ... and with Susan, Wendy and Nancy all planning to spend time there, we couldn't take over Florence's place in Bischoffsheim. Sean found a place in Obernai (a 4 kilometre walk from Florence's home) that was central in town and had extra room for visitors.  The owner seemed quite pleased that we were renting her spare apartment for the whole summer and she wouldn't be required to move guests in and out as they changed over.  

With kids around, the passing of time is much more obvious.   A week ago, we landed in Bischoffsheim at the home of with our friend, Florence, and her not-so-little-anymore kids, Thibaud and Lou.  Thibaud is a year away from finishing his studies at a communications and media college, and Lou is in her tenth year of Lyceé.  They've both transformed greatly from the original waist-high French waifs that Sean met on his first visit in 2015. While we are alllllll the way over in France looking at boats, we thought Florence would enjoy a visit from us.  When we come, we don't come for the weekend - we are planning to be here at least a month.  As we were with them for such a long time, we encouraged them to do as they normally do, and we would see them between work, school, scheduled activities and time with friends.  The Theron-Bouvier family decided to treat us as part of the mob and we were to be included in all their extracurricular fun.  They had planned a get-together in the

COVID be damned , we have gone to see an actual Garcia Exploration 45. Someday, someday, one of these beauties will be ours! After months - no, wait, YEARS of Internet research, discussions with other sailors and wanna-be sailors, marina-pontoon-walking and long-term planning, we decided that a Garcia Exploration 45 was the boat that we needed for our next Grand Adventure.  It was all based on hearsay, as neither of us had been close enough to one of these mythical vessels to evaluate it first-hand.  We longed to stand at the helm, to open lockers, to run our hands along the decks and gunwales and generally crawl all over one of these pretties so we could see if we were satisfied with the quality and design, or decide if putting a deposit down on one of these had been a BIG MISTAKE. COVID had made international travel a difficult proposition.  Up until a month ago, it was cost- and hassle-prohibitive ... never mind the personal dangers involved.  Now, as both of us are qu